Arsenal: The unfortuntate truth about Nabil Fekir transfer

Arsenal have reportedly pegged Nabil Fekir as the perfect replacement for Alexis Sanchez. But January? That’s a stretch.

Arsenal’s limbo-like situation with Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil is enough to make one’s head spin, as there doesn’t seem to be any way to tight-rope out of this without some sort of dent to the club’s status.

For starters, most solutions appear to be too expensive and not enough bang for the buck. The international profiles of the two superstars has lifted them to levels that only £100m signings would satisfy, and most signings that are going to cost that much aren’t worth that much.

Nor would Arsene Wenger ever spend that much money on a single man, let alone two of them. Therefore, it is rather difficult to improve on the two, just because of how highly they are thought of.

But the closest we can get is Nabil Fekir. Supposedly, the Frenchman can be acquired for about £60m, which is a reasonable fee, especially combined with the expected £30m return from Alexis. Totally a doable situation.

The concern people have had is that he won’t come in January because he will be cup-tied to Lyon and because he figures to be pushing Lyon down the stretch. He is, after all, their best player right now.

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For starters, being cup-tied is 100% not a concern, because there is no need to use Fekir in the Europa League. Or at least, ideally there wouldn’t be. We have plenty of players that can cover for that. Which was one of the main concerns with the move’s plausibility in the first place.

The second biggest concern is if Lyon would even let him go if they are competing for honors in France. This is a tougher one to diagnose. Lyon have not allowed any such deals in the past, and a lot of that comes down to their relevance in the Ligue 1 title race.

Which is why the unfortunate truth of the situation is that Fekir coming in January looks to be nothing more than a pipe dream. Lyon would never allow their best player to leave midway through a season that they are still in the title race for (at least they are as of right now). If that title race changes, maybe there’s a bit of hope, but so long as they have something to play for, forget about it.

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The summer is a different story. I’d be surprised if Arsenal didn’t land Fekir in the summer, assuming that no other moves are made before then.

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