Arsenal are in talks to sign Youri Tielemans this summer with the Leicester City midfielder keen on joining the Gunners if they qualify for the Champions League, football.london understands.
Tielemans, 25, wants to leave the Foxes this summer and it's expected that Leicester will entertain offers for the versatile midfielder who joined the former Premier League champions in 2019.
football.london has learned that talks have been ongoing between Tielemans' representative for the past few months, with his agent meeting technical director Edu at the club's London Colney training ground in late December.
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Meanwhile, talks are expected to continue between the representatives of Bologna defender Aaron Hickey and Arsenal. Able to play at both left and right back, Hickey has won plaudits in Italy and abroad following his accomplished campaign at the club. This season he has become a mainstay in defence making 33 league appearances, scoring five goals and recording an assist in the process.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta wants a versatile left-sided defender to bolster his defence this season, with Kieran Tierney currently on the sidelines after undergoing knee surgery and Takehiro Tomiyasu only recently back in action following his respective calf issues.
football.london understands that Cedric Soares is happy at Emirates Stadium which makes a summer departure unlikely, while Nuno Tavares' inconsistent form has seen his performances come under scrutiny.
Bologna are said to be asking for a fee in the region of €20 million (£17m) for Hickey, whose contracts expires in the summer of 2024.
When asked if he expects another busy summer in terms of player recruitment, Arteta said: "I am expecting so, yes. I think both competitions [the Champions League and Europa League] require a much larger squad because the amount of games you play is much bigger in both, so I don’t think [which you qualify for] makes a lot of difference or changes a lot.
"If you can financially afford it and we don’t have to do the turnaround in the squad that we’ve had to do, if you ask me what I want it’s 22 outfield players and three goalkeepers. You have to come a long way in the aspects that you see on the pitch, it’s a lot of things that have to be put in place, and that takes time."
