Lyon isn’t making it easy for Arsenal to sign Houssem Aouar this summer as the Gunners continue to chase his signature.
The midfielder has been their long-term target as they continue to rebuild their squad under Mikel Arteta.
Arteta has been given another summer transfer window to sign the players that can help Arsenal to become a top club again and one of his targets is Aouar.
The Frenchman has two more seasons left on his current deal and Arsenal tried to sign him last summer before moving for Thomas Partey.
They have returned for him and expect Lyon to be keen to sell him as his contract is running down.
However, Tuttomercatoweb reports that the French club is anything but desperate to sell him and they have even made it harder for him to leave the club.
It says they are prepared to keep him if no club eventually signs him and now want between 30m to 35m euros for his signature.
They had previously been requesting around 20m to 25m euros.
Arsenal’s transfer budget remains unknown, but this increase in Aouar’s demanded fee might force the Gunners to abandon his pursuit.
Arsenal has just signed Albert Sambi Lokonga and might focus on another midfield target now.
Pay his market value and no more!
You’re not being ripped off unless you pay more than the actual value. Something Arsenal as a club don’t tend to do much (except for Pepe). We need to learn from that mistake!
It is quite appreciated that Arsenal management through Edu and Arterta are in rebuilding process of our great team by hunting for potentials that can fit in to the style of play that our Manager desire.
In Aoura case, a player we’ve been chasing since last summer, l believe we’ve being very slow in our negotiation process and this gives advantage to Lyon management to keep on changing the tagged price to dis-enable the transfer and if the approach does change, this may cause the player to lose interest in the move.
In the case of Locatelli of Sassoulo, if the player is not willing to come to Arsenal, he can be bought and send him to Spain as he show no interest in our team. The best expected now is to quickly seek for an alternate quality player of the same range of price or a little higher. It should be understandable to Kroenkes that this really the time to release more fund to procure quality players. Time is running fast and there is need to put our team in place for the challenges ahead. We should try as much as possible to avoid the last season embarrassment where we fall cheaply to teams like Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and some other teams that does not belong to our peer class.
Need to advise our management to retain AML in the team. He should not be sold or loaned. He is a blooded Arsenal. He would be useful this season and beyond for his versatility.
Up Gooners.
Absolutely no surprise – it has long been how Lyon operate, and was one of the reasons we walked away last season.
Throw in the questions over Aouar’s inconsistant motivation and it may be one to walk away from.
Forget him and move on.
Edu’s actions toward AOUAR shows that he is not Arsenal major priority or they wants to use him for business; making Lyon ask for Lacazette. The money is not Arsenal’s problem this window as it shows in the calibre of players they are pricing. The market is still early and lots of twists and turns will unfold. With money arsenal can still get decent player in the market, but Aulas might be forced to accept lower fee at last. He ought to have accepted £40m last year but was adamant. Now Memphis has gone for free and Aouar might follow suit in January.
There is now competition from Liverpool, who can offer Aouar European football. Naturally Lyon is looking for a bidding auction. Arsenal, if interested need to set their price and if Lyon want more, then walk away.
Until and unless it becomes dead certain that Arsenal will not lay their hands on Odegaard(whether on a permanent basis or another loan) I doubt they will commit to acquiring any other CAM.
Looks like they still retain some hope of getting him as he seems to be our most preferred option.
I think Arteta likes the young man’s attitude in particular; and it’s probably the classic case of the devil you know….
If we really cared to secure his services we would have been wise to have gone in with a strong offer, especially considering it would have been far lower than the numbers that were being discussed last summer…the fact that we were once again cheeky, if there’s any validity to claims about our interest, just might have opened the door to offers from other clubs…as such, this will likely leave us either high and dry or paying above the number…only time will tell, I guess
Telling that Arteta wanted to pay 50 million for him last season now he’s worth half that ,luckily the club listened to car salesman EDU and we got partey instead .
Fekir would be my ideal signing .
I’ve always been a fan of Fekir’s, in fact, I rated him higher than Laca, in the early days, when we first reached out for the diminutive striker…for me, Fekir was the centerpiece figure of those highly successful and enjoyable to watch Lyon squads…of course, my only reservation, in his regards, was related to his well-documented injuries woes…that said, it appears that he’s found a way to stay on the field in more recent times…obviously, Fekir is a far more finished product than Aouar, but there could be some advantages with opting for the high ceiling, much younger Houssem…either way, I just want someone who brings some much-needed creativity to our molasses-like tactics under our current manager
Enough time has been wasted chasing Locatelli and Aouar. I would seal a deal for Neves and Renato Sanchez…to concentrate on finding replacements for HB and Laca. Top 4 at least, guaranteed.
Read a post of a guy named SimonPowel87 on Twitter saying Lyon has accepted a second bid of £25m + £5m in add ons. He said it is going to happen after White transfer is official and it is not yet in the media but the news will becoming out soon.
Don’t know whether true or not but will be happy if we get him this time fingers crossed 🤞