Youri Tielemans is no-brainer bargain Arsenal or Manchester United should have signed already

‘The next time Youri Tielemans is on the market there will be turmoil instead of tumbleweed,’ was the lovely but ultimately unprescient line in our ten central midfielders of 2020/21 rundown that saw the Belgian sandwiched between N’Golo Kante and Tomas Soucek in third place. Several spots below him were this summer’s Big Six central midfield recruits Kalvin Phillips and Yves Bissouma; Tielemans should absolutely feel slightly irked that he remains a Leicester City player despite being available for what in Premier League terms is a bargain.

Tielemans did not feature on last year’s list but that’s a consequence of playing fewer games for an injury-ravaged team that achieved far less. Football is largely about perceptions and the Belgian was perceived to be performing at a lower standard even though his per-90 stats showed admirable consistency in most aspects of his game. In reality, his defensive statistics were almost all improved as a faltering Leicester clearly needed him to be more combative than creative. And yet, here we are in the first week of July with Tielemans still a Leicester player despite being available for less than £30m. With Wolves thought to be asking more than double for Ruben Neves, that is a veritable steal.

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He was expected to be the first man through the Emirates door, but instead we have spent weeks reading of Arsenal ‘cooling’ their interest while they chase a whole raft of attacking players they may or may not need. There