Arsenal and Leicester are reportedly monitoring/interested in Juventus’s Mario Lemina but according to the player’s agent he will be staying with the Italians in a statement that really doesn’t shock anyone.

We’ve already covered reports of Juve saying they wouldn’t even listen to offers for the talented midfielder who has featured in the first team this season in light of Claudio Marchiso’s injury, but the rumours persist. I guess, if rumours are good at doing anything, it’s ‘persisting’.

Speaking to Sport Witness, Lemina’s agent, Yvan Le Mée, said, “Mario is continuing with Juventus, and his good performances make him an indisputable starter at the moment.”

Of course, there is no evidence that Arsenal’s interest (or Leicester’s for that matter) in the player is even serious. We have, after all, only got the word of some websites in Italy who keep linking us with him.

The player is also a defensive midfielder and it would seem very odd for Arsene to buy another one of those after finally getting three defensively-minded players in his squad.

Then there’s the ‘issue’ that Arsenal don’t tend to buy players from Italy, at least not under Wenger.

As we wrote in the article linked above, ‘Emiliano Viviano arrived on loan from Palermo in 2103, Mathieu Flamini on a free from AC Milan the same season so that doesn’t count, but you have to go back to 2005 to find a permanent transfer that involved the exchange of cash from Arsenal to an Italian side – Vito Mannone from Atalanta’s youth team.

‘Why that is, I couldn’t say. Perhaps they’ve never forgiven us for taking  Thierry Henry from Juventus and making him in to a world class superstar, who knows?’