Transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano has revealed that a discreet meeting was held in London recently between Juventus and the agent of Alexandre Lacazette.
The Frenchman has entered the final two years of his current deal with the Gunners and the club hasn’t shown the eagerness to get him on a new deal.
He is one of the important members of the current Arsenal setup and Mikel Arteta will look to keep all his key players.
The Spaniard has been busy in this transfer window and he didn’t rely so much on Lacazette as a striker towards the end of last season.
The Frenchman saw his position on the team shared with the young striker, Eddie Nketiah who had just returned from a loan spell at Leeds United.
He has been linked with a host of teams in this transfer window and Juventus is one of them.
Romano claims that the Old Ladies have met with his representatives, but the Italians will struggle to pay Arsenal’s asking price.
“I believe that he will stay,” Romano told YouTuber Lee Gunner in an interview for his channel.
“For sure his agents are speaking with many clubs.
“They spoke with Juventus, but Juventus can’t pay like €50million in this moment to sign Lacazette.
“They won’t pay this fee but the Juventus director Fabio Paratici was in England some days ago.
“He had a meeting with his agent but they did not find an agreement.
“In this moment I would have to say Juventus is a no. Inter is a no too, they will go with Lautaro [Martinez] and [Romelu] Lukaku next season so they are not going for Lacazette.”
Arsenal have also spoken about Lacazette with Atletico Madrid during talks for Thomas Partey.
Arteta has been clear that he is not interested in letting the player go but ultimately it’s the club’s hierarchy who may have the final say.
“Why would I want to lose a player like him? I’m really happy with him. I really like Alex, I said that even before I joined here that he is the type of striker that I really like,” Arteta said as quoted by the Express.
“I think he had periods where he was very unlucky because he was having the chances and not converting them which he is not used to.
“But the way he can link play, he’s a massive competitor he hates to lose. He goes for every ball, you see in every challenge how he’s ready to go. He works really hard and he’s a very intelligent player, I am really happy with him.”
