Monaco to sell Lemar

LONDON. — Monaco have ramped up the pressure on Arsenal by demanding £55m for winger Thomas Lemar.

Starsport revealed last week that Monaco were threatening to deny Lemar his dream move because so many key players were leaving the club.

But we now understand that the French club will sell – but only if Arsenal meet their revised valuation.

Otherwise, the Champions League semi-finalists say Lemar (21) will be made to stay.

That would be a major blow to Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who has made the France international one of his top targets.

Wenger originally thought he could land Lemar for £25m.

But Monaco have taken their lead from Manchester City signing Tottenham right back Kyle Walker (27) for a fee which could rise to £54m.

They now value left back Benjamin Mendy, 23 – another City target – at that figure and want a similar amount for Lemar.

Arsenal were still eyeing a deal at £45m, so even a compromise would see the Gunners now having to pay £50m.

Meanwhile, Wenger believes a lack of maturity and fatigue was behind Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea in Beijing, China, on Saturday.

The Gunners were second best for most of the game in Beijing and went down to goals from Willian and Michy Batshuayi (2).

“I think it was a game of a good level where we finally lost well,” Wenger said after the full-time whistle.

“It was a bit of a combination for us, I think it was a good opportunity for me to see players at that level who have no experience.

“I tried to play two teams with a mixture of regular players and young players.“Of course you could see that we were a bit less mature than Chelsea.

“Also it was the last day of our tour, it was quite long and we looked a bit jaded tonight.” — The Daily Star.