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Arsene Wenger Confirms Arsenal Will 'Come Back' for Monaco's Thomas Lemar

The French manager has confirmed that the club will renew its attempts to sign Monaco winger having failed to complete a deal on deadline day.
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that the club will renew their attempts to sign Monaco winger Thomas Lemar having failed to complete a deal on deadline day.

The Gunners made a €100m bid for the French international, but Wenger has admitted that he "decided to stay at Monaco."

Arsenal appeared set to sell last season's top scorer Alexis Sanchez to Manchester City, but the deal hinged on their late search for a replacement.

And Wenger has now confirmed that Arsenal failed to sign Lemar before the close of the transfer window, and will make another attempt to bring him to the Emirates Stadium.

"€100m for Lemar? Yes all true, I wanted him," Wenger told Telefoot. "He decided to stay at Monaco."

He added: "We will come back for him."

Wenger had earlier stressed that "respect" needs to be shown over the negotiations that took place for Lemar.

"The player has chosen to stay at Monaco," he told BeIN. "I do not want to talk too much. You have to respect what really happens on the negotiation side.

"I know we live in an era of transparency but at some stage to respect everybody you have to not talk too much about that."

Lemar scored twice for France against the Netherlands on Thursday and revealed after the game that he is "very happy" to remain at Ligue 1 champions Monaco.

"I am a player of Monaco, I am very happy there," the 21-year-old said. "Now I am going to make a good season with my club, to try to progress and move forward in my career with Monaco."