If the Arsenal transfer rumours about us having already made offers for these two players then it is at least a sign that Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board are serious about adding more strength to the squad and that they are not just sitting on their hands and waiting as some of us have suspected in the past.
However, it also looks as though the transfer bids reportedly made for Alexandre Lacazette and Pedro Neto have not been large enough to get either of them to north London, so it will be interesting to see what the boss does now.
The Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas revealed last week that Arsenal had a made what he called a nice offer for their Frence international forward, but now it seems it was not nice enough because The Mirror reports that he is now talking about needing a bid of around £57 million to consider selling.
Aulas told the French media, “It will have to be at least that.
“Everyone knows that Atletico’s offer was €53million plus €12m in bonuses. That makes €65million (£57m). As the Arsenal directors well know, it will be in that range.
“The price for a player who scores 25-30 goals every year – sometimes more than 30 – is at least that.
“But frankly, I haven’t yet thought about Arsenal for now because I thought that Alexandre was going to stay because the deal with Atletico fell through.”
The other transfer bid allegedly made by Arsenal that has fallen short of the mark is for the Portuguese wonderkid Pedro Neto from Braga who is also interesting the likes of Man United and FC Barcelona. The 17-year old forward is said to be set for a stellar career and so his current club will not listen to any transfer offer below the £17.5 million release clause in his contract.
The Gunners have bid £13 million according to The Mirror so it is not too far away. Watch this space to see if Wenger goes back with a better bid for one or both of these transfer targets.
Bob.