Arsenal: Competition the last thing that’s needed with Thomas Lemar

Arsenal has a particular list of things that are expected this summer and Thomas Lemar is one. Any risk to that is a risk to so much more.

Arsenal’s unending transfer circus frequently sees them linked to just about everyone under the sun. So many unrealistic players that we all know Arsene Wenger would never spring for.

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Usually, the big hold up is price. Anytime that price tag gets anywhere near record-setting territory, the skeptical nature of Gooners kicks in. Wenger can claim that money price doesn’t matter, so long as the player is right until he is blue in the face. But Alexandre Lacazette alone proves that a lie. If price didn’t matter, we’d have had him three years earlier.

That, or Lacazette isn’t the right player.

But one transfer saga in particular threatened to blow everything out of the water and that, of course was the Thomas Lemar saga. The Frenchman was on the verge of a deadline day move to Arsenal for £90m or thereabouts, and all of this has been proven factual, it’s not just speculation.

When it fell through because “time had run out” (another fact, not just rumors), supporters were naturally disgruntled. Why hadn’t we just paid the fee they were asking from the start, since we were trying to hard to get him all summer?

It was then established that the Gunners would be back in for the Frenchman the next chance they get.

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Of course, it’s never that easy. Now, along with Liverpool, Bayern Munich have also joined the competition to sign Lemar, according to a recent report.

This leaves Arsenal in a precarious situation because everyone knows that Wenger could have had Lemar. That he wanted Lemar and everyone – every single Gooner – wanted him too. It fell through because of horrid planning.

But the promise of returning for him was enough to quiet the disquiet (for lack of a better word).

With added competition, though, it is becoming concerning that the Gunners may have missed their chance. Which, if that is the case, then God help us all, because it’s about to be a sh!tstorm from supporters.

It’s a frightening proposition, really, thinking of Lemar landing at any other club than Arsenal. Wenger may think it’s fun to talk about all the players he nearly had, but to supporters, who begged for him to sign those ‘near misses’ it is far from entertaining.

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Thomas Lemar can’t end up on the same list. Not when we’ve come so close. Public information shows how horribly that potential move was handled and it can’t be compiled on by never being completed.