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Arsene Wenger meets strikers agent but refuses to meet £40m valuation

By mac14 on July 2, 2016

According to the Mirror, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has met Alexandre Lacazette’s agent to discuss a move to the Emirates but is being put off by Lyon’s £40m+ asking price.

Wenger is on the look out for another striker after losing Danny Welbeck to a serious knee injury and we’ve been forced to look at alternative targets after Jamie Vardy snubbed a move to North London in favour of staying at Leicester City.

We’ve been linked with a whole host of names in recent weeks and reports emerged last week claiming that we’re on the verge of signing highly-rated Japanese youngster Takuma Asano from Sanfreece Hiroshima.

However, the boss is also expected to bring in a more established name and while the likes of Gonzalo Higuain and Alvaro Morata are still being linked in the media, Lacazette has emerged as a realistic target.

The Mirror are now reporting that Wenger met with the 25-year-old’s agent in France last week to discuss a potential move to the Emirates but Lyon’s £40m+ asking price is proving prohibitive as it’s way above our valuation.

I think it’s fair to say that £40m for Lacazette is expensive but unfortunately that’s the world we’re living in right now and prices, especially for strikers, have gone through the roof.

Christian Benteke is valued at £30m and Sadio Mane at £35m, so you can see why Lyon are demanding at least £40m for Lacazette – who’s scored 75 goals in France over the past three seasons.

I personally don’t think he’s up there among the top strikers in Europe just yet but there is a real lack of forwards on the market this summer. All the big clubs are after Morata and Napoli want crazy money for Higuain so you can understand why Wenger is taking a close look at Lacazette.

We’ll have to wait and see whether we’re able to get a deal agreed with Lyon but I wouldn’t be too disappointed if we ended up signing Lacazette this summer as he’s fast, strong and knows where the goal is so he has the potential to be a good signing for us.