Arsenal are reportedly preparing a ‘final attempt’ to sign Youri Tielemans from Leicester City this January.

While the Foxes have been reluctant to let go of the 25-year-old, with Brendan Rodgers continuing to play the midfielder this season, he is in the final months of his contract which will expire in June 2023.

According to James Nursey at the Mirror, it appears the Midlands club could be willing to part ways with the Belgian superstar for up to £20m, ‘half the price’ they paid for him in 2019.

With Arsenal sitting top of the Premier League, Mikel Arteta is hoping to strengthen his midfield stocks in a bid to fend-off Manchester City from pouncing on their first place position.

The goal-scoring midfielder has been on the Spaniard’s radar for some time now, with the London club having already pushed to sign him earlier this summer.

But the Gunners won’t be the only side chasing his availability, as Newcastle were also supposedly interested in acquiring Rodgers’ FA Cup winning midfielder back in August.

And there’s no doubt why – with Tielemans proving to be one of the Premier League’s most exciting young box-to-box midfielders over the last few seasons, notably scoring that epic 30-yard screamer that won Leicester their first FA Cup title last year.

In 175 appearances for the club, he’s made a pretty impressive return of 27 goals and 25 assists across all competitions, with the Belgian scoring some beauties in that time, including his last Premier League goal against Everton from outside the box.

Before the World Cup, Leicester were quietly confident that they wouldn’t let their star midfielder leave on a free, with Tielemans featuring in all three of Belgium’s group games, but was unable to provide the inspiration to send his side through to the last-16.

While there has been much speculation on his future, the Belgian midfielder, who has just returned from the Qatar World Cup is remaining coy over his future, saying: ‘I’m not going to speak too much about my contract situation at the moment.

‘My family is very happy there [in Leicester] and that’s important. I didn’t leave in the summer as I always said the project had to be the right one.

‘Just because things are getting worse now at Leicester doesn’t mean I should regret [staying]. Whether you are in your last contract year or not, it’s also not the case that I talk to the club every day about my extension or not. That’s work for my agent.

‘In the end I will decide. There was talk of different clubs, but I won’t go into that. I’m happy to get a bit of fresh air here [with Belgium] because it’s tough at Leicester right now.’

While it will be a big blow for the Foxes to lose him, Leicester rallied to gain some momentum before the World Cup break, winning four of their last five league games.

They currently sit 13th in the league, five points off sixth place and will return to action on Boxing Day to face Newcastle at the King Power Stadium.