Arsenal allow Man City to complete shock winger signing – Ornstein, Romano | OneFootball

Why Arsenal have withdrawn from the race to sign an in-demand winger despite making significant progress on the deal has been revealed, and Manchester City are now close to finalising an agreement.

It’s not been a great window so far for Arsenal, with their top target in attack (Julian Alvarez) only having eyes for Barcelona.

A verbal offer for Bruno Guimaraes totalling £55m has been knocked back by Newcastle. With the Magpies primed to sell Sandro Tonali to Tottenham for £100m and having already shifted Anthony Gordon to Barcelona for a big fee too, Newcastle now have zero intention of selling Guimaraes as well.

Furthermore, talkSPORT recently confirmed an approach for Bournemouth’s Alex Scott was emphatically rebuffed.

There had been rosier news with regards to Arsenal’s attempts to sign Jeremy Monga from Leicester, though even that one has fallen flat now too.

Back in late-June, sources claimed Arsenal had won the race to sign the hugely talented 16-year-old winger after Monga chose Arsenal over powerful rival suitors.

But on Thursday night, news broke of Man City hijacking the deal, and three top sources have explained why it’s now game over for the Gunners.

Man City hijack Arsenal deal for Jeremy Monga

Firstly, Ben Jacobs revealed Arsenal were only offering £6.5m for Monga, who Leicester valued in the £10m-£12m bracket.

Leicester didn’t have to accept a bid they deemed insufficient, with a tribunal determining the fee if the two clubs didn’t meet in the middle.

David Ornstein then revealed Man City are now ‘close’ to wrapping up an agreement to sign Monga for a much healthier fee of around £10m.

What’s more, Ornstein insisted Arsenal have thrown the towel in and have ‘withdrawn’ from the picture entirely.

MORE ARSENAL COVERAGE ON F365… * Two reasons why Arsenal ‘turned down chance to sign’ Sandro Tonali before £100m Tottenham deal * Record-breaking Tottenham deal makes £80m Arsenal move for World Cup star ‘even tougher’ *

Fabrizio Romano then shed further light on the situation, revealing on his YouTube channel that Enzo Maresca – the new Man City boss – has played a starring role in steering Monga up to the Etihad.

Maresca knows Monga well from his own time at Leicester and the project and vision he’s presented has turned Monga’s head.

As such, Romano declared on X that Arsenal are now ‘definitely out of the race’ and barring an unforeseen twist, Monga will be heading to Man City.