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Everton make contact over Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette
Everton have made contact over the potential signing of Arsenal centre-forward Alexandre Lacazette, according to Jeunes Footeux.
The online French news outlet, verified on Twitter, claims the Blues are “closely following” the 30-year-old’s situation at the Gunners, with the 16-cap French international out of contract next June.
It is reported that he could even be sold in January with Lacazette having fallen out of favour at the Emirates Stadium.
However, it is said that the forward, who was hailed as “incredible” by Pep Guardiola in 2019 [Simon Stone, BBC], is currently earning around £8.5million per season.
Therefore, Lacazette would have to lower his demands in order to seal a move to Everton.
Too old?
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This is a difficult one to work out for Everton.
Salomon Rondon was signed as a cheap deputy to Dominic Calvert-Lewin during the summer, but the Venezuelan has yet to score in six appearances so far, with Calvert-Lewin unavailable for all of them.
That has further fuelled the feeling that Everton need to sign a new centre-forward, either in January or in the summer.
Lacazette is certainly a proven Premier League performer, scoring double figures in all of his previous four campaigns with Arsenal [14, 13, 10, 13].
He’s not the biggest, standing at 5ft9in, but he’s certainly a strong striker with the ability to hold the ball up and bring others into play, something that would make him suitable as a lone frontman for the Blues, or indeed alongside Calvert-Lewin in a strike partnership.
However, given his age and his dwindling popularity at Arsenal, there may be some hesitation at the sound of his name being linked to Goodison Park, and fans may be expecting the club to target younger players.
Lacazette could arrive for a modest fee, or even for nothing in the summer, but either way, his wage demands could prove to be a stumbling block.
In other Everton news, Simon Jordan has hit back at Jim White in ‘disingenuous slobs’ remark after a broadcaster’s Farhad Moshiri suggestion.
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