Alexandre Lacazette talks progress as Arsenal chase £49m club record signing Sam Wallace, chief football writer
23 JUNE 2017 • 8:47PM
Arsenal have held further talks with Lyon over the striker Alexandre Lacazette, who would be a club record £49m signing, plus additional payments, should he decide to come to the Premier League club despite there being no Champions League football at the Emirates nest season. The 26-year-old is now Arsenal’s most realistic target despite their interest in the 18-year-old Monaco sensation Kylian Mbappe and in a summer when major changes are to be made at the club it looks like Lacazette is there best option for an early acquisition. As reported by Telegraph Sport this month, Arsene Wenger would like Lacazette, Mbappe and his Monaco team-mate Thomas Lemar as he rebuilds his team.
Lacazette is still behind Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud when it comes to the France national team – it was the latter who started in the win over England in Paris this month –
but the versatility of the Lyon man makes him a potential replacement for Alexis Sanchez. Lacazette, who has scored at the rate of one in every two games in domestic football in France, can play right across the front three. Lacazette was due to move to Atletico Madrid before their transfer embargo was upheld and has since had to reassess his options. It would be the first in a series of moves that Wenger would hope will give him a new-look team for his 20th full season at Arsenal. Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are yet to resolve their futures and beyond that Giroud, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Wojciech Szczesny – on loan for the last two years - could all leave the club.
Giroud is not one whom Wenger wants to leave although he accepts that the French striker wants to play more having been marginalised at the club in the early part of last season. Giroud could well find himself in demand at the top end of the Premier League with him offering the kind of physical presence that is increasingly rare in the game.
The Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas is in a position to demand Arsenal pay a club record fee given their stated ambition to make top signings this summer, and the interest in Lacazette from around Europe.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/06/23/alexandre-lacazette-talks-progress-arsenal-chase-49m-club-record/
