Arsenal offer for Lacazette rejected, club confirm

Matt Stead

Arsenal have had a €35m (£29m) offer for Alexandre Lacazette rejected, French club Lyon have confirmed.

Lacazette has been the subject of intense speculation this summer, with Arsene Wenger having previously been non-committal when asked of his opinion on the French striker.

Lyon confirmed a fortnight ago that Arsenal had not made an approach for the 25-year-old, but the French club have now disclosed information of a formal bid from the Premier League side.

The club released an official statement, which said:

‘Lyon categorically deny having received a 48m euro offer for the transfer of Alexandre Lacazette as reported by ‘Le Progres’ this morning.

‘The club regrets that once more ‘Le Progres’ has not taken the time to contact it before publishing this false information which creates confusion on the day that the Olympique Lyonnais group publishes it’s annual turnover of 218.1m Euros, an increase of 111% on 2014/15 figures.

‘The reality is that Arsenal Football Club formulated a 35m Euros offer which Olympique Lyonnais has not considered for the sole reason that OL will keep Alexandre  Lacazette who is considered irreplaceable and one of the key leaders of Bruno Genesio’s squad.’

We tipped Lacazette to Arsenal as one of five sensible transfer rumours that won’t happen. ‘While Lacazette could be the potent focal point able to at least compete with Olivier Giroud for a starting position as centre forward, Arsene Wenger will not spend such vast amounts of money on a relatively unproven commodity, one who did not even make a France Euro 2016 squad in which Giroud was the centrepiece,’ it says here. Hmm.

Lacazette scored 23 goals in 44 games for Ligue Un runners-up Lyon last season, and has 63 league goals across the past three seasons.