Arsene Wenger has refused to confirm or deny whether Arsenal are interested in Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette.
The French striker, who is valued in excess of €40 million, looks set to leave the Parc Olympique this summer and has already been linked with the likes of West Ham and Liverpool.
Appearing on French TV station Canal + Sport alongside Saint Etienne director, Bernard Caïazzo, the two men shared a joke about their respective clubs interest in the 25-year-old.
“I neither confirm or deny [interest],” said Wenger. “If I say that I like the player it starts speculation.”
Chuckling at the very notion of spending huge money on an attacker, Caïazzo shared an ‘exclusive’ that the player would not be heading to Saint Etienne.
He then went on to suggest that Wenger would be a great future president of Ligue 1, something the Arsenal man played down.
“I do not know if I would have the qualities [to do that role] but I think that French football has historically been the most creative,” said Wenger.
All eyes on the poo-o-meter…a wet and wild 7.
Lacashite.
Does anyone know if there is any truth to Emanuele Giulianelli’s tweet about Lukaku? Says we have agreed personal terms. Is he a reliable source?
In a word, nope.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day
He’s a fraud. Last year he was the one who started the Benzema to Arsenal rumour insisting it was already completed. Even went on to say we’ve hired a private jet for him. Lol
Sadly I was desperate for any transfer news so was following him ?
Thanks grrrr! Like watching England, I made the stupid mistake of daring to believe even though experience should tell me not to bother – stupid transfer season! I am ashamed!
I thumbed you down purely on the ridiculous lol. I fucking hate those things.
I thumbed you down purely because you think others care about what you love or hate. lol.
Count yourselves lucky, I haven’t got any thumbs. My poor hands look like spatulas.
Have you not done exactly the same with your comment?
Count yourself lucky, I haven’t got any spatulas. I have to scrape up food with my poor thumbs instead.
DB10 that comment makes you sound a bit like a spitefull child, just saying. Aren’t LOL’s banned on this site anyway?
I’ve thumbed myself down. And I regret NOTHING!
I believe he deleted that tweet before it laid eggs.
He must spend as much time deleting as posting.
The talk here is about Lacazette, why would anyone bring Lukaku to the picture.
Because it is a post about signing a striker. Plus, and more importantly, I heard this this morning and (stupidly) got excited and so wanted to ask people on this site as I respect the opinions and knowledge of its members*. Apologies if you felt I was posting out of turn or context.
*well except the one or two trolls and attention seekers who I won’t name as they enjoy the hatred and publicity of being named – we all know who they are….unfortunately!
FFS he tweeted that Arsenal have made an enquiry for frickin Dele Alli! A big fraud, in other words
Well, I can believe it, if we offered a pack of gum and a cigarette.
You probably need a new image for wet poo and perhaps quantify it by volume. Yes, I’d like to see that.
spurs fits that job quite nicely
http://m.tottenhamhotspur.com/supporters-club/
Your wish is granted, good sir.
Possibly we’d need a Smell-o-Platform to get the full impact.
Having been through his timeline, the answer is: not very. Or at all.
He’s great in FIFA so would be the perfect fit based on that!
Does every article on transfer speculation need to have a he is great on fifa/football manager joke?
Every transfer story…
Blogs whats the doo doo rating for the story Arsenal are interested in signing 21-year-old Japanese striker Takuma Asano?
Shiitake…? Sorry, I’m just a bit of a fungi.
I hate myself.
It would be a signing for the marketing departement.
We should not be looking at Laccazzte. The man who makes all the goals at lyon is Nabil Fekir. He’s had an injury hit season so he’s gone a little off the radar but he has huge potential. He’s not a direct striker like a lacazzete, or higuain but can easy play in a similar role, a develop from a wide player/cam/second striker/ into a huge goal scoring threat like Greizmann. If we got in Fekir and Draxler, with welbeck and giroud we’d have plenty of goals in our squad.
But we have the best man on the planet for making goals, we don’t have a striker that can put 30 of them in the net in the league.
Don’t think Arsenal needs any more injury prone players.
Didn’t he just break his leg once? That’s just bad luck, not necessarily injury prone.
He got an ACL. Isnt injury prone otherwise
Fekir is also excellent in FIFA! Let’s get them both, will have full chemistry.
I sure hope you’re joking with these Fifa comments, if not you’re the kind that make my blood boil.
except fekir was out all last season and lacazette still score quiet few , he score 21 after a bad start of the season
Well he obviously needed to adjust a bit and he did it very well in the end… I say let’s snap him up before other get a chance to
If he had a ‘bad start of the season’ would our supporters get on his back and break him ? They don’t usually give much leeway.
With competition Giroud always seems to do better. Giroud can start off well and Lacazette can eventually take over… but that’s if he needs time to adjust. The thing is though that Lacazette lost his main provider so he suffered but then eventually adjusted. At Arsenal he would have the best provider in the world… it would be football paradise for him..
