Arsenal preparing opening offer for Houssem Aouar
Arsenal are reportedly preparing a bid for Lyon star Houssem Aouar, according to The Sun.
The midfielder is available at a cut-price fee of £20m which is unlikely to be unsurmountable by the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta is believed to be a “fan” of the young Frenchman who shone in France in the 2019/20 campaign. Things did not go his way last season as Lyon failed to nail a Champions League berth for a second successive season.
Although the playmaker was far from impressive, he still chipped in eight goals and four assists for Les Gones.
Despite being underwhelming, many clubs are still tracking him. But Arsenal are believed to be the frontrunners for Aouar’s signature as they look to add more competition for highly coveted Emile Smith Rowe.
They have been long-standing admirers of the 22-year-old who admitted that his journey with Lyon might come to an end in the current shop window.
Speaking before Lyon’s last game of the season, Aouar admitted: “This could be my last game for the club.”
Many names for the attacking midfield position have been thrown under the table, with Leicester City’s James Maddison and Real Madrid’s Martin Ødegaard believed to be high up on the list.
However, their price tags might become a sticky issue for a team who has limited funds and intends to strengthen ‘several’ first-team positions.
Till now, Arsenal have not signed a single player in their reported “summer overhaul.” Mikel Arteta last month stated that he would like the club to finish their business before the start of the new campaign.
Thus, a deal with Aouar can be wrapped up quickly if the Gunners act fast.
Arsenal should sign 1 top forward, 2 top midfielder, and Leno need to learn how and when he must step up or down. There is some very good or high quality players not popularand that means there are many cheap quality players.
Arsenal are getting knocked back on targets because (1) they are penny punching and (2) they are not the club good players want to join now.
“Pinching”
I think arsenal are just speaking to clubs finding out how much they want for players. If we are looking at buying a lot of players maybe it was the right thing to leave Buendia for Aston villa and get Aouar
Buendia was way overpriced at the fee Villa paid, as I think they will find this coming season. Glad we were sensible and for once did not over bid.
Unlike so many Gooners who seem to think we can and should buy every top player around the globe, I live in reality land and that means keeping in mind the mean Scrooge who owns us .
So whatever funds we are allowed this summer need to stretch very far and we cannot and will not, imo – AND UNLIKE LAST SUMMER WITH WILLIAN- waste a single penny!
Out of the players linked I just hope we can get some of them which I believe will massively improve us, example are Madison, Bissoum, Fekir, Andre silver and Onana. If we could get 3 of these names I’ll term it a good summer .
But if the report of the £250m transfer fees are true, I’ll say let’s buy a 2big players a CF around £80m and a CAM at £60m then a £40m DM and the remaining on Rb and lb back up
We fans shouldn’t be too excited by any link until it is on black and white, some weeks ago we have had that some players like Hakimi, Buendia are said to be keen on joining arsenal only for the later to emerge as Chelsea’s top target and the later annoyingly prefer Villa than arsenal. This team seem to have lost focus, upon numerous numbers of defenders we have, we are still strongly link to a 50m white, don’t get me wrong he is a good defender but we have Saliba who is craving for opportunity and our underrated Mavropanos pocketed Halland, not forgetting Holding, Mari, Gabriel, even midfield that seems to be our priority I believe if we can bring Guendouzi back, it will save us some millions
bearing in mind the England performance last night was a mirror image of most of ours last season, sorry, but it was.. bargain priced players are fine IF they are good enough.. Aouar is good enough IF we play to his strengths, Odegaard is good enough too whether u like him or not – but if there’s no-one up front to play it forward to and/or hold it up then it ain’t happening.
We could sign Kane 2moro, put him in our next match and he’d be just as ineffective as he was last night. MA & Southgate are too conservative, play too slow, allow opposition to retreat and organise and we can’t then break them down.
Essentially 5 defenders, 2 defensive CMs leaves 3 with a forward focus. So, buy White & Bissouma and sell who??
But we ain’t going to anything until we get a decent centre forward who can link play, show up, hold up and knock a few in..
Leave Aouar alone and bring in Maddison who will produce immediate results for having PL experience.
