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Arsenal Fail With £8.5m Bid For Gervinho’s Replacement

By on June 28, 2013

After weeks of speculation it appears Arsenal are finally ready to put some offers in for their summer targets, although it’s not been the best of starts as we’ve failed with an opening bid for Lyon’s Clement Grenier if reports in France are to be believed.

French publication Le10 Sport claims we tabled an offer of around €10m (£8.5m) for Grenier earlier this week but the bid was immediately rejected by the Ligue 1 outfit.

The 22-year-old attacking midfielder is now in the final year of his contract so Lyon are in a tricky situation. Apparently they’re confident of persuading Grenier to sign an extension but if he fails to do so, the club are going to either be forced to cash in this summer or risk losing him for nothing in 12 months time.

A bid of £8.5m is therefore reasonable given the circumstances but it looks like we’re going to have to dig a little deeper if we want to put the pressure on and tempt Lyon into a sale.

Arsene Wenger’s interest in the player was confirmed last month when he admitted he was keeping track of his progress and admired his style of play – which reminded him of Samir Nasri. Let’s just hope if he does join he doesn’t share other qualities with Nasri – such as being a money-grabbing mercenary.

“We are following him. His intelligence of play pleases me. He has interesting qualities. He reminds me of Nasri.” Wenger said of Grenier

The interest in Grenier comes as reports emerge suggesting Gervinho is set to leave this summer with a return to France or a move to Italy most likely. The Ivorian has struggled to establish himself since his move from Lille in 2011 and he’s recently been linked with Marseille and Lazio.

The 26-year-old only made 12 league starts last season and he recently revealed that he has plenty of offers if he does leave north London this summer:

“If I really want to leave Arsenal, I’m sure there would be a lot of interest. Marseille is one of the leading French clubs and I have a good relationship with some people there. I cannot say yes or no but it is always flattering for a player to know that there are a lot of clubs showing interest,”he’s quoted as saying by Goal

I think it’s time Gervinho moved on and Grenier would be a decent replacement. He’s represented France at every youth level and has 2 senior caps under his belt already, and with 7 goals and 6 assists in his 28 league games last season, it looks like he’s certainly got something about him. From what I’ve seen of him he looks like he’d fit in well with our style of play and his versatility will be useful in attack.

Let’s see how things go but a second bid is likely to be submitted in the coming days/weeks if we really want him.

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