With the silly season well and truly underway, it comes as no surprise we continue to be linked with Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette. According to reports today, it now appears that we have have been quoted a fee to acquire his services and the Lyon chairman is finally open to a move.
The Daily Telegraph claim we have already had talks with Lyon, and that they are after an upfront fee of around £48m, plus another £10m in add-ons to sell the player to us. They say that “…fresh talks have already taken place between Arsenal and Lacazette’s current club…” which is encouraging.
Lyon chairman Jean-Michel Aulas looks to finally be accepting that Lacazette may leave this summer:
“Alex had a good option with a club that is in his heart, if the club of his heart is able to match our demands – as Barcelona did last season for Sam Umtiti – then things will go well. Otherwise, it will depend on our other business…”
However, our hope of signing him were recently dealt a blow when the player himself said last month via FourFourTwo: “[The team I will join] will have to be in the Champions League and play good football…”
So let’s hope he’s had a rethink and decides to join Arsene Wenger and his French team mates at The Emirates despite us not being in the Champions League next season.
Lacazette will be in action tonight as France face England in a friendly at the Stade de France, alongside Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny. Meanwhile, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain should feature for England following his goal scoring exploits on Saturday against Scotland in the game.