Arsenal: Nabil Fekir offers intriguing double dip

Nabil Fekir’s father has stated that if he leaves Lyon, it will be for Arsenal. The attacking midfielder offers an intriguing double dip alongside Alexandre Lacazette.

When Arsenal signed Alexandre Lacazette for a reported £47 million in the summer, it signalled a return, for Arsene Wenger, to his root behaviour in the transfer market: Shop where he knows.

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Early in his North London tenure, Wenger would regularly return to French football, whether it be players from French clubs or French nationals that had moved on but initially made their name in France. From Patrick Vieira to Thierry Henry; from Robert Pires to Sylvain Wiltord. Wenger shopped where he knew for players that he knew.

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Lacazette is a signing in very much the same mould. Although Wenger has not managed in France in over two decades, he still has a detailed knowledge of French football and the talents that are sprouting out of it. There is a reason he pushed so hard to sign Kylian Mbappe and Thomas Lemar.

It is in this context that rumours linking Wenger with a move for Nabil Fekir are resurfacing. The Lyon midfielder has long been mentioned as a future Arsenal player. Much of that was fuelled by his father, who, in 2015, said this:

"“Nabil would like to finish 1st or 2nd and play Champions League football with Lyon. If he leaves, it will be for Arsenal. It’s the only club that can enable him to progress, with Arsene Wenger. He will not go to Manchester City to sit on the bench.”"

But a cruciate ligament two years ago shoved Fekir into the dark, and the profile that he was beginning to build for himself quickly diminished. This season, though, he has been in remarkable form, firmly putting his name front and centre of the European transfer map.

In 11 Ligue 1 games this season, Fekir has scored 11 goals and assisted four. That is an astonishing return. And he has done so with Lacazette no longer at the club. For Arsenal, that is where the real intrigue enters.

With Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez likely to leave at the end of the season, there is a need to replenish the supplies in the attacking midfield roles. Fekir, with a prior relationship and understanding with Lacazette, could be the perfect replacement.

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It would be a double-dip for Wenger into a market that he understands. It would be a double-dip into a team that has enjoyed attacking success because of the shared potency of Lacazette and Fekir. The latter is an extremely intriguing and exciting option that should most certainly be explored.