Arsenal have completed the signing of Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette for a reported £52 million. The deal had been in the pipeline for some time, and the Gunners’ signing of the striker can be seen as a real coup for the club.
Lacazette will sign a five-year contract with Arsenal as the club look to return to the Premier League’s top four. Arsenal could still lose Alexis Sanchez to Manchester City this summer, but the signing of Lacazette may help to keep the Chilean at the Emirates.
With the striker’s impending arrival, it is expected that forward Olivier Giroud will leave Arsenal. West Ham, Marseille and Lyon have all been tracking the Frenchman.
Lacazette had previously agreed to join Atletico Madrid this summer. However, the Spanish club’s transfer ban until the winter of 2018 prevented his move to the country’s capital.
The signing is not only one of the biggest Arsenal could have made this summer, but it comes well before preseason training. It also prevents any of Arsenal’s top four rivals from adding the prolific French striker to their squads. Liverpool had been loosely linked with Lacazette, but will have to look elsewhere if they want to add a striker.
The transfer for the Frenchman is reported to have bonuses and add-ons included in the £52m fee. If those reports are true, Arsenal will have got a bargain in Lacazette. The Gunners had paid £42.5m for Mesut Ozil, and paying just a little over £10m more for a top striker must be seen as great business.
