Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has ruled out the January sale of Arsenal transfer target Youri Tielemans. The Belgian is open to leaving the Foxes in June on a free transfer after turning down countless new offers and has been linked with a possible January move to north London.
The Gunners were heavily linked with Tielemans in the summer and it's understood that the Belgian is keen on a move to the north Londoners. However, football.london reported in the summer, before the transfer window closed in September, that Arsenal were prepared to wait until his contract expires to avoid paying any sort of transfer fee.
Reports last week insisted that the Gunners were to push ahead with their interest in the 25-year-old in the January transfer window as part of technical director Edu's plan to improve Mikel Arteta's side. Arsenal are top of the Premier League and truly find themselves in a title battle with Manchester City, ultimately forcing the recruitment strategy to be re-thought to improve Arteta's squad.
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Tielemans comes as an attractive option for Edu and Arteta due to his Premier League and Champions League experience, leadership qualities and professionalism shown throughout at Leicester. The former AS Monaco man is yet to pen fresh terms on a new deal at the King Power Stadium and is edging closer to leaving the club on a free next summer.
With talk that Arsenal could re-visit the reported £25 million move for Tielemans, Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers insisted that the midfielder will not be allowed to leave the club in the winter window once he returns from the Qatar World Cup with Belgium.
"It's not something we are thinking of [selling Tielemans] and not anything the club have said we need to do," Rodgers said. "We don't want to be offloading our best players, that's for sure.
“So there has been no hint or indication we need to generate money and move him on. But, of course, there's a business side to the club that they will look at.
“We have a number of players out of contract come the end of the season. My focus has been on working with him and getting out of the situation we are in. So everything else is not really spoken about from my perspective.
“We had a number of long chats in the summer. There is clearly no doubt even a young guy who is clearly focused like Youri and very professional, it can have an impact. But he has been fully focused.
“He doesn't let that affect him. He is a top-class professional. He sees the game how I see it. On the field he understands what is happening within the game and that's all he can do, give his very best. His recent performances have been excellent.”
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