Hot Football Transfer Gossip: Arsenal get Draxler, Lacazette boosts, Chelsea ‘offer Remy for Lukaku’

Arsenal fans don’t ask for much. Well, apart from a team that wins trophies while playing exciting football, the divine right to finish above infinitely wealthier rivals and an upgrade on the second-most successful manager in Premier League history.

But aside from that stuff, all they really want is a victory against Jose Mourinho and a couple of decent signings. And on the signings front, they appear to be making some progress.

The Express says the Gunners have “agreed personal terms” with long-time target Alexandre Lacazette. All that remains now is for them to agree a fee with his club Lyon, whose manager admitted yesterday that some offers “you cannot refuse”.

Meanwhile, even longer-term Gunners target Julian Draxler has declared he wants to leave Wolfsburg, reports the Metro.

With Arsene Wenger having been a fan of the German winger pretty much since his birth, he will be loathe to miss out on the opportunity to snap the player up. Maybe Draxler has decided to go public after seeing that Arsenal were close to signing a rival winger in Riyad Mahrez. These wingers are so catty.

Chelsea have come up with a maverick strategy for persuading Everton to sell them Romelu Lukaku, with the Mail claiming that the Blues have offered the Toffees Loic Remy in part exchange.

“We’ll just take the money, thanks,” is what Everton probably said to that, with the Sun alleging that the exact figure the Merseysiders are demanding is £75m.

It adds that Roman Abramovich has attempted to scare the Toffees into submission with a “take it or leave it” bid of £65m, but we all know he could find the extra cash just by renting out a couple of yachts for the summer holidays.

Everton are also negotiating with Manchester City over a fee for John Stones, who is valued by his club at £50m, according to the Mirror. Pep Guardiola is apparently keen to “reach a compromise” over that figure - £49.9m being a likely outcome.

The Guardian says Real Madrid actually, genuinely want to sign Moussa Sissoko from Newcastle, and are prepared to offer youngsters Mariano Diaz and Marcos Llorente on loan to sweeten the deal.

Hardly bringing out the big guns, but Sissoko won’t care if Zinedine Zidane sends his Nan in part exchange if it helps land him a move to the Bernabeu.

Meanwhile, there is bad news for any English clubs keen on another Madrid youngster, Jese, because Marca says the La Liga giants have agreed to sell him to Paris Saint-Germain for £21m.

Elsewhere, Pescara are the latest club to “end their interest” in Liverpool pariah Mario Balotelli (Talksport), Jurgen Klopp is considering a £20m swoop for Cologne’s German international defender Jonas Hector (Mail) and Stoke are prepared to offer Peter Crouch, Mame Diouf or Joselu in part exchange for Saido Berahino (Stoke Sentinel). In the generosity stakes, that’s roughly the equivalent of offering someone the horrible hard toffees left in the bottom of a tin of Quality Street.

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