Arsenal Transfer News: Monaco 'Financially Safe' Amid Thomas Lemar Rumours

Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev has revealed the club were able to turn down Arsenal's deadline-day bid of £92 million for Thomas Lemar because of their strong financial position.

Per The Mirror's Martin Domin, he spoke to L'Equipe and compared their situation to when Monaco sold Anthony Martial to Manchester United two years ago:

"In 2015 we had to sell in order to meet [financial fair play] conditions, so it was more of an obligation. We are, currently, financially safe and sound.

"You sell when you think it's the right time. You've got to accept the risk, and it's by taking risks that we have got here."

It's of little surprise Monaco were able turn down the deadline-day offer after they generated a staggering £329.3 million in player sales over the summer after moving on the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Bernardo Silva, Benjamin Mendy and Tiemoue Bakayoko, per MailOnline's Harry Slavin.

As French Football Weekly's Jeremy Smith noted, those sales represented a phenomenal profit margin:

With that in mind, Monaco were evidently able to turn down a fee for Lemar that was more than double what they allowed Silva to go for earlier in the summer, even though the Portuguese winger is similarly influential and only little more than a year older.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger confirmed after the transfer window had shut that Arsenal did indeed make the sizeable bid for Lemar and are still hoping to land him: 

The Sunday Mirror's John Richardson reported the Gunners will be joined in their pursuit of the star by Manchester United, though, while Domin also credits Liverpool as being interested in him.

He offered a timely reminder of his penchant for the spectacular on transfer deadline day by scoring in France's 4-0 win over the Netherlands, per Monaco's official Twitter account:

The 21-year-old is also creative and has shown as much already this season, as WhoScored.com demonstrated:

He'd be an outstanding buy for Arsenal, United or Liverpool, though with Monaco in such a strong position, it may even require a fee greater than £92 million to prise him away from the club.

The Gunners would have been much better served pursuing him earlier in the summer, as Manchester City did with Silva.