Arsenal: Alexis, Mesut Ozil replacements conveniently ready-made

Arsenal may be stressed over who can possibly replace Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil on a questionable budget, but they needn’t be. It’s right there.

Arsene Wenger spoke up awhile back about how tough it will be for Arsenal to replace Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, particularly if they are let go for free, because with no capital coming the other way, then you have to rely on the stingiest club in the known world to fork it up.

It’s not an inspiring predicament. However, we have also been told by Wenger that money is not the issue if he identifies the right player. So, assuming that this is true, then the replacements for our two miserable superstars are as plain as day – that is, assuming we can qualify for the Champions League.

Ozil and Alexis typically suit up behind Alexandre Lacazette, or at least, that’s where they should be. There’s never a guarantee when Wenger is involved. Therefore, it only stands to reason that we’d need to two players with similar positioning to replace them.

Nabil Fekir and Thomas Lemar. That’s all I need to say. Both are young. Both are French. Both are creative and both will be more motivated than our current two, because any positive number is bigger than zero.

But how do we know if they are the “right” player, so that price doesn’t matter? Well, for Lemar, that’s easy. We already tried to buy him. Not only that, but Wenger admitted that we could be back in the market for him when the window opens again.

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The only snag is if they needed that Alexis money to afford him. But again, I’ll cite Wenger’s “money doesn’t matter if the player is right,” which I believe he said even prior to Lacazette.

Speaking of Lacazette, the second replacement, Nabil Fekir, is also ready-made because, we we have talked about here at Pain in the Arsenal, his own father said that it could only be the Gunners if his son were to leave Lyon, which he has said he would like to.

Put the pieces together and you will discover, then, that it’s up to Wenger to follow through or muff this up. He won’t be as expensive as a top tier option, probably around Lacazette’s price, if not a bit cheaper (just a wee bit) so in the end, you can replace Ozil and Alexis for about £130m.

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Again, that price is purely hypothetical. If Lemar is going to cost £90m all by himself, I factored in an extra £40m for Fekir. It’s a lot of money, but it’s what teams are paying to improve these days. So that’s the dilemma.

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