Arsenal and Liverpool will have to look elsewhere in their chase for a striker in the summer after Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas revealed that striker Alexandre Lacazette will remain at the club.
Lacazette has been in brilliant form this season which has led to speculation that the Frenchman might soon move to a bigger club in a better league than the Ligue 1. Both Arsenal and Liverpool were being linked with the striker in January as they considered buying a striker, but a possible deal failed to materialise in the end.
Aulas took to twitter and revealed, “Impossible. He will be with us at the (new) Stade des Lumieres and in the Champions League.” In addition, Lacazette had told the club’s official TV channel on Thursday, “If the president asks me to leave, Ia ll have to leave the club.”
The new stadium is expected to be completed this year which means that Lacazette will remain at least one more year at the club. The 23-year old is contracted with the club until 2018. This season, Lacazette has become a lynchpin of Lyon’s attack as he has scored an incredible 25 goals in 31 games for his side in all competitions. In those goals, 21 have come in the league as Lacazette has helped his side to the top until now.
Lyon haven’t won a title since the year 2008, and the last time they did so, they had one brilliant striker in Karim Benzema who now plies his trade for Real Madrid. There is growing belief in Lyon that Lacazette is their next great striker who can take them to the euphoria of a league title once again and their wishes might just come true. At the same time, the club will want to hold on to him for a longer period of time.
Lacazette was on a goal scoring spree in early December as he had found the target 10 times in just six games before injuring himself. He missed three games due a muscle injury; a period where his side couldn’t win any of their games. His return against FC Nantes on December 22nd was greeted with an amazing cheer as his side had desperately missed his presence in attack. Although Lyon lost their last against Lille in the league, they are still top and will be fairly confident of staying there as they now have their goalscorer back.
Lacazette could have been a good fit at Arsenal or Liverpool as he has good pace, work rate and is deadly in front of goal. A deal could still happen in the summer as the spending power of the Premier League clubs could have a say in the transfer saga.