Olympique Lyonnais are hoping to re-sign Alexandre Lacazette this summer, but Arsenal could yet still move to keep him.

L’Equipe report that Lyon tried in vain to pry Alexandre Lacazette away from Arsenal in January, and they’ll attempt to lure him back again in the summer.

Lacazette has always maintained a strong bond with his old club, and his contract at Arsenal ends in the summer. As a result, the Lyon hierarchy have made contact with his entourage in recent weeks over a potential transfer.

On the other hand, the same outlet claim Arsenal could still offer Lacazette a short-term contract extension of one or two years in the coming weeks.

With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the way to Barcelona and Eddie Nketiah also out of contract and rejecting extension offers, it certainly doesn’t seem impossible Arsenal would look to keep at least one of their senior strikers around beyond this summer.

Undoubtedly, the club need to dip into the market for a top striker in the next window.

But if they fail to land one immediately, they may end up spending pre-season and the early stages of the next Premier League campaign relying solely on Folarin Balogun and other youth forwards.

So I wouldn’t put it past Arsenal to offer Lacazette a contract for another year to ease the transition.

The ideal summer would be to make the big-name signing early and promote Balogun as a backup after he completes a strong loan at Middlesbrough. That would leave Lacazette open to return to his old club.

There’s still a long way to go until summer, so we’ll see how Lacazette’s performances in the coming weeks impact things.