Manchester City more than doubled Arsenal bid for transfer target | OneFootball

Manchester City’s successful bid for Jeremy Monga was more than twice the price Arsenal had offered to pay, according to reports.

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David Ornstein reported for The Athletic over the weekend that Manchester City’s eventual agreement to sign Jeremy Monga from Leicester City was worth £12.5m and a sell-on clause, with £10m guaranteed and £2.5m of add-on payments.

That was quite significantly more than Arsenal’s reported bid, with the Gunners having a £5m offer turned down by Leicester.

Leicester had reportedly responded to that bid by asking for £10m and a 15% sell-on fee, which is seemingly what City have given them, plus another £2.5m in bonus payments.

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Whilst it will be disappointing for Arsenal to miss out on their target, the eventual deal is at least twice the price the Gunners had offered.

If Monga activates his add-ons, City will pay two-and-a-half times the price, and if the sell-on clause is ever activated then it could end up being three or four times higher than Arsenal’s bid. That’s no minor disparity.

Arsenal were negotiating with Leicester to try and avoid a tribunal, but City ended up paying more than any tribunal fee in the history of English football.

Danny Ings’ move to Liverpool was set by tribunal at £8m, and Rio Ngumoha’s move to Liverpool cost up to £6.8m, but even with all the add-ons, neither reached even the lower end of City’s fee for Monga.

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Arsenal evidently hadn’t expected anyone to pay nearly as much as City did, or they would have just taken it to a tribunal in the first place, so it’s understandable they opted to withdraw from the race.

16-year-old Monga made 30 appearances for Championship Leicester in all competitions in 2025/26, scoring one goal and assisting two more.

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