Arsenal: If Timo Werner is meant to replace Alexandre Lacazette, do it

Arsenal are being heavily linked to RB Leipzig front man Timo Werner, but there is only one possible scenario where that actually makes sense.

Arsenal’s transfer prospectus has gotten a hell of a lot more positive since a superb January window where they accomplished more than anyone could have imagined. So now, naturally, everyone wants to know what will happen in the summer. And, as it is February, and therefore five months before the summer window opens, what better time than now to start speculating?

To me, the Gunners need three positions addressed – winger, proper defensive midfielder, centerback. So, naturally, the first link that we are heavily tied to is Timo Werner, the speed merchant German striker currently with RB Leipzig.

There’s not much to not like about Werner, he is ridiculously high-paced, scores a good deal of goals and he’s only 22. He has a bit of Sven Mislintat influence on him, coming from the Bundesliga, but in terms of future stars, he ranks up there among the best.

What I’m saying is, the Gunners would do quite well to add him to their ranks. The problem is that there is only one possible situation where it would actually make sense to land him. Well, I guess two, if you consider a two-striker system, but clearly Arsene Wenger doesn’t.

So the only other possibility is that Alexandre Lacazette would be out the door. Because, for as young as Werner is, he is not going to settle for third choice. Nor will Lacazette, who can barely stomach second choice, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang sure as hell isn’t going anywhere.

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Which leaves it pretty cut and dry. If we want to add a third top-tier striker, we could have to switch to a two striker system. Which isn’t going to happen, so he would have to become a second-choice, which would force corresponding exits.

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You can see what’s happening here. Arsene Wenger always had a bias towards French players and Ligue 1, so he liked Lacazette, but if he really has been completely stripped of transfer duties, then it’s obvious. Because all of a sudden we are linked to almost entirely Bundesliga players, the likes of which Mislintat would know a great deal about.

We’d be trading France for Germany, which, honestly, isn’t the worst switch off.

Time to say something really unpopular – if getting rid of Lacazette would mean we could land Werner, then I’m all for it. Just like I accepted that if losing Olivier Giroud meant getting Aubameyang, I’d be okay with it. Emotionally, it’s a tough swallow, but tactically? I’d take Werner all day.

For starters, he has the pace that stands up to Premier League opposition, which Lacazette doesn’t have. He has more room to grow behind Aubameyang as opposed to being just two years younger than the Gabonese striker, as Lacazette is, and undoubtedly fashioning himself as an equal.

Werner has 16 goals and three assists across all competitions for a suddenly inconsistent RB Leipzig side, which puts his contributions, when factor in about 2100 minutes played, at every 110 minutes. That’s a superb line for a 22 year old at a Champions League caliber club.

It woulds suck to see Lacazette go so early, but it’s a cutthroat world. I wish we would have got Lacazette two years earlier, when he was first linked, because by now we’d have a better idea of how well he was going to work. But we didn’t. And I’d hate to see Werner erupt at some other team, as he is guaranteed to do, if the only thing that prevents us from getting him is the presence of Lacazette.

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It feels heartless to say these things. I do wish only good things from Lacazette at Arsenal and I hope he can reclaim his world-beater status, but Werner or Lacazette? Sorry, I take the former.

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