Arsenal: ‘Dead’ Thomas Lemar will absolutely live again

Arsenal are going to miss out on Thomas Lemar this summer, despite all the obvious signs they were after him. That doesn’t mean this is dead forever, though.

Arsene Wenger has gone ahead and called a close to Arsenal’s link to Thomas Lemar. It’s actually a rare situation, for this to be happening. Le Prof actually acknowledged a rumor so much that he had to admit when it was thoroughly defeated. No more guessing games, just know that it’s over.

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Here are his simple words, as quoted by ESPNFC: “It’s dead because Monaco have closed the door definitely.”

Doesn’t get more clear than that. There will be no Lemar this year, but it is not for the want of trying. It is simply because Monaco were actually serious when they said he wasn’t for sale. That or the Gunners weren’t offering enough, but seeing as how money isn’t an issue anymore, I have trouble buying that story.

This is all going to be okay, for two reasons.

First of all, we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that Wenger was trying incredibly hard to land Lemar. Otherwise this kind of honesty would have never come out into the open.

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It’s as simple as that, and it should actually give us more hope than it quashes, to know how much Wenger wanted him.

Then there is the matter of next year. The main reason – clearly – that Monaco didn’t want to sell Lemar is because they had sold so much already and didn’t have a replacement for him. They just couldn’t part with him for the price the Gunners wanted to pay.

There’s no fear there. Lemar was pretty obviously interested in the move and Monaco are big time sellers. They raise these players up through the ranks, they expose them to the world, they sell them, they call up someone else.

Rinse and repeat.

This Thomas Lemar saga is far from over. I mentioned earlier in the window that it was important not to make Lemar another Alexandre Lacazette, but if worse comes to worse and that is what he becomes, well then at least we ended up with him eventually.

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The need for Lemar is only going to get greater as time goes on. With Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil both looking at questionable futures, the need for future signings to augment whatever youth products will be coming up is massive.