Lyon president confirms Lacazette on brink of €45-50m Arsenal move

Posted Monday, July 03, 2017 by ESPN

Lyon president confirms Lacazette on brink of €45-50m Arsenal move
Alexandre Lacazette is on the brink of completing a move from Lyon to Arsenal.

Arsenal are on the verge of signing Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette on a club-record fee, the French club's president has confirmed.

Lyon president Jean-Michele Aulas told French newspaper Le Progres that the deal is "one or two days" away from being finalised and will be worth upward of €50 million plus add-ons.

Lacazette is expected to travel to London on Monday to finalise the deal, which is set to eclipse the £42m Arsenal paid for Mesut Ozil in 2013.

"The deal will happen for something between €45 and €50 million. To be close to €50m is something unique, and will be a record for Arsenal and a record for Lyon," Aulas said.

"One must also take into account that traditionally, a club like Arsenal do not have the habit of spending so much for one player."

If completed, the signing would be a massive boost to Arsene Wenger, who has spent several summers searching for an elusive top-level striker without being able to close a deal.

Lacazette has scored at least 20 league goals in each of the last three seasons, netting 37 times in 45 games in all competitions in 2016-17.

He would be Arsenal's second signing of the summer after Schalke left-back Sead Kolasinac joined on a free transfer, and would provide the club with the sort of big-money star fans have been calling for after a disappointing fifth-place Premier League finish.

Lacazette had been set to join Atletico Madrid until the Spanish club's transfer ban was upheld this summer, giving Wenger a second chance to sign a player he had initially bid for last summer.

Arsenal have also made a bid for Monaco winger Thomas Lemar but were rebuffed by the Ligue 1 club, while their hopes of pulling off a world-record move for teenage striker Kylian Mbappe look slim.