Arsenal intend to make an increased £45 million bid for Monaco’s Thomas Lemar as the French champions also face renewed pressure from Real Madrid over a potential world record £161 million deal for Kylian Mbappe.

With Alexis Sanchez expected to outline a desire to leave when he returns on Monday for pre-season training, Arsenal are still pursuing Lemar, even though they have had two bids in excess of £30 million turned down so far this summer.

Monaco have already made a series of other major sales and were resolved to keeping Lemar although it is understood that he was regarded as key to persuading the 18-year-old Mbappe to stay and sign a new contract.

Mbappe has become the most sought after player in world football and it was reported on Tuesday by the Spanish newspaper Marca that Monaco and Real had “in principle” settled on a basic £143.5 million fee that would include £17.5 million of potential add-ons.

A six-year contract worth around £6.26 million was also quoted. Marca’s close links with Real has given the story extra credibility but Monaco responded by communicating that no deal had been agreed.

Mbappe (left) and Lemar (second left) on Monaco training earlier this month credit: getty images

Monaco also took the unusual step last week of complaining about the conduct of certain clubs, including Madrid and Manchester City, in respect of Mbappe and have already threatened to take the matter to Fifa.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has promised to act respectfully in his pursuit of players and was interested in Mbappe as well as Lemar. Wenger, though, does not expect Mbappe to be sold and has focused his attention on Lemar, a player who would be ideally suited to the left-sided role of Sanchez or even as an extra high-quality option in central midfield. Lemar, 21, finished last season with 12 goals and 14 assists for Monaco.

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Wenger also remains adamant that a decision has been taken to keep Sanchez even if he does not agree to extend a contract that expires next summer. That stance, however, would surely be reassessed should Lemar sign or if an extraordinary offer was made for Sanchez. Paris St Germain and Manchester City are both interested.

Madrid are also still confident that a deal can still be struck for Mbappe that would obliterate the world record transfer fee that was paid last summer by Manchester United for Paul Pogba.

Alexis Sanchez's future is still up in the air credit: Reuters

At just 18, Mbappe is likely to be concerned by his potential game time at Madrid but the European champions have now sold Alvaro Morata to Chelsea and loaned James Rodriguez to Bayern Munich.

That leaves space for another striker to compete for what are usually three main attacking positions with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema. If Real do succeed in persuading both Mbappe and Monaco, it would also represent a continuation of the concentration of the absolute elite attacking talent in world football in Spain, even despite the Premier League’s added wealth.