Arsenal transfer rumour: Gunners to land Thomas Lemar in £45m deal

Arsenal are finally closing in on their third summer signing of the transfer window as they are set to land Monaco wideman Thomas Lemar.

The Gunners have already had two bids for Lemar rejected with the Ligue 1 champions valuing the 21-year-old at £80m ($104.7m).

According to The Sun, however, Arsenal have made a breakthrough with their third bid and agreed a £45m ($58.5m) deal for the Frenchman.

The same report states that Monaco were hoping their high valuation of Lemar would deter the north London club from their pursuit, but the player had asked the club to let him move to the Emirates Stadium, having already agreed terms.

Lemar featured in Monaco's last pre-season game against Benfica and is hoping the transfer gets finalised before the club's Trophee des Champions clash against rivals Paris-Saint Germain on Saturday (29 July).

The potential arrival of the former Caen player will take manager Arsene Wenger's summer spending to a total of £97m ($126.3m), having signed Sead Kolasinac on a free transfer from Schalke before signing Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon in a club-record £52.6m ($68.5m) fee earlier this month.

As for Monaco, it represents another blow, having already lost Bernardo Silva, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Benjamin Mendy and Valere Germain, with rumours of Mbappe possibly joining Real Madrid for a world record fee.

However, the club are hopeful that given their small fanbase, they will be able to deal with any potential fan backlash as Les Rouges et Blancs aim to continue their policy of producing the best talents before selling them off to the elite teams in Europe.