Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas says Arsenal are still too far from meeting their valuation for Houssem Aouar, after the Gunners’ first formal bid this week.

Arsenal made their first formal bid for Houssem Aouar this week, but Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas suggests they’ll need to offer a lot more to get him.

Telefoot Chaine initially reported the bid, claiming on their TV broadcast that Arsenal were offering “around €40m, might be a bit less, might be a bit more”. They also claim the player agreed provisional terms to join the Gunners.

RMC confirmed the bid, but they put the figure at around €35m. ESPN’s Julien Laurens also went with the €35m figure, adding that it wouldn’t be enough. But Arsenal will come back with another offer for Aouar, who wants to join them.

Conversely, L’Equipe sided with Telefoot Chaine in claiming it was a €40m bid. Either way, it’s some way short of the €60m Lyon were initially asking for.

However, ESPN suggest Lyon may now lower those demands. French outlet Sport also write that Aulas is holding out for €50m.

All the same, president Aulas is taking a public stance that Arsenal need to increase their bid significantly. He posted the L’Equipe article and added that the offer was “too far from [Aouar’s] value”, before writing that Lyon are counting on the midfielder this season.

Transferts : Houssem Aouar (OL) d’accord avec Arsenal – ⁦@OL⁩ ⁦:il y aura très peu de départs: pour Houssem Arsenal est bcp trop éloigné de sa valeur: on compte sur lui pour faire un grand match à Lorient et mener l’OL en CL l’année prochaine 👍 https://t.co/8SUKIHLcLJ

— Jean-Michel AULAS (@JM_Aulas) September 26, 2020

Aulas always acts like this in the market, so I wouldn’t panic yet. In 2017, he denied Arsenal were bidding for Alexandre Lacazette a couple of weeks before the move became official. This time around, we have nine days to sort things out before deadline day.