Alexandre can emulate Zlatan

time. OK, his goalscoring record is not necessarily transferable from the French league to the English league.

“But you could say that Ibrahimovic transferred an identical amount of goals from France to England. So that’s the target Lacazette should set.”

Wenger, above, did admit, though, that there is a tradition of players from Lacazette’s background being reluctant travellers.

“Lyon is a special place in France as they have their own mentality,” he said. “They don’t like to move away usually.

“They produce their own players, the players who grew up around Lyon like Nabil Fekir, Lacazette, Maxime Gonalons.

“They usually like to stay there. They are players with a special mentality and I did not know whether they wanted to move or not.”

Wenger’s opposite number in the Premier League opener tonight, Craig Shakespeare, could use some of that stay-at-home attitude amid talk of a multi-million-pound exodus at Leicester.

But the Foxes boss refuses to lose sleep over late attempts to steal his £50m-rated title-winning stars, including Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez.

Roma have been knocked back in bids to land Mahrez – who was linked with a move to Arsenal at the start of the summer – with Liverpool also poised to move in, while midfield star Drinkwater is on Chelsea’s radar and goalkeeper Schmeichel has a long list of admirers courting his signature.

Bournemouth were also blocked in a £20m move for winger Demarai Gray.

Shakespeare insists Leicester do not have to sell and is confident of keeping hold of the club’s prized assets this season.

“The last thing you want is to lose a player on the day of the transfer window closing,” he said.

“That is every manager’s nightmare. I wouldn’t sleep at night if all the scenarios you put to me happened.

“But until we get the bids I haven’t got to worry about that. We are a club who don’t need to sell, which is vitally important.

“We have got owners who want to keep their best players.

“We don’t want to be a selling club – we want to add to what we’ve already got.”