Kylian Mbappe takes subtle dig at Arsenal, Liverpool and Real Madrid as transfer speculation continues
The 18-year-old could become the world's most expensive player this summer if he leaves Monaco
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Your support makes all the difference.Kylian Mbappe has seemingly taken a dig at the likes of Arsenal, Real Madrid and Liverpool, who are all scrambling over his signature in what would be a world-record fee.
The 18-year-old is one of the most sought-after young players in the world game after a sparkling breakout campaign where his goals helped Monaco to the Ligue 1 title and the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Such performances have caught the eye of a number of European heavyweights with Arsenal joining Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool amongst others in pursuing what would likely be a £100m plus world-record transfer this summer.
However, Real Madrid remain the frontrunners to sign the Frenchman, with president Florentino Perez claiming Zinedine Zidane is considering a move for him despite his age.
“Mbappe is a very good player,” Perez told esRadio. “The summer is long. Zidane has been close to him for several years. Not many players play for Real Madrid at 18 years old. We must be patient. Zidane has him in mind.
“It's not enough to say we can bring players in and then have them sitting on the bench. We are thinking about Mbappe, but his age makes it difficult to find a place.”
Monaco have also offered to give him a 90 per cent pay rise to stay at the French champions, but Mbappe appears to have suggested that money is not his key motivator with a subtle change to his Twitter profile.
The forward changed his cover photo to a picture of him with the word “priceless” emblazoned behind him, suggesting that he is not concerned about the money, only how he can further develop his career.
There have been suggestions that Mbappe sees a move to Arsenal as the ideal stepping stone in his career ahead of signing for either Barcelona or Real Madrid before he turns 22.
Given that any move would be a significant risk for Arsenal who would expect to get a substantial increase on their investment once he moved on.
They would also have to provide substantial wages to compete with offers from the likes of Real, which is another stumbling block.
The club’s attempts to tie Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil to lucrative new contracts could force them into a wide-ranging sell-off of players this summer.
Arsenal are wary of the Premier League’s cost control measures that restrict how much a wage bill can increase year on year.
If Arsenal’s 2017-18 wage bill is more than £7m higher than it was last year, as it would be if Ozil and Sanchez signed, they would have to make up the excess through extra external revenue, most likely player sales.
Mbappe’s contract on top of this could result in one of the Gunners’ star men not being offered a new contract, or a high number of first-team players being sold instead.
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