Jeremy Monga

Monga: Manchester City hijack the deal, Arsenal out of the race (Romano)

A reversal on a deal that looked close to done. Manchester City have launched a hijack for 16-year-old Leicester winger Jeremy Monga, with club-to-club contacts underway and Enzo Maresca personally involved to convince a player he coached at Leicester. Fabrizio Romano confirms Arsenal, who had been negotiating a fee around £10m for weeks and believed they had the player's personal terms, are now 'definitely out of the race'. No club-to-club agreement had been finalised before City's move.

Latest development

Fabrizio Romano (X, July 2-3): 'Club to club contacts underway for Jeremy Monga to Manchester City as the hijack started earlier today… and Arsenal are definitely out of the race.' Corroborated by CaughtOffside, TeamTalk, FootballTransfers and Goal.com. Maresca, who coached Monga at Leicester in 2023/24, is personally pushing the move on City's side. Monga's professional contract at Leicester still auto-activates on July 10 (his 17th birthday) — deadline unchanged, but it's now City negotiating the fee with the Foxes, not Arsenal. **UPDATE July 4**: FootballTransfers (citing Romano) reports the move to Manchester City is now believed to be wrapped up, with Leicester's relegation to League One having smoothed the deal. For Arsenal, who deemed the financial terms 'unreasonable', the dossier is definitively closed.