Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has revealed Arsenal have made a "timid" bid for midfielder Houssem Aouar, insisting the offer failed to make the club even "consider" a sale.
Standard Sport understands Arsenal failed last week with an opening offer of just over £30million, having tracked both the 22-year-old and Atletico Madrid's Thomas Partey all summer.
Aulas confirmed on Twitter Arsenal were "too far away" with their initial bid and subsequently tightened their negotiation stance by declaring a deadline of Friday for any of their players to be sold.
Lyon were expecting another offer from Arsenal, and having received one, Aulas has revealed he was less than impressed, though indicating the price the French club have in mind.
Asked whether Arsenal had made a second bid for Aouar, Aulas told Canal+: "There was a timid offer. We felt like they didn’t consider the fact that this is a player in the French national team.
"So, it was an offer that did not even make us consider making a sale.”
Aulas was then presented with a further question, asked how much he wanted for the midfielder, perhaps €40m or €50m.
“It is certainly more than the first number that you mentioned,” he said.
Meanwhile, Arsenal put on a promising showing in their 3-1 defeat at Liverpool on Monday, though their absence of options in midfield was abundantly clear.
With Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi seemingly out of the equation, Mikel Arteta has confirmed he expects a busy end to the transfer window.
“There is a week to go. I think it is going to be really busy for all the clubs because not much business has been done, so let’s see what happens,” he said.
“I think it is going to be really busy for the Premier League, I don’t know for us how it is going to happen.”
