Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette done deal thanks to Wenger magic

Arsenal certainly has had to exercise some serious patience with Alexandre Lacazette, but that’s paying off now, with a near-miracle deal by Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal has had three long years to wait for Alexandre Lacazette, but according to Jean-Michel Aulas, that patience is now paying off.

Here’s what the Lyon owner had to say about the whole ordeal to French publication Le Progres:

"“Alexandre Lacazette’s transfer to Arsenal could be actioned within the next day or two. The figure reported by the English media of around €67m (including €12m in add-ons) is impossible and not realistic. Arsenal’s first offer was around €45m, the transfer will be concluded in the range of €45m to €50m. It constitutes, without doubt, a record transfer fee for Arsenal, [sic] and for Lyon of course!”"

Seems pretty conclusive then, even for a used-car-salesman mentality like Aulas.

Now, I’m not going to claim that I’m some transfer guru or some kind of in the know. I read reports and react to them. But one thing I do know is that Arsene Wenger may have proven himself to be a magician yet again with this.

Last summer, Wenger submitted a £29m bid for Lacazette that was rejected. West Ham then supposedly bid £43m and had their’s subsequently rejected.

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It didn’t get any better this summer. With no Champions League play and Lacazette’s whole “I’m not playing for a team that can’t give me the Champions League,” statement, followed by an accepted bid from Atletico Madrid that was supposed to total £57m, the Gunners appeared to be out of luck.

And then it got better. Lacazette came out and said that, well, maybe Champions League wasn’t a deal breaker after all. And then Atletico’s transfer ban held up. And then, despite reports of rejected bids, the Gunners landed a deal at a completely reasonable £43m (at most). Which is exactly what West Ham had turned down last year.

This after Aulas had said that Atletico’s price was the price to beat. Which Wenger clearly didn’t beat. And by Aulas’s own admission, it was impossible to beat. Meaning that Wenger had himself a master moment where he lured a player to the Emirates without Champions League play and without paying as much as a winning bid by another team that had already been accepted.

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Again, I’m no expert. But there is a bit of magic happening there. And don’t even start to tell me that Le Prof had nothing to do with this. You wait until we get Lacazette on the mic. He will undoubtedly say something about how wonderful it will be to work with Wenger and that’s what swayed his decision.

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