With no Champions League (CL) football last season, Manchester United Football Club was able to attract big name players like Paul Pogba, the most expensive footballer in the world and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the club. The rest is now history as the helped Man United who finished 6th get back to CL via the Europa League win. From the look of things, Arsenal may go the same route by attracting the players on their wish list despite the fact that Arsenal will be missing in CL next season.
Media reports out there in Europe have it that Arsenal have received another boost in their pursuit of Alexandre Lacazette after the Lyon striker called the Premier League ‘interesting’ and insisted a Champions League move was not a ‘deal-breaker.’
The France striker looks set to depart the Ligue 1 club this summer and was on the radar of Atletico Madrid before their appeal against a transfer embargo failed this month. After 37 goals in 45 appearances this season the 26-year-old has become one of the most coveted strikers in Europe, with the Gunners retaining a firm interest. And Arsene Wenger has been handed a lifeline by comments the hotshot has made in a Facebook Live chat with Eurosport by signalling he could forego one season in the Champions League.
He said: ‘Is the Champions League a deal-breaker for my choice? No, but it is important.
‘In making my choice, I will look at my position [in my next club], if there are not too many players, so I won’t be benched and I will be able to play. ‘The Premier League is interesting. That does not mean I will go, and that does not mean I will refuse to go.’ Lacazette insists he has moved on from the breakdown of a potential move to Diego Simeone’s side. ‘Like everyone else, I heard the news. This was always going to be a possibility, it was 50-50. The decision has not perturbed me, life goes on,’ he added.