Arsenal face stern competition from big-spenders PSG for Montpellier midfielder Younes Belhanda, according to Le Parisen.
The French publication suggests the Morocco international caught the eye of PSG owner Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani after the club’s 2-2 draw with Montpellier last month, and will reportedly table a bid for the 22-year-old at the end of the season.
Last week Arsene Wenger made his interest in Belhanda public, saying:
‘I know Younes well and like him a lot.
‘But I don’t want to cause problems. Only Montpellier can decide where he goes to.’
Real Madrid are also said to be interested in Belhanda, whose current contract with Montpellier expires in 2014.
Due to his vision, technique, and intelligent decision-making, Montpellier coach Rene Girard has compared the Moroccan to former Arsenal midfielder Robert Pires.
Belhanda has been at Montpellier since 2003 but only managed to make the breakthrough into the first-team three years ago. During this time he has made a total of 98 appearances for the Ligue title contenders, scoring 12 and creating eight.
If we do end up signing him, hopefully he won’t turn out to be like his fellow international team-mate Marouane Chamakh!
However, if he is indeed the next Robert Pires as Girard claims, then we will have nothing to worry about.
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