Monaco chief reveals two reasons for turning down Arsenal move for Thomas Lemar

AS Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev confirmed that the club rejected Arsenal's advances for Thomas Lemar as they were not in need of raising funds, while they were also looking to maintain the quality of the squad.

The Principality club allowed more than one quality player to leave their title winning squad and made a profit of £100m this summer. And that is excluding the £165m they will receive from Paris Saint-Germain for Kylian Mbappe next summer when his season-long loan move becomes permanent.

Apart from Mbappe, Monaco sold Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva to Manchester City for a combined £95.6m, while Tiemoue Bakayoko joined Chelsea for a fee of around £39m. Arsenal were interested in Lemar and they were ready to pay a Premier League record £91m to sign the Frenchman, but were denied a move by the club and the player.

Apart from not needing the money, Vasilyev revealed that they were keen to maintain the quality of the squad following the exit of the aforementioned. Fabinho was also linked with a move away with Manchester United among the interested clubs, but he too was denied a move.

"So what? We are not looking for records," Vasilyev said when asked about why Lemar and Fabinho were denied summer moves, as quoted by the Express. "Sales, they are the consequence of having a great season, the league title, a great manager and an excellent recruitment cell and scouting network."

"We don't want records. We want to maintain a competitive team while respecting our economic model. And today, we've managed it.

"My dream has always been to develop the model, in both an economic and sporting sense, as far as possible. I'd said that a few years ago with Forbes magazine; I see that it is a possibility," the Monaco vice-president added.