Tottenham, Arsenal on alert after Riyad Mahrez asks for transfer from Leicester

Fire up the transfer rumor klaxon and turn on the Daniel Levy Signal! There’s breaking news from Sky Sports, which understands that Leicester City attacking midfielder Riyad Mahrez has asked for a transfer away from the Foxes this summer.

It’s not exactly a surprise. Leicester were somehow able to hang on to Mahrez after the title winning season despite a heck of a lot of interest from other clubs, but the reports of the Algerian being dissatisfied with life at the King Power this year aren’t anything new. In fact, this is pretty much the expected outcome.

Mahrez has been linked to Tottenham, Arsenal, and a couple of Ligue 1 clubs such as Monaco and PSG this summer. It’s said that Leicester would want upwards of £30m for him, and word from his camp suggests he’d want around £100k/week in wages. The links to Spurs have only been rumored connections at this time, but Mahrez would certainly fill a Moussa Sissoko-sized hole in Tottenham’s midfield, and at about the same price.

I don’t really know where Mahrez will end up — it sounds as though he’ll have a number of suitors in the offseason, and if Tottenham are interested they will no doubt face stiff competition for him. But he’s almost certainly going SOMEWHERE, and a north London club that finished second in the table would be an awfully nice place to land.