Arsenal target Alexandre Lacazette wants Champions League football if he leaves Lyon

On the move: Lacazette has hinted he could be leaving Lyon this summer
AFP/Getty Images
James Benge3 May 2017

Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette has warned his potential suitors that he will only move to a club in the Champions League.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger suggested last month that he had revived interest in Lacazette, for whom he saw a £29.4million bid rejected last summer.

The Gunners retain an interest in the 25-year-old, who has also been linked to Liverpool and was the subject of failed bids from West Ham before the start of the season.

However Lacazette, whose Lyon side are in the semi-finals of the Europa League, made clear that he wants to play in Europe’s top club competition as he plots a move away from Ligue 1 this summer.

Arsenal's summer 2016 transfer window timeline

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“This summer I might go for a breath of fresh air and try something different, always with the idea of progressing in football and as a person,” Lacazette said.

“I’m going to keep working, with the hope that good opportunities come for me this summer.

“[Any team I join] will have to be in the Champions League and play good football – passing the ball, not just hitting it from box to box. Not kick and rush. That would not work for me.”

As it stands Arsenal's chances of qualifying for the Champions League are slim, they sit six points off fourth with just a solitary game in hand.

Lacazette is not the only French striker under consideration at the Emirates, with Wenger having made public his appreciation of Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe.

He may be forced to admire the striker from a distance however, having admitted that Arsenal may not have the funds to compete with rumoured suitors Real Madrid and Manchester City for Mbappe’s signature.

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