Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette Should Have Been Priority All Along

Arsenal look to be honing in on Alexandre Lacazette and it’s about time. The Frenchman should have been Arsenal’s priority all along.

Jamie Vardy is off the table, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is stupid expensive and Antoine Griezmann just signed an extension. All of the quick, smaller strikers that Arsenal have been targeting are being removed from the spectrum, leaving Arsene Wenger grasping at straws.

Then again, one man stands ripe for the picking. That man is Alexandre Lacazette, a man that should have been the priority all along.

Last summer, Lacazette made it clear that he and the Lyon brain trust do not see eye to eye. He was supposed to leave last summer but the club’s valuation of him made other teams shy away. One season as the top goal scorer would not win over Wenger that easily. Who did he think he was, Olivier Giroud?

This year, Lyon finished second to the potent PSG and Lacazette finished second in goals to Ibra. Yet Lyon still have that mantra as a team that sells high and Lacazette is at that point where he needs to be sold, as he is at the peak of his value.

While that probably doesn’t jive well with many Arsenal supporters, given Wenger’s lacking desire to spend big, it should jive with them, as they can rest assured that, unlike all those others guys out there, Lacazette is definitely available. And he is going to be cheaper than Aubameyang.

It is almost a blessing that Lacazette was not called up to the French National side, because I’m getting the impression that not many people out there are focused on him, despite the fact that he scored 32% of the second place team’s goals and has now scored 48 goals in his last two Ligue 1 seasons.

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To me, Lacazette works just like Griezmann or Vardy would. He has the speed and composure to strike quickly and latch onto long balls, but he has also shown an ability to create for himself with his dribbling. His goal totals are deceptive because Lyon does not create as many chances as some of the other big name teams out there, but Lacazette has no problems finishing what chances they do create.

One thing we must remind ourselves is that Arsene Wenger is going to sign a striker. We were in a similar situation back in 2014. Arsenal had Giroud and only Giroud and it looked dead silent. But at the end of the window, he nabbed Welbeck. Wenger is not going to leave the team at the whims of Giroud, especially not after last season. With Welbeck hurt and Walcott out of the picture, an external signing will be made.

Given that most similar strikers are off the table, the likelihood of Lacazette coming to town should be skyrocketing.

Next: 5 Defensive Transfer Options

Supposedly Arsenal is meeting with him, as Wenger is in France. The sources are a bit unreliable, but the actual concept of the transfer is not. Don’t expect this rumor to disappear like the rest of them.

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