Arsenal are edging closer to a deal for Lorient winger Alexis Claude-Maurice, according to Get France Football News.
The Gunners have already had two bids for the 21-year-old turned down but are willing to pay the €20 million asking price.
It is said that personal terms with the player have already been agreed.
Claude-Maurice scored 14 goals and made four assists in 35 appearances in Ligue 2 last season and would represent a cheaper and younger alternative to the likes of Yannick Carrasco and Ryan Fraser.
Alexis Claude Maurice has agreed personal terms with Arsenal – a deal does feel imminent, but not done. https://t.co/luvH3GI21b
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) June 15, 2019
Ex-Gunner Jeremie Aliadiere has backed the player to succeed at Arsenal having come across him during his second spell at Lorient.
“I remember incredible quick feet, a technical player,” Aliadiere told Football.London.
“Technically he was amazing. The only thing – he was young at the time – was making the right decision, passing when you need to pass.
“He was dribbling all the time when I was there. But he’s a very sharp, skilful player.”
This time last year we signed Matteo Guendouzi from Lorient and that worked out pretty well. A similar impact from Claude-Maurice would be most welcome. Let’s see what happens.
Sweet sweet. We’ve missed incredibly quick feet and the dribble. Not that he’s the answer right away but Emery ball has been all about pass it to The Tank and pray the cutback works
I think we buy forwards and then the next season we sell someone big and buy Van Dijk
Young, French, cheap, skillful and – most importantly – a WINGER! Sounds good.
?
Nelson one side Maurice the other could be pretty devastating in a couple of years. Add Saka and Ameachi to that and that’s those areas covered for a good few years… Hopefully.
Like the way of thinking. But it would be quite extraordinary if all 4 would develop into top class players. But hey, you never know!
Lol, at 33 years old, I remember a time hoping for an attacking line-up that had Jay-Emmanuel Thomas, Quincey, Jay Simpson and a young 15yr old called Afobe, all in our first team.
There was also a time I was waiting for Fran Merida and Lupoli and Eisfeld to all mature.
Although a lot of that hope came from the glowing reports written by Jeorge Bird.
Judging by EL performances and the handful of meaningful appearances for Hoffenheim I think smith-rowe is way closer to being ready on the right. Something very Draxler-esque in his movement/ stature. I’d rather him play there than Mkhi going into the new season!
Smith-Rowe or Nelson?
Fking Stan Kronkbastard should pump some money into our club. We need to buy proper players to compete, not the 2nd hand 2nd division players from France. Fk u Stan, u cheap bastard.
Same arsenal fans
“Why didn’t we get all these players like Dembele when they were cheap and unknown?”
100% truthfully said
I hope this one is the future Dembele, we have a strong tendency of buying the wrong youngsters in the late AW era. Remember TGSTEL, Sanogo, Park Chu Young, Chamakh, et al. I truly hope Emery got it right…
Uhm, Chamakh wasn’t a youngster when we bought him sir (if I’m not mistaken, he was something between 25 n 27 years of age).
Yeah we started going for late bloomers after the Koscielny transfer paid off – low profile mid 20s players with promising raw attributes.
Chamakh, Andre Santos, Park, Elneny, Gabriel, Lucas Perez etc
Needless to say a waste of time and money. Just clogged the squad with mediocre older players with no resale value and blocked our youngsters getting a game
I will check back with you on April 30th, when we are fighting Watford and Everton for 6th. 😉
With the budget we have and the large number of expensive immoveable objects with ruined reputations that we have in our team, I’d bite your hand off if you could guarantee us “fighting Watford and Everton for 6th” on April 30th, even if it would almost certainly result in us finishing 8th. The only reason we’re still a Europa Cup team is now playing in Italy.
In fairness, no top player will sign for us right now, so it makes sense splashing out on the best to un talent we can find
The same was said before Aub and Laca signed
Not really.
Laca signed when we were in the Champs League, and Auba was just when we were out for 1 season.
“Kronkbastard”
That he is. A kronk and a bastard.
Love it!
What about CARRASCO now???
I
I haven’t seen much orb Carrasco but I seem to notice those clamouring for him don’t be seem to have watched him live much, going on YouTube, stats and the fact he played for a decently club. I remember the same being done done for Xhaka and Mustafi here.
Yet those who’ve watched him regularly have concerns, which is similar to those who had watched Xhaka and Mustafi before we signed them.
So it makes me wonder.
Ey yo, what about a CB?
The lack of news regarding the sale of mustafi is.a bit frightening for me
Well aint selling him. Deal with it.
If we still buy a serious CB and relegate him to 2nd string I can deal.
Agree. I don’t what Emery and Sanllehi are thinking. The pre-season is comming and they still haven’t sold any. Are they planning to keep Mustafi, Elneny, Jenkinson, Micky, Ozil? All of them?
There are rumours that Dortmund is about to bid Koscielny. Oh, but…
Sigh.
But… but, mustafi is ranked ahead of everyone in our team in aerial duels won, interceptions, clearances and second to torreira in tackles. He can be a calamity at times like what we saw against palace, but honestly he isn’t half as atrocious as everyone makes him out to be.
Sure. But every time he did a mistake, he cost us 2-3 points. So his stats are completely misleading
He probably also leads the team in;
failing to track his man
losing his man on set pieces
giving away ridiculous fouls
going to ground for no reason
distance covered while sliding
generally making catastrophic mistakes.
But we don’t have stats on all those 😉
Yeah we got burned by his stats when we paid 35 mln to bring him in.
