Arsenal target Yoann Gourcuff is ready to lower his sizable salary to secure a move to the gunners, according to the Lyon playmaker’s club president Jean-Michel Aulas.
The playmaker, who has 29 caps for France, has been linked with a move to Arsene Wenger’s side over the past few seasons and appears to have given the club fresh incentive to make a renewed attempt to sign him.
Lyon paid Bordeaux €22 million to secure Gourcuff in 2010 making him the highest paid Frenchman in Ligue 1 something that has made offloading him more difficult.
Aulas has claimed that a loan move for Gourcuff to a fellow Ligue 1 side is out of the question, leaving Arsenal in pole position to add him to their ranks. According to Metro, Aulas said :
Can you see us paying part of his salary for him to play against us with another French club? We’ve never considered that and it would even more stupid now than it was a fortnight ago.
All that I know, if I understood correctly, is that he was ready to lower his salary to go to Arsenal, but that’s not the same thing.
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We can’t change the contract. The only solution is to extend it. If the amortization is done over eight years when it was planned over five, it becomes less expensive. But we’re in a quite unfair system: if there’s someone to criticize for his salary, it’s me. I signed it, that contract, with his agent.
Gourcuff was regarded as one of the brightest talents in European football when he played a pivotal role in Bordeaux’s rise to the summit of French football in 2009. But a mixture of persistent injuries and struggles for consistent form have seen his star fade at Lyon.
He is a player who can be used as a deep lying striker, play maker or central midfielder, and his style has been compared to that of Zinedine Zidane. Gourcuff is a great long distance shooter, he has scored several goals from outside the box, with his power and precision. Not only that, but he is an excellent free kick taker, and he would tremendously help the Gunners from set pieces.
The addition of the Frenchman would relieve the pressure on the midfielders currently at Arsenal. Both Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby have had terrible luck with long term injuries in recent times. Gourcuff’s reported wages of around £80,000 a week should be easily affordable for the club if lowered as the Gunners have been paying high sums for fringe players such as Denilson and Nicklas Bendtner in recent seasons.
It’s not quite clear if Arsenal are still interested in Gourcuff, who has been through quite a lot of injuries since joining Lyon in 2010. He played in only 18 league matches last season, and Clement Grenier has been the brightest star in the Lyon midfield over the last year. Arsenal have shown a lot more interest in Grenier, who is also younger, than Gourcuff over the past summer.
Do you want to see him at the Emirates?
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