Arsenal Target Leicester's Jeremy Monga as Future Left-Wing Star
Arsenal’s search for the next star off the left flank has taken them to a club heading in the opposite direction. As Leicester City come to terms with relegation to League One, the north London side are pushing to prise away one of the few bright lights from a bleak season: 16-year-old Jeremy Monga.
The teenager, a left winger by trade, broke into Leicester’s first team in the 2024/25 campaign, making his Premier League debut before becoming a regular presence during their ill-fated Championship season. While the club slid through the divisions, Monga’s reputation rose.
For Arsenal, the timing is deliberate. Mikel Arteta already has a cluster of gifted youngsters nudging at the first-team door – Max Dowman, Marli Salmon, Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly – but the conveyor belt is light on natural left-sided attackers. With doubts lingering over the long-term futures of Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, that gap suddenly looks significant. Monga fits it almost perfectly.
Leicester correspondent Josh Holland, who has watched the winger closely for LeicestershireLive and the Leicester Mercury, paints the picture of a player who doesn’t just survive senior football. He enjoys it.
“Monga plays football at a professional standard, like he is playing in the street,” Holland said, describing a teenager who treats defenders like obstacles in a park kickabout. “A remarkable ball-carrier who is obsessed with beating his man and driving forward.”
That obsession defines his game. Operating mainly off the left, Monga holds high and wide positions, demanding the ball by the touchline, then slicing infield with the balance and agility of a player far older. Strong on both feet, he can go either way, which makes full-backs hesitate – and that half-second is all he needs.
Holland is convinced Leicester never truly leaned into what they had.
“Leicester didn’t use him anywhere near as much as they should have last season in the Championship,” he said. The comparison he draws is telling: “They’re different players, but there are big similarities between Monga and Max Dowman.”
For Arsenal, that parallel matters. Dowman has already shown at the Emirates that age is no barrier if the talent is loud enough. Arteta has not been shy about throwing young players into serious moments, and this season’s use of Dowman has underlined that the pathway is real, not just a slogan.
Even so, nobody around Monga expects him to walk straight into the Arsenal XI. The club are actively targeting a more established wide left option, with Morgan Rogers of Aston Villa at the top of their list should a senior departure materialise. Monga, by contrast, would be a long-term play – a piece of work to be honed, not an instant solution.
Holland has seen enough to believe the ceiling is high, even if the route there is not immediate.
“When he came into the first team at the end of the 2024/25 Premier League season, he was turning defenders inside out, and it genuinely felt like City had a generational talent,” he said.
Then came the jolt. His expected minutes dropped. Questions surfaced about his attitude. Was the hype too much, too soon?
Holland doesn’t buy the more pessimistic reading.
“His drop in expected minutes was a concern, and there were some doubts over his attitude. But I’m in the camp that he’s just a 16-year-old taking the pressure in his stride, and he’s not an emotional figure.
“I don’t expect him to feature for Arsenal anytime soon. Give him one more season, and I think he’d be ready to be a key member of Mikel Arteta’s side.”
The numbers involved underline how modern the market has become. Arsenal are expected to have to pay between £10 million and £15 million for a player who has only 37 senior appearances to his name. A tribunal may yet be needed to settle the final figure, depending on how the deal is structured.
For a club now in League One, that kind of money is hard to ignore. Almost impossible, in truth.
“I’m split on this. £10m-£15m is a decent fee for a 16-year-old,” Holland admitted. “Even more so when you consider he’s only played 37 times at senior level.
“But on the flip side. 12 months ago, the thought of him leaving for that seemed unrealistic. That’s the result of Leicester’s relegation to League One.
“As a third-tier outfit, City can’t turn their nose up at that sort of fee.”
That is the brutal reality Arsenal are prepared to exploit. For Leicester, Monga represents what might have been – a generational-type winger emerging in a stable, ambitious side. For Arsenal, he could be what comes next: the fearless, street-footballer wide man to eventually inherit the left flank.
If the deal happens, the real question will not be whether Monga is worth the fee today, but how quickly he can turn that raw, playground swagger into something that decides games at the Emirates.