Agree. I don’t know who was responsible for signing him. Clearly, we got burned by his stats LOL.
I’m open to this.
But with him and Martinelli, how much opportunity will Saka get?
No offence as I’m sure this kid is talented, but it’s strange how fans get excited about a Ligue 2 player yet say Beilik should go on loan again and prove himself at PL or championship.
Always a feeling of grass is greener when it comes to fans and our own players.
my guess is Saka will have a loan spell like Nelson, then come bag ready in a year’s time to take Mkhitaryan’s spot in the squad
Can’t argue with that.
Hope he gets Europa League and cup games first then off on loan in Jan.
Not sure what this’ll say to the likes of Nelson, Nketiah, Saka, Ameachi, Smith-Rowe, Willock? We seem well stocked with young and upcoming attacking talent, unless we’re absolutely certain this lad is a cut above? Then I can’t say I’m particularly keen in spending €20milion and creating another obstacle from our academy into the first team. Our academies are now apparently producing players as good as anywhere else in the planet, and if we want to attract the best of the best into our academies? Then we need to be able to show that the path from youth football into… Read more »
Perhaps I am mistaken, but the ability “to attract the best of the best into our academies” doesn’t depend on showing them an easy path to elite football. That’s because they are, literally, children when they come, not young professionals with an idea about how to succeed. Impress their parents that their children will be treated with respect, coached by dedicated and intelligent footballer who will help them reach their potential, that their non-football lives–including schooling–will be an important concern.
I never said anything about easy…. I said obtainable.
If they think he’s a cut above? Then fair enough…
All the top clubs will offer what you’re saying, you make yourself different and stand out if there’s a path into the first team, because making a career as a professional footballer will ultimately come second to getting an education.
It’s a basic numbers game, we need competition, but not so much competition that you’re playing odds that are substantially stacked against you.
Actually it matters a lot
It was the same path to the first team that we used to get the likes of Cesc and Gnabry, and it’s the same method guys like Dortmund used to recruit Sancho and other teams are using to try and take our players.
I thinks its a case where claude-maurice is currently just too good to pass up.
From what I can see the kid looks very talented and will be a very nice option to have, but Christ you can see why we’re having Edu look at South America now. How a player from ligue 2 can cost €20 million is completely beyond me
He is brilliant. I have had the chance to see him on a couple of occasions and it is a real exciting talent we’re signing. Really pleased about that. The Carrasco deal was worrying me
20mil is a bit hefty indeed, lorient obviously think they’ve struck gold with him and want exactly what they think he’s worth to them.
Would rather go for young potential than Carrasco, who has already shown once that his number 1 priority is maximising his salary
I have absolutely nothing against such transfers per se, but in this concrete case it does make me wonder what Nelson might think of it? We might be planning another season-long loan for him to play regularly, which would make sense, but sooner rather than later he will either want a proper role in our first team or be gone (following example of some other now really succesful youngsters from the PL like his friend Sancho).
HIGHLY doubt he’s going on loan again tbh.
Even with this guy, we still lack genuine ball-carrying wingers. Mkhi is questionable and isn’t even really a proper winger, same for Iwobi too; they’re both attacking mids paying wide.
or… we don’t want Nelson to become complacent. Having youngsters that can compete for a place in team/squad is a good thing IMO. It would also mean that if one players form drops due to fatigue then hopefully the other can step up.
Hazardesque
I think that’d be going too far.. Hazard has had the capability to win matches single-handedly for a while now. I’d love to be proved wrong though
He’s built and playing style is similar. That’s all
5 or 6 goals from outside the box, 4 goals with his left foot. That’s pretty incredible
Damn! He’s so good with both feet and doesn’t over complicate his dribbles. On top of that he’s so fast and still young (meaning there’s still room for further improvements). No sentiment, but I think we should close the deal ASAP.
Seriously, I have watched a lot of his games and in all honesty he goes very quiet for long periods of the game and seems to become a passenger. I reckon we give this a miss and focus on more established players……….nah I’m just messing, I’ve never even heard of the bloke but from what I’ve just watched, sign him up!
Hard to tell. You can make anyone look good on youtube (or bad) Most goals from breakaways with space. He won’t be afforded that in the PL. Seems to have a good instinct where the goal is but again this is a highlight reel. Some of the assists and goals more luck. Would need to see just how ‘technical’ he is. Generally you pay for what you get. Many of these players either link to us to get a bump up in the market or could be on our reserve list. Carrasco I suspect is the same. We won’t disclose… Read more »
Please please please look up what “succinct” means. “If I’d had more time in would have written a shorter letter” – have a think on that, thanks
Would have loved it if we had a buy black clause inserted when we sold Jeff cause Claude seems like that sort of a player although quicker I think
Isn’t that kind of racist?
Positive discrimination? 🙂
With this signing to take up a sizeable amount of the reported “warchest” for this summer, would that be it in terms of signing wingers / attacking midfielders or do you still think there is an opportunity to still bring in someone else like Fraser / Carrasco?
Get himcand reiss nelson in the team next yesr. Nelson must be in the team.
Ligue 2 seriously?!?
Looks good but man my granny’s corpse could do better than some of those goalkeepers.
Where’s the poo-meter?
Space cowboy
We also signed Kos from Lorient. That wasn’t halfbad either
Honestly I think we should sign Zaha for the wing position.
20 million for a talented young man. These are the times for the mechants
The same source posted interview where he said he wants to move to Gladbach.