Arsenal had missed out on Alexandre Lacazette same as Thomas Lemar

Arsenal missed out on signing Thomas Lemar in the summer, but that’s not the end of the road. Alexandre Lacazette was a missed chance too.

Arsenal were a fraction away from landing Thomas Lemar in the summer and cutting Alexis Sanchez loose. It never happened, and now most Gooners are looking forward to January or summer 2018 for our next chance to land Lemar.

Robert Pires, however, is less than optimistic. He said, as quoted by the Sun: “Arsene tried to buy Lemar, and tried very hard, but I don’t think the move will happen now.” Which is hardly encouraging, as Pires is tapped into the French side of things and he knows Arsene Wenger.

But that’s hardly the end of the story. Lemar is going to leave Monaco, he has made that clear, it’s just a matter of where he wants to go, and the Premier League has caught his eye. As such, Arsenal stand just as good a chance, if not better, given the presence of Wenger, of being the landing zone.

Another thing to remember before we chalk this up as a ‘missed chance’ is that Alexandre Lacazette was a missed chance too.

He was first heavily linked in 2015, following his big breakout. Everyone thought he was simply perfect for the job, but nothing ever materialized and the Frenchman stayed at Lyon. People looked forward to the next summer, 2016, because that’s when it would happen. After all, he kept talking about how he was going to leave.

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In 2016, Lacazette not only stayed put, but Arsenal signed Lucas Perez, a cheaper striker with a similar skill type, and Lacazette was written off. Lucas was the answer. Not just that, but it had been two years now and nothing materialized.

Then last summer, it finally happened. It defied the odds in every sense, because it’s not like Wenger to take rejection over the course of two years and then conquer it. He usually just looks for other “solutions.”

But now Lacazette is here, he’s a record signing, and we’re all thrilled about it, except for Lacazette when he gets yanked in the 80th minute without scoring a goal.

The chance for Lemar has passed just like Lacazette’s had passed. It didn’t seem plausible that a player whose price kept going up and up and up like Lacazette’s did, would end up at Arsenal at the peak of his price.

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Lemar is going to cost a lot of money, we get that, and he may even cost as much as we were going to pay last summer. But take Lacazette as an example – it’s not over.

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