Well of the strikers that we can sign I think Lacazette will cost us 35mil 15 more than vardy but he is only 25 and considering chelsea paying for bychiyani 35 mil I thin Lacazette is much better player than him. Also we can go now for morata and with chelasea buying the Marssile bloke real can’t spark bidding war it will be down to us and them to lower the fees as I don’t see city or united(they bought imbraimovic) go for him and chelsea alreday have costa and now back up with butciyani its only us from England… Read more »
We dodged a bullet there. I hear Bitchy Yani can be a divisive figure in the dressing room.
This Lacazette story will die like the Milktarian or Vegetarian guy who is going to Man U. I think Lukaku is the guy Arsenal will buy. Not that I am crazy about Lukaku. Every defender knows, if you block Lukaku’s left foot, he is done but he manages to score goals, I must say.
He said we had signed benzema last year so I don’t trust him
Not to sound like a sourpuss but if take icardi, Barbosa and lacazette over vary. Lukakus price is way too inflated too.
*I’d *Vardy
I’d be more excited if Wenger had said “Lacazette? I don’t know this player”
Would people be pleased with lacazette?
I wonder how many articles have included the words “Wenger” and “coy”.
The tease!
Whenever Wenger is coy, I always think of that 2014 picture of him posing on that Rio beach.
15,900 according to google news.
Looks like Michy Batchuayi is heading to Chelsea, he started following them on Twitter
I’ve started following the Arsenal Ladies Team but I’m nowhere close to signing on the dotted line…
Wenger should simply have a standard response: “Wenger coy on [insert player here] link”.
Except it would be weird for him to speak in the third person like that.
Q: So, Arsene, any interest in that Greek striker, Bitchy Yanni?
A: Wenger is coy on Yanni.
Q: Uhhhhhhkay…
Exactly! I think he deserves to transition to third person references. And it will keep the journos off balance. E.g., Q: Arsene, have you seen the speculation that the FA may be interested in your services. A: “Wenger coy on England link.”
Can Wenger take the England job already
never seen him really play expect a few highlight videos. Is he the quality we need? On face value he seems to be a good fit. Pacy striker, perhaps a better and more consistent version of what walcott was against MAnu (home) and Leicester (away).
Obviously we are all set for the beginning of the season. Giroud and Alexis will be late due to the EURO and COPA. (If Alexis ankle is allright, fingers crossed) Welbeck is injured so Theo and Sanogo will carry us through Liverpool and then Leicester in august. We can even throw Akpom on and play with 3 strikers. Or sell Theo and play 4-4-2 with Akpom and Sanogo upfront. Or maybe buy a striker.
Don’t really care if the guy’s name is Lacazette, Lukaku, or some random guy I’ve never heard of. As long as he is a striker and scores 15+ goals next year, that’ll do just fine.
Shame we won’t know until February/March 2017…so I guess speculation will have to do.
Wenger is ‘Coy’ about pretty much every transfer rumour…
One of the best options available, has a good goalscoring record from consecutive seasons and can still improve. And he is fast too. Wouldn’t be an automatic starter but competition to Giroud and hopefully can develop into a first choice striker. I’m ok with this one.
He didn’t even make the French squad!! He didn’t possess qualities to convince the manager that he should have been picked ahead of Gignac!! Gignac, a bloke plying his trade in a club in Mexico!! Its ridiculous to think he’ll provide any stiffer competition to Giroud than Theo does currently…
Tbf that seems like a decision based more on style than ability – Deschamps wants to play with a target man up front and Lacazette just doesn’t fit that. The fact that the likes of Martial and Coman went ahead of Lacazette suggests he’s not really a wide forward, but don’t think there’s many doubts in France about his quality as a number 9
In that case I hope he’s comfortable interchanging with Sanchez, Welbeck, Ox, Theo etc cause that’s one of the major plus points of a mobile quick front trio.
DD is a bit of an odd coach. Most coaches would have taken Giroud as the big target man and someone else to provide contrast, apparently DD was so convinced they did a big target man that he took two and no contrast.
The summer seems to be taking a familiar disastrous path
Starts off excellent,sign Xhaka(Czech) fans get excited,things will be different this year.
Become embroiled in a transfer saga(Suarez,higuian),loose out and look stupid
Wenger off dropping names and we’re linked with endless players.
Preseason creeps upon us and still no more signings.
Time goes by and still no more players.
Make some ridiculous last minute offers on deadline day but ultimately fail.
Fans crack up again,Wenger says there was no value in the market and he’s happy with the squad.
God I hope I’m wrong
For the sake of our collective sanity I really hope you are. I can see how the doubts are creeping in though
Right little ray of sunshine, this one.
Unfortunately i don’t think you will be.
After watching Italy under Conte i’m feeling pessimistic for next season even with 3 or 4 new signings. I just can’t see Wenger leading us above him, Guardiola and Mourinho, with either the personnel or tactics we currently employ.
We’ll need significant improvement on last seasons performance to win the title next season, and i just can’t see it happening.
Why sign a guy who isn’t playing for his national side?
Like Cazorla?
And Bellerin, or Costa, or Reus?
