Alexandre Lacazette to West Ham: French striker can go if Lyon receive 'an offer they can't refuse'

1/6
James Benge21 May 2016

Lyon president Jean Michel Aulas has told West Ham they will have to make him an offer he can’t refuse if they want to tempt him to part with Alexandre Lacazette.

Earlier this week West Ham had a £25.8million bid for the 24-year-old rejected by Lyon, with Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham also monitoring the future of Ligue 1’s second highest scorer this season behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Lacazette’s future was similarly up for debate last summer, but Aulas convinced the then-Arsenal target to sign a new deal that ties him to his boyhood club until 2019.

Aulas has earned a reputation as a formidable negotiator in the sales of Michael Essien, Karim Benzema and Florent Malouda and he is convinced that he will get a similarly sizeable price from any bidders for his centre-forward.

In an interview with Le Progres Aulas confirmed that West Ham had not be the only side to bid for Lacazette, saying: “In order to make a sale, all three parties need to be in agreement.

“We have refused several offers, with the largest being that of West Ham for €40m… That is also a response. I want to keep him but there is no certainty because he will decide in the end.

“I do not want an August 28 situation, as we have qualified for the Champions League, we find ourselves in the same situation as Monaco with Martial. A priori, he stays. If there is an offer that we cannot refuse, he will come see me and then that is it.”

After failing with their initial bid West Ham have considered making a move for another Ligue 1-based striker, though they will face similar competition if they move for Marseille’s Michy Batshuayi. The Belgian international is a target for Tottenham and Juventus after his club admitted they have budgeted for him to depart in the summer.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in