Lille general director Frederic Paquet has revealed that Gervinho is in advanced talks with Premier League giants Arsenal.

The 24-year-old was one of the driving forces behind Lille's extraordinary season as they won the league title and domestic cup, but has decided to spurn the opportunity of Champions League football with his current club in favour of a move to north London.

Lille reportedly turned down a €12 million offer from Tottenham Hotspur last week for Gervinho, whose current contract expires in the summer of 2012, but Paquet has confirmed that Arsenal had entered into negotiations with the attacker.

"He [Gervinho] wants to leave the club and is in advanced talks with Arsenal. We will soon discuss with them to see what they want. He has expressed his desire to move to England. We'll see what happens now," he said to RMC.

Paquet also added that LOSC were not interested in entering into discussions with Ligue 1 rivals Paris Saint-Germain, who have money to spend following their recent takeover by a Qatari investment company.

"Paris Saint-Germain have made an inquiry, but we have no intention of selling to domestic rivals. Gervinho chose to leave for England, so that limits the options. We will soon meet with Arsenal and see what they offer. He clearly is a player of value."

Meanwhile, Lille are already lining up replacements for Gervinho, as they are tracking Sochaux's Marvin Martin and Saint-Etienne star Dimitri Payet.

Where will he play? can he play on the left and replace Arshavin? or replace Walcott? maybe even the bench lol.

Wow, Tottenham really suck

This means either Cesc or Nasri are gone...

Also Hazard is staying, the Lille sporting director said it in the same interview.

sportsczy wrote:This means either Cesc or Nasri are gone...

Why would it? We needed a good winger. Arshavin is in decline and Walcott is cosntantly injured. We were putting Bentner on the wing, FFS.

Sushi Master wrote:

sportsczy wrote:This means either Cesc or Nasri are gone...

Why would it? We needed a good winger. Arshavin is in decline and Walcott is cosntantly injured. We were putting Bentner on the wing, FFS.

Gervinho is not coming to hope to start if another player gets injured or lacks form. Walcott is too talented to bench too. You also have Ramsey and Chamakh that you can push wide if you really needed to.

It may be a depth move... But there are glaring starter deficiencies at arsenal defensively. Why would wenger not deal with those first? It's not like Gervinho is a superstar that you must buy if available.

Strange purchase if cesc and nasri stay.

Arshavin isn't in decline, LWF isn't his best position thats all.

Chamakh out wide makes my brain hurt

You have a lot of CFs that play wide these days... in fact, given that Chamakh actually prefers to pass more than anything, it wouldn't be a bad move. If the play is created opposite from him, he can crash the box and become a scorer. He can use Van Persie as the anchor.

The whole point of this move is for us to have more genuine wingers. We used to stick Bendtner on the wing and that was horrible to watch. Chamakh on the wing failed as well because his dribbling skills aren't good enough, neither is his movement.

This is not a replacement for Nasri neither is it a replacement for Cesc. This is a replacement for Bendtner, who was a central player that could play on the wings, same as Gervinho but Gervinho is more of a winger that can play in the center which even suites us better.

Bendtner out
Gervinho In

To all Arsenal fan's congrats lol i begrudgingly pass this on and hope you use him well.

Brilliant buy by Wenger, love this player, can't wait to see him in the EPL

Nothing is completed yet so we shouldn't act as if this is a done deal. For all we know Lille will demmand too much and Arsenal will pull out.

If we do sign him, it doesn't mean Cesc or Nasri are going. Fabregas is going nowhere until Arsenal receive a satisfactory offer, and Kroenke is about to step in to get Nasri to sign a new deal.

If anything, it means Bendtner leaving which was pretty much a certainty before this possible transfer. Basically, Gervinho is a signing that would add depth to our attack - not only as a winger, but as a striker as well and given our injury problems and players who lack form and consistency - Rosicky, Arshavin and Chamakh come to mind - he will get plenty of first team action.

Makes allot of sense, considering Arsenal has a good attackers and lacks in defense.....

Setting yourself up for another trophyless season I'd say

windkick wrote:Makes allot of sense, considering Arsenal has a good attackers and lacks in defense.....

Setting yourself up for another trophyless season I'd say

Except we're also signing a centre back and a left back if Clichy goes.

Give us a chance.

Do you guys really think that Gervinho is coming to Arsenal to sit on the bench... i mean really.

And given Arsenal's cheap ways, how much more money would the team have left for this summer?

Cesc leaving looks so obvious tbh. Would have happened last summer if it wasnt for Rosell, but now he doesnt have the choice the make it happen.

sportsczy wrote:Do you guys really think that Gervinho is coming to Arsenal to sit on the bench... i mean really.

And given Arsenal's cheap ways, how much more money would the team have left for this summer?

Do you think he'll just walk into our starting eleven? Walcott isn't going to be dropped and van Persie is a dead-on certainty fitness permitting. The left side is up for grabs but if Nasri signs a new deal then it's his, leaving Gervinho, Arshavin and Rosicky to as rotation/backup.

It's entirely dependant on who leaves the club, in any case. If Nasri goes than Gervinho will probably take the left wing.

As for money, we have a budget around £40,000,000 to £50,000,000 plus whatever we rake in from the sales of Denilson and Bendtner. So yeah, we have enough money to strengthen our weak area.

Gervinho is better than walcott...just saying

Walcott got 13 goals and 10 assists last season. Hardly warrants being dropped or replaced.

We actually lacked in offense during the latter stages in the season, but that was mainly due to a demoralized team and a few injuries.

Bendtner is leaving, we're replacing him with a player. It would be stupid to let go of a player without replacing him if your team isn't even good enough for a trophy yet. We have no one from the youth squad that can come up and do the job, so we have to buy.

It makes complete sense

I also disagree with Nick's statement

GoonerJay29 wrote:Walcott got 13 goals and 10 assists last season. Hardly warrants being dropped or replaced.

That's exactly what i mean. Gervinho had a choice of clubs. I'm sure he got some assurances on playing time by Wenger. He's not a youth player... he's established and 24 years old. These are his prime year. Would he really accept a likely bench role? The only way he would is if Arsenal offered the highest wages. And that's not Arsenal's style.