Arsenal's bid for Lyon midfielder Houssem Aouar has been confirmed.
Reports in France on Friday night claimed that the Gunners' interest had materialised into a formal offer for the 22-year-old, whose price tag for much of the window has been quoted in the region of £50million-£55million.
And whilst an offer has been submitted, Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas appears to have confirmed that the bid has been rejected.
"At Lyon there will be very few departures: for Houssem, Arsenal is much too far from his value," Aulas wrote on Twitter. "We count on him to make a big game in Lorient and lead OL in Champions League next year."
With that said, this breakthrough has prompted a big response from many Gunners supporters on social media - some of which have a theory that Thomas Partey will be next to join after Aouar.
But while fans wait for further developments regarding the Frenchman, there's already one player in particular who would be delighted to see Aouar join Arsenal.
Alexandre Lacazette is a former teammate of the midfielder from his time at Lyon and the pair were briefly reunited last summer in the 2019 edition of the Emirates Cup.
Taking to Instagram after the game, the Gunners no.9 uploaded a picture of him and Aouar with the caption that read: "Always a pleasure to see you."
To which Aouar responded with a message of his own.
"Old friends never become strange," he posted on his Instagram account.
Are the two friends about to be reunited as teammates very soon?
Well, football.london understands the Gunners are ready to increase their offer to £36.5million (€40million) with a further £9million in potential add-ons (€10million).
In addition, Aouar revealed in 2017 that he still keeps in contact with Lacazette despite the latter's departure that summer.
"He wrote to me a lot. He explained to me that all the great players have gone through difficult times in their careers," Aouar said, as reported by Tribal Football.
"As soon as I joined the squad, Alex took me under his wing. We did not cut the contact after his departure and he was there at times when it was a little more difficult to cheer me up and motivate me for the future."
