English Premier League giants Arsenal FC could miss signing Alexandre Lacazette from Ligue 1 club Olympique Lyonnais this summer as Gunners boss Arsene Wenger refuses to improve the £29 million bid the team had so far proposed for the promising French striker.
The Evening Standard reported that Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas had rejected the said bid last week and the Les Gones executive is expecting for Wenger to "return with an improved offer" for their prized 25-year-old goalscorer.
Lacazette had played all of his seven senior seasons with Lyon so far as he also came from the French club's youth academy. He had appeared in 230 games in all competitions for Lyon and scored 92 goals in the said time span.
Last season, he scored 21 goals in 34 appearances in the French top flight competitions, which rumored to have caught the attention of Wenger. In the previous term, he scored 27 goals in 33 games, making him one of the most promising young goalscorers in Europe today.
Lyon head coach Bruno Genesio is aware that Lacazette could still push through with a move away from Parc Olympique Lyonnais, though, as a big club like Arsenal is targeting him.
"When you say 'could leave,' of course, every player who is sought after could leave, by definition, since, as my president has said, there are sometimes offers that cannot be refused," Genesio said.
"But in any case, my desire and my responsibility as manager is to ask that the best players in my squad stay at Lyon," he added.
Meanwhile, Caught Offside noted that the Lyon president's asking price currently stands at £40 million plus bonuses, which might be too large for Wenger to agree with and that the Gunners boss is "unlikely to up his initial offer".
If Wenger does not give in, then Arsenal may again miss on a talented goalscorer just like what they had been experiencing in the past transfer windows.
"It's not the prices, it's the players," said Wenger. "The money is never a problem if you have to pay what is requested."
"The price of a player is down to four ingredients; one is the talent, two is his age, three is how much you expect him to improve your team, and four is his resale value," Wenger said.
"If he ticks all four boxes then the price is not that important. You have to find the player," he ended.
