Arsenal
President In London For Arsenal Talks As Wenger Closes-In On Signing £60m Striker
Lyon officials have been in London holding further negotiations with Arsenal as Arsene Wenger closes-in on the signing of £60 striker Alexandre Lacazette
Managers are now pressing ahead with their plans for the summer transfer window so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip from around the globe. Today, Arsenal close-in on Alexandre Lacazette…
Lyon officials have been in London holding further negotiations with Arsenal as Arsene Wenger closes-in on the signing of £60m-rated striker Alexandre Lacazette, according to The Sun.
Wenger is in the market for a top class striker with the future’s of Olivier Giroud, Lucas Perez and Alexis Sanchez all in doubt and Lacazette has emerged as a prime target in recent weeks.
The Sun reported earlier this month that Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis held talks with Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas in the south of France where they tried to thrash out a deal to sign Lacazette.
Those discussions must have been productive as the newspaper is now citing French journalist Matt Spiro as saying that Aulas has flown over to London this week with general manager Gerard Houllier to hold further negotiations with Arsenal.
The Sun claims that Lacazette is expected to cost around £60m but during the latest talks Lyon enquired about Giroud being included as part exchange in the deal.
Giroud is being tipped to leave the Emirates this summer after struggling to hold down a regular first team place last season and he’s made it clear he wants more regular game-time in the run up to the 2018 World Cup.
Offering the 30-year-old as bait to land Lacazette seems like a sensible solution for all parties as long as Giroud is happy to return to France but we’ll have to wait and see whether we can agree terms over a player-plus-cash deal.
If not, then I’m sure there will be plenty of other clubs interested in buying Giroud and we could use the funds from his sale to help finance our swoop for Lacazette.
The 26-year-old has just come off the back of another prolific campaign having scored 37 goals in all competitions so I think he’d be an excellent addition to the squad if we can get a deal agreed.
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The French international has recently softened his stance on only joining a Champions League club this summer so we should have a good chance of luring him to the Emirates – although the likes of PSG and Liverpool are also being linked.
