By Felix Law.
Olympique Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas has stated that two English Premier League clubs offered an excess of £50 million for star striker Alexander Lacazette in the summer.
“This summer, we rejected €55 million (£49 million) for Lacazette from two Premier League clubs and €37 million from Napoli for Corentino Tolisso,” Aulas told Italian newspaper Tuttosport, via metro.
It is no longer a secret that Arsene Wenger had a £29.4 million offer rejected by Lyon in the summer for the striker whose contract runs out in three years time (2019). The French striker became a target of many clubs after his impressive exploits in the 2014/2015 season which saw him awarded the UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Year following his 27 goals in 33 Ligue 1 games for Lyon which unfortunately didn’t win them the French Ligue 1 title but helped them qualify for the Champions League the following season.
At 25, Lacazette is quick and physical with an impressive finishing which makes him an attractive choice yet it is shocking to know that he is still unproven at the top level having failed to impress in the Champions League last season as Lyon exited the group stage rooted to the bottom of the group with the less fancied Genk (Belgium) qualifying ahead of them and Valencia.
The striker also has only 10 caps to his name for Les Blues having failed to make the cut for Didier Deschamps 23-man squad for the European Championship in the summer with the likes of Oliver Giroud and Mexico based Pierre-Andre Gignac ahead of him. The striker has also suffered several injuries for the past two years which has hampered his development.
In total Lacazette has scored 78 goals in 176 league games for Lyon since signing his professional contract in 2010. The French man is also a winner of the U-19 European Championship with France having scored the winning goal in the final against Spain.
As a result of this, Lyon are presently eight in the French Ligue 1 table on 13 points after eight games having lost four games. Arsenal on the other hand opted to sign Deportivo La Coruna’s Lucas Perez for £17 million with the Spaniard is unknown and yet to impress, having scored an impressive 17 La Liga goals for the below average team last season in La Liga.
The Gunners are joint top on 19 points with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City although we have an inferior goal difference. This season Alexis Sanchez has been moved from the wings to the front line making him the Gunners main striker with the manager ditching old slow passing set-up that has been our pattern for decades since the exit of quick attackers like Thierry Henry, Slyvain Wiltord, Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp and Freddie Ljunberg.
Arsenal are yet to lose a game since the season opener against Liverpool winning their last five games in the league including the 3-0 battering of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea.