Arsenal: No shame in plucking Alexandre Lacazette’s ‘sloppy seconds’

Arsenal may have to sit by and watch as Alexandre Lacazette moves to Atletico Madrid, but the sloppy seconds this creates would be worthy investment.

Of all the plausible striker transfer targets out there, no one gets my blood pumping quite like Alexandre Lacazette. I can’t help but think that Arsenal would be his ideal club, but the lack of Champions League football may push him elsewhere, and what seemed like the perfect, ideal union could be disrupted by the one glitch in Arsene Wenger‘s historic streak.

The club that appears ready to win out in this scenario is Atletico Madrid, who are a favorite of Lacazette. They look ready to swoop up the wantaway Frenchman and end all hopes of the Gunners uniting with their ideal candidate.

But there is some good that can come from this. Just because Lacazette might not happen doesn’t mean Wenger can’t, like a vulture, swoop in and pick at the sloppy seconds that this situation creates. No shame in that.

Atletico utilizes a front two with Antoine Griezmann, Kevin Gameiro and occasionally Fernando Torres. With Lacazette coming in and shaking things up, that means someone is going to have to make way to allow the new Frenchman in and that someone will probably be Gameiro, unless Griezmann has eyes on an exit.

You may get what I’m alluding to, so before you rage close this window, let me make a case for myself, and for Arsenal plucking up Kevin Gameiro as the sloppy seconds of this move.

I understand that Gameiro is not the world class striker that we all pine for. But I also understand that in order to lure class players without Champions League football, Wenger is going to have to get mighty creative. I thought Lucas Perez was a creative master stroke of a move, but Wenger let that pass on by.

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Gameiro is something similar, just with a more impressive resume. Unlike Lucas, Gameiro has a rich history of goal scoring. He really broke into the international spotlight when he nabbed 22 goals in 2010/11 with Lorient. Seems like a long time ago, sure. But recently he hasn’t exactly been terrible.

In fact, since leaving Lorient, he has only touched 2000 minutes of play once. All in all though, his numbers are quite solid. Since his 2013/14 move to La Liga, between Sevilla and Atletico, Gameiro has registered just over 9,000 minutes of play (9,203 as of writing) across all competitions. In that time, he has scored 70 goals and added 22 assists for good measure.

That’s a goal every 131 minutes. Or a goal contribution every 100 minutes. That is a solid average right there. Very solid. And if you want a comparison, since coming to Arsenal, Alexis has averaged a goal contribution every 97 minutes.

I’m not over here saying that Gameiro is going to solve all of our problems up front. He will be 31 next year after all. But in the event that we can’t seem to lure the perfect striker, then at the very least, we need an option that is fast enough to play over the top and reliable enough to score consistently.

Gameiro provides that at the bare minimum. As well as added competition and a reliable foot to pound home goals.

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And while I hope that we can land a true, game-changing striker that would make a Gameiro-like signing unnecessary, I have to think that in terms of worst case scenario, Gameiro is one hell of an option.