Renato Sanches hell-bent on transfer as court ruling gives Arsenal green light

Arsenal have been given the green light to pursue Lille's top talents after the French club have been ordered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to pay Sporting Lisbon £17m over the transfer row of Rafael Leao.

Leao joined Lille as a free agent in August 2018 after terminating his contract with Sporting, but the Portuguese side claimed the player had sidestepped his £37.4m release clause.

The forward would spend one year in France, scoring eight goals in 24 Ligue 1 appearances before joining AC Milan in August 2019.

The Italian giants paid around £19.1m for Leao's services but Leao was ordered to give to around £13.3m of it by CAS in March 2020 due to the breach of rules when he left Sporting for Lille.

Leao contested the ruling but the CAS has now settled the case which has been passed on to Lille with the fee increasing to £17m due to inflation.

Arsenal will be on alert after pursuing two of their best players in January as Lille could be forced to sell their prized assets to raise the required funds.

Mikel Arteta's men targeted Renato Sanche s and striker Jonathan David as the Gunners attempted to add a midfielder and a striker in the winter window.

Nothing materialised, but as Arsenal failed to strengthen those areas in January, they will look to revisit them in the summer.

The Portugal international told the Gunners he was interested in moving to the Emirates last month and has made it clear he doesn't plan to sign a new contract with less than 18 months left on his current deal at Lille.

"Maybe Milan and Arsenal are interested but I don’t know," said Sanches. "I spoke with my agent, I know which clubs are calling me but I can’t say right now.

"But I know I’m ready. If an offer comes in, I’ll find