One thing you can say about Lacazette is he has replicated his form which is a good thing. OTOH he is more akin to Walcott. Then again the issue has never been about Giroud not scoring more than Walcott and/or Welbeck not weighing in or available to do so enough. Considering how tight the market may be, it is important to for Wenger to have many options ready, which looks like what this is. There were reports recently in the gossip pages that Higuain was not renewing his contract and would be possibly available. Ignores the fact he is supposedly… Read more »
Do we really want to sign a player who’s been more strongly linked with West Ham? Where have the days gone where we go head to head with one of Europes top clubs for a world class player? Wenger needs to understand that this is what the fans a yearning for. Let’s see what the month of July will bring.
PSG and Atletico are also interested in him.
Get Jesse Rodriguez on loan.
Lucozaddte 🙂
Same people saying Lacazette is overhyped are the same people who said aubamayeng wasn’t an upgrade over Ox and Welbeck. We all know how that turned out.
We need goal scorers. Lacazette is one. The longest scoreless run he went on is 5 games. If we can’t get Higuain, PEA and to a certain extent Icardi, then Lacazette is the next bet.
48 goals in 66 league games is not a fluke. He’d do well with Ozil and santi behind him.
Yes I don’t think he is a fluke. We already have GIroud for the more physical approach. If you look at Germany, Italy, France and to some extent even Belgium and Spain, they all have a big CF because we face predominantly a 4-2-3-1 defense morphing into a 4-5-1 packing the box. Worth noting Deschamp (no fool) has chosen the much derided Giroud over Lacazette for France. It works because the big man is adept at bringing in players from the second attacking line (your Greizzman and Payet) to score. He adds a healthy assists number but he has also… Read more »
On this whole rubbish about Wenger and England. This is media fodder concocted by the press to stoke further discontent at Arsenal and which only the gullible and fools would deem to believe. a) Wenger won’t Take on England b) He is not the manager for England. The last thing England needs is mollycoddling. Wenger is a brilliant manager in the market and brilliant at developing an open architecture environment for players to interperete and thrive in. When it comes together its sublime. But he needs time to effect change over a longer period. What England needs is practical solutions… Read more »
Lacazette did badly the first half of last season and excellently the second half. Giroud did well the first half and badly the second half (well, most of the second half, anyway). Combine them and we’ll win the league for sure.
Or they could take turns doing badly. NOthing is inked in stone.;)
So because that happened last season it becomes a pattern? We should buy Lacazette so he can play the half Giroud doesn’t perform well?
I have no sympathy for Spain. They only have themselves to blame for not using Bellerin or not even bothering to bring the excellent Santi Carzola.:D Wenger is an excellent developer of talent. He developed Henry, Kolo, RVP, Arteta, Santi into new positions to aplomp. BUt he has also recently brought through Coquelin, Iwobi, Bellerin and Campbell much more smoothly than the whole Denilson generation. Largely this is due to the fact he has painfully reconstructed the team since adding Per and Arteta and experience over seasons in all positions (an undertaking only concluded with Cech) In recent 4 seasons,… Read more »
I think both Draxler and Lacazette and aCB… Howedes perhaps, and we are ready to attack on all fronts
Wenger could say literally anything in response to a question about a player and a link would be made.
“Neither confirm nor deny.” Wenger coy on transfer!
“No.” Wenger tight-lipped on transfer!
“He’s a good player.” Announcement imminent!
“Never heard of him.” Date confirmed for testimonial!
Young, strong, quick and mobile CF. He’s had two very impressive seasons back to back now. His price will be high because Aulas is renowned for getting big bucks for his players. I’m sure he’s not our only target but we really can’t just focus on 1 and get burnt,that would cause a fucking meltdown in the fanbase and would be squad suicide
After Vardy, Lacazette seems like the obvious bet. But if Wenger preferred Vardy over a 25 year old prolific French forward, makes you wonder what he thinks Lacazette lacks.
Premiership experience may have been a factor in favour of Vardy?
And I think the Vardy chase had a bit to do with mentality
And, crucially, Wenger thought he could get Vardy for about half the price Lacazette’s going to cost. Plus, Vardy’s age may have sort of been a plus in his eyes, as it meant he could still look to develop Welbeck as his first choice centre forward for the next 5 years or so, whereas presumably Lacazette will take that mantle if Wenger decides to pay 40 plus million to bring him in.
Please folks, what do you think about a site called Arsenalstation.com, assuming you know about it.
Is it authoritative?
I see folks here know quite a bit about sources.
Have to say I’m a little bemused by Tim Stillman’s hasty dismissal of Lacazette in his most recent column, as merely a “Category B”, non-“vintage”, Welbeck “replica” whose purchase would be a “compromise” on our part (I think Welbeck has the potential to be better than that too, but that’s beside the point, and no one can argue that Lacazette is already miles ahead of Danny in the ruthlessness in front of goal department). Of course, no one is suggesting he is currently at the level of Suarez or Lewandowski, and he may never be, but as a pure goalscorer… Read more »
How many players would outscore Ibra in French league? Anyone who watched him knows that he is great goalscorer who can create goal for himself and also very profilic. I would take him over overhyped Lukaku and Morata. Also he can play on wing.
How about signing Hal Robson-Kanu?