24-Goal-A-Season Striker Wants Arsenal Move: Wenger To Table £35m Bid

After having signed Granit Xhaka and thereby solving the long standing defensive midfield problem, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger must now ensure a striker is signed for the Gunners. And according to reports, the Gunners could be on the verge of signing a striker, finally.

The striker in question is Olymic Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette. Arsenal have reportedly tabled a £29 million bid for the player, which was rejected by Lyon, who are said to be demanding upward of £42.2m million for the France international. The Telegraph now reckons Lacazette is very keen on joining Arsenal, although he will not put in a transfer request, presumably for financial reasons.

The Telegraph also confirms Arsenal will go back to Lyon with a bigger bid, which they hope Lyon will accept, especially as the player himself would like to leave the French club. Earlier reports had indicated that Lyon are prepared to offer Lacazette a new contract in the hope of dissuading him from moving to Arsenal this summer.

Should Arsenal manage to get Lacazette, he will most likely become Arsenal's second most expensive signing behind Mesut Ozil. However, with just 15 days until the start of the new Premier League season, Arsenal need to move fast to ensure they a striker is brought in.

Lacazette is practically the only realistic option left for Arsenal. This means we have little margin for error and, like last summer, if we don't give up our tight-fisted approach when it comes to transfer deals, we may well end up with no striker this summer and should that happen, Wenger won't have an easy ride with Arsenal fans.

In the last two seasons, Lacazette has scored 48 goals in all competition for Lyon. That's more than the figure that Welbeck, Giroud and Sanchez combined have scored for Arsenal in the same period. Some will argue that he isn't good enough, based on the fact that Giroud plays ahead of him at national team level but, the fact is, Didier Dechamps may prefers Giroud ahead of him for personal rather than footballing reasons.