Arsene Wenger Eyeing £5m Bid For Ghana International

As the opening of the summer transfer window approaches, managers are working hard identifying targets and lining-up potential deals so we’ll bring you all the news and gossip. Today, Arsenal are linked with Jeffrey Schlupp…..

Arsenal are lining-up a £5m bid for Leicester City Player of the Year Jeffrey Schlupp this summer, according to reports.

Schlupp has been with Leicester his entire professional career and came through the youth ranks before breaking into the first team set-up in 2010.

His performances in the Championship attracted interest from then-Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, with reports claiming that the Scottish legend offered him a trial at Old Trafford back in 2013.

However, after spending a month at Carrington, Schlupp turned down the opportunity to join United in favour of staying at the King Power stadium as he felt he’d have more chance of playing regular first team football at Leicester.

So far, that decision has proven to be a correct one as the 22-year-old played a key role in helping the Foxes avoid relegation this season, with the Ghana international picking up the clubs Young Player of the Year as well as the Players’ Player of the Year award.

His impressive form over the past 12 months appears to have caught the eye of Arsene Wenger with the Express reporting today that the Arsenal boss has identified the youngster as a potential summer transfer target.

The report claims that Wenger is a big fan of Schlupp’s and is now ready to test Leicester’s resolve by tabling an opening offer of £5million.

It remains to be seen how Nigel Pearson would react should such a bid come in, but I suspect we may have to dig a little deeper if we want to persuade the Midland’s club to cash-in as Schlupp is central to their plans and they’ll no doubt be desperate to keep hold of him.

READ MORE –> Arsenal transfer news

If we were able to get a deal greed it would be interesting to see what Arsene’s plans for him would be. Schlupp has been playing as a left winger or left-back for Leicester so his versatility is sure to be appealing to Wenger.

The boss may see him as a potential replacement for Lukas Podolski – who’s expected to be sold this summer – or possibly he’s viewed as a replacement for Nacho Monreal – who’s been linked with a move back to Spain.

However, judging by his decision to reject United two years ago, there is no guarantee Schlupp would agree to make the move to Arsenal if he was going to be nothing more than a bench-warmer.

Let’s be honest, he’s never going to get in ahead of Alexis Sanchez on the left side of our attack while he’d do well to displace either Monreal or Gibbs at left-back, so I personally wouldn’t be surprised if the player turned down the move even if we could get a deal agreed.