Alexandre Lacazette Woulnd’t be First Scoring Champion Arsenal have Signed

With the summer transfer window literally breathing down our necks, it’s the perfect time to put together roughly-construed theories of who Arsenal should sign to win that Premier League title. One position that is perpetually up for debate at Arsenal is the striker position and there are plenty of names tied to Arsenal in that category as to who should properly assist Oliver Giroud in his striking duties.

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Karim Benzema’s name has arisen and would account for quite the shock of a transfer, but he would be an immediate impact signing that could propel Arsenal to easy Premier League favorites.

The other French striker being linked with our French manager to assist our other French striker is Alexandre Lacazette. The Lyon striker has a massive 27 goals in Ligue 1 which is good for tops in the league even with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the same league.

Signing Alexandre Lacazette would follow Arsene Wenger’s recent trend of signing strikers who have led Ligue 1 in scoring, seeing as how Olivier Giroud did the same for Montepellier before his 2012/13 shift to England.

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Seeing as how Olivier Giroud has scored 57 goals in that small amount of time, the once-proven strategy of loading up on Ligue 1 strikers seems an attractive one. The problem (seeing as how there’s always a problem) is that Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of Lyon, sees Alexandre Lacazette as a 50 million pound piece (via ESPNFC). Although martket value (based on Transfermarkt) would beg to differ, placing the Frenchman’s value at just under 20 million. However, transfers have to go through Aulas, not Transfermarkt.

Putting his tag at astronomical heights may just be his little affectionate way of fending off suitors, however. I fully expect that Arsene Wenger has at least popped the question to Aulas once or twice.

As far as play style, Alexandre Lacazette fit masterfully. Whereas Olivier Giroud is a one-touch, heading specialist, Alexandre Lacazette enjoys dribbling and linking up play. Perhaps most importantly, the speedy forward can play out wide as well, and no doubt should he make the trek, Arsene Wenger will give that a shot. Of course, coming from France and scoring the most goals since Thierry Henry, he is going to constantly be compared to who else but Thierry Henry?

So we’ve established that Alexandre Lacazette would be an excellent fit, but will Arsene Wenger shell out 50 million for another French striker?

No.

But don’t let that get you down and out on the Lacazette prospect. Arsenal is an attractive team to play at and the opportunity to become the next Thierry Henry is going to be tantalizing to anyone, especially a french striker. So if the price can dwindle down into the 30 million range, perhaps we see Alexandre Lacazette next to Olivier Giroud next summer. That is, if he’s even for sale.

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