After seeing a £31 million bid rejected by Lyon for Alexandre Lacazette, any kind of deal seemed unlikely. West Ham sources including Jack Sullivan and ExWHUEmployee tweeted regarding the move, confirming that any interest in the striker had gone cold and we were pursuing other targets.
However, there have been reports today that we are back in for the French International. According to Gianluca Di Marzio, who is right about these things more than he is wrong, we have made another bid for Lacazette, an improvement on the previous rejected £31 million.
It is now down to Lyon and we will see whether they accept the new offer, rumoured to be around £32 million.
Gold and Sullivan wouldn’t give up on one of their biggest transfer targets straight away, so it’s no surprise if the club have returned with a second bid. Considering Watford rejected Leicester’s £20 million bid for Troy Deeney last week, paying a few extra million for Lacazette doesn’t seem quite so ridiculous in comparison.
Another factor in the bid is that Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas has stated that Lacazette won’t be sold after June 30th, no matter how much was offered for the striker. This means that Lacazette deadline day is just over two weeks away, so Gold and Sullivan need to hurry if they are to get their man in the coming weeks.
A deal could be struck with Lyon, but convincing Lacazette to join a Europa League team will also take some doing, but playing with Dimitri Payet at the Olympic Stadium next season could help to convince the forward.
