Manchester United will rival Arsenal by making a club record bid for Thomas Lemar.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger came close to snatching the 21-year-old Monaco forward with a £92million bid on transfer deadline day.
Arsenal will be back in for Lemar in January or next summer – but this time they will have United boss Jose Mourinho for company.
The player’s advisors are aware of Mourinho’s interest in taking the player to Old Trafford.
The Portuguese missed out on adding a wide player to his attacking armoury, failing to get a deal for Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic over the line. Now the Croatian has signed a new five-year contract committing himself to the San Siro.
That means Mourinho is looking at other options and Lemar who recently scored twice for France in a World Cup qualifier against Holland heads his short list.
It’s a blow to Wenger who is desperate to bring in Lemar knowing he is almost certain to lose key man Alexis Sanchez in the next transfer window.
Manchester City are confident of landing the unsettled Chile star for a knockdown £20m in January, the forward then only having six months to run on his contract.