Riyad Mahrez has been left in transfer limbo with Arsenal unwilling to meet Leicester’s £50million valuation.
The north London side have held talks with the Foxes over signing the former PFA Player of the Year, but do not want to pay more than £35m for the Algerian international.
Mahrez has handed in a transfer request and is understood to have an agreement with Leicester that he will be allowed to leave this summer after ignoring interest from the likes of Barcelona last year.
But with a huge gap in valuation between the two Premier League sides, he is expected to attend the start of pre-season training with Leicester on Friday despite the question marks over his future.
Arsenal are still prioritising the signing of Thomas Lemar from Monaco, but his £80m asking price is an issue, meaning they have turned their attention to Mahrez.
The 26-year-old struggled to hit the stunning heights of his form during Leicester’s Premier League title winning campaign last season.
While he bagged 17 league goals for Claudio Ranieri’s side in 2015-16, he stumbled to just six last campaign and was regularly dropped as Leicester faltered both domestically and in their debut Champions League campaign.
He was also diminished as a creative force, providing just three assists compared to 11 when he was named the best player in the country. All of this has led to Arsenal questioning Leicester’s huge price tag.
The Gunners kicked off their summer transfer business with the signing of Alexandre Lacazette for a club record £53m from Lyon on Wednesday.
They take on Western Sydney Wanderers in their first pre-season game on July 15.