Aouar struggled last campaign in Ligue 1 and PL is tougher. He will have a hard time producing immediate results. Willock will do a better job in the midfield having already proven his prowess
If he was good just last year at 50m, he must still be good now at 20m. If he’s worse now than he was last year , then I’m guessing we dodged a bullet. If he’s still as good, then I’m guessing it’s good business.
Aouar makes more sense to me than a Bissouma transfer, because he can fit in so many setups. I can see him play in alongside Partey with ESR or maybe a Madison/Odegaard ahead, I can see him play in the attacking midfield role with a Xhaka and Partey behind him, I can see him play on the left of a 4 2 3 1 with an attacking mid at 10.
I believe of the central midfielders we’ve been linked with, he’d offer the most versatility while maintaining quality.
Exactly Joe, don’t forget also that he and Gimalaes formed a pairing midfield in 3-4-3 that dominated and eventually eliminated Man City in the champions league the previous season. To me Aouar makes more sens that any other midfielder linked with Arsenal
let make Madison our priority
Be very surprised if this happens – Arteta is trying to get rid of players with attitude and Aouar has that. On the other side a very Arsenalesque performance by England last night, if that’s what Sterling is capable of, I don’t think we want him at Arsenal as Willian mk2
yes, great point about his attitude. after last summer and the rumors about his attitude this season, i’d stay far away. Get players who acutally want to play for Arsenal!
Cannot see how Lyon will entertain £20 mill for Aouar this window when they wanted £50 mill last window. The £250 mill we will have to spend is fictitious! If we could not get Buendia and now expect to get Aouar then £250,000,000 (sigh) is fictitious and just imaginary. £20 million for Aouar will just not get him.
Those who understand the importance of the irony of the word coinicidence will have noticed the regular “coincidence” about rumours we w are about to spend lots at PRECISELY the time that season tickets are to ne renewed.
CALL ME AN OLD CYNIC IF YOU WILL – AND WHY NOT , AS IT IS TRUE – but I’d rather be a cynic all day long than a gullible fool. Seems you too think as I do !
so true Jon…the old rinse and repeat routine by the PR department, at the behest of Kroenke’s number-crunchers…I can only hope I’m wrong, but history strongly suggests otherwise
TRVL, yes, how true and isn’t it good to see things the same way for once. In fact we quite often agree but, being human, we tend to only take public issue where we disgree.
Humans are strange creatures indeed. Wonderful but certainly strange Well,I am , (strange that is) , anyway!
But doesn’t it irritate you as it does me – I bet it does- how much guff we are all supposed to fall for from this maverick owner and how some of it is reported on JA as if it’s fact, instead of dishonest guff, designed to fool the gullible ones among us.
And incredibly, each year it seems to work, at least with the percent of gullible fans. Just like social media and phone scammers , there will always be victims who fall for low tricks and arrant nonsense, claiming to be true.
I find that very sad and though my own healthy general life cynicism protects me, I wish that others would not fall so easily into the many traps set by knowingly untrue so called “reporting” (at times anyway).
I love this site and am at times far too hard on Ad PAT but tactical dishonesty, for reasons of site profit, disturb me more than I can say!
it irritates me to my very core…the fact that it happens like clockwork year in, year out suggests a certain predatorial relationship exists between ownership and our incredibly loyal fanbase, which might be the most despicable aspect of our organizational business model since our absentee landlord sunk his hooks into our once envied club…preying on our emotional attachment to our beloved Arsenal, is akin to a scheming vet who overcharges it’s clients just because he or she can…absolutely shameful
Please stay away fomr this player Arsenal… How many times have we done deals like this folks? Paying for foreign players who aren’t all that. Would 10000% rather get Maddison who we are linked with as well. Aresnal will have to stump up the cash and stop acting like a small club tho, so unlikely
Hmm. Here is a player Lyon wanted the earth for last season. Now he is going for a relative song.
Is there something we don’t know about the lad?
Is it that Lyon are desperate for money at the moment and they need to sell? If that is the only reason he is at a “bargain” price this year, why is it that nobody else seems to be sniffing around him?
Sorry, I am so cynical!!!