Arsenal are ready to place a second bid for Houssem Aouar of €50m including add-ons, after Lyon knocked their first offer back.

Football.London report that Arsenal are ready to place a second bid for Houssem Aouar of €40m with another €10m in potential add-ons.

Arsenal initially made a verbal offer of Matteo Guendouzi plus cash earlier in the summer, but Lyon turned it down. The Gunners then made their first formal bid this week, offering somewhere between €35m and €40m.

The exact figure is hard to pin down, with various outlets claiming different things. Some are certain it was €35m, whilst others suggest it may be even slightly more than €40m.

Either way, Lyon rejected the offer again, with president Jean-Michel Aulas claiming it’s too far from their valuation.

So Arsenal are going back with this second formal offer for the player, totalling €50m with add-ons. There’s a good suggestion it still won’t be enough, though.

According to Mohamed Bouhafsi, Lyon do want €50m for the player. But they seemingly want that amount before add-ons, and they’ll turn down Arsenal’s second bid. Bouhafsi also puts that bid at closer to €38m guaranteed than €40m.

To sum up, there’s a lot of disagreement in the reporting on this deal so far. The only thing most seem to agree on is that Arsenal are making a second offer, Lyon are unlikely to accept it and they want at least €10m more.

It’s not all bad news though. €10m-€12m isn’t a huge gap to bridge for a deal of this size. Arsenal making two bids suggests they’re very keen to close the deal in the current window, and Aulas’ tweet suggests Lyon are willing to sell for the right price.