After Arsenal were revealed to have bid £29.4m for Alexandre Lacazette, how has the story developed over the past 24 hours?

Well, it hasn’t really.

After Lyon broke with protocol and told the press about Arsenal’s rejected bid, and Wenger said that these things should be kept secret, it seems as if the French club are not for budging on this issue, branding their forward ‘irreplaceable.’

Of course, we know that there is no such thing in football and every player on the planet becomes instantly replaceable if you throw enough money at them.

Jean-Michel Aulas, the Lyon president, added, “I think he is very calm, I think we will have a very good Champions League run and honestly I see Alexandre doing a 27-30 goal season in the French league. 

“For me, he will be ahead of [Edinson] Cavani this year in terms of number of goals scored. And I can see him also having an incredible performance in the Champions League. 

“For all these reasons, I cannot imagine how he could leave, and I think that he also wants to do a full season with Lyon. 

“Alexandre will be a Lyonnais.”

His protestations mean little. The Napoli president did, after all, spend the summer telling us that he absolutely, positively would not let Gonzalo Higuain go to Juventus before selling the Argentine to them.

There were claims that Arsenal had gone back with a second bid, but these seem to be unfounded. Lyon issued a statement saying, “Arsenal made an offer of 35 million euros which Lyon didn’t accept for one reason alone – we will keep Alexandre Lacazette,” read a statement from the club.

“Lacazette is one of the main leaders of [coach] Bruno Genesio’s squad. We categorically deny having received an offer of 48 million euros from Arsenal for him, as has been reported.”

L’Equipe are expecting Arsenal to return with €40m however even if they do, and it’s not at all certain that they will, there is absolutely no indication that it would be enough to get the Ligue 1 side to sell ahead of a Champions League season.