Arsenal: Let’s forget about Thomas Lemar once and for all

Arsenal were all in to get Thomas Lemar in the summer, but they didn’t. Getting him now would solve nothing, so let’s forget about it already.

There was a time when I thought Thomas Lemar would solve all of Arsenal’s problems. He would bounce Alexis Sanchez out of town, he would be a 10 goal, 10 assist guy, he would be the next decade-long superstar to truly capture the hearts and minds of this fanbase.

But that was last summer. A lot has happened since last summer, and a lot more is still going to happen. To confine your wildest fancies to Thomas Lemar is to sell the capabilities of this club criminally short.

Here’s what would have happened if we would have signed Lemar last summer – he’d have had some wonderful matches and helped us forget Alexis. He’d have hit a rough patch, struggled to keep hold of the ball, and lose confidence, then he would recover and we’d be happy for it.

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Instead, what happened was that Henrikh Mkhitaryan had some wonderful matches and helped us forget Alexis. He had a few rough matches, but overall, he was a huge influence in helping us get over the Chilean and move on with life.

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So the best thing we can possibly do is accept Mkhtiryan for what he is and move on with life. I say that because Lemar is what Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil are – he is a creative midfielder that plays out wide. That does not make him a winger, like we need. That does not make him worth the £90m or so that he will still cost.

What we need is so far from Lemar that I am literally writing an article at this very moment telling everyone to just move on. The club moved on and we are doing just fine because of it. What would we get out of signing Lemar that we don’t already have? I’d prefer Nabil Fekir. We don’t need him either, but at least he has some capabilities we don’t already have.

As it stands, the Gunners are in better shape than if they would have swapped Alexis for Lemar, because Mkhitaryan has his own dynamic duo already with the club in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. And if, for whatever reason, we do want another creative midfielder that can play out wide, then we should get Fekir to pair with Alexandre Lacazette.

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Nowhere in the summer plans should we be going after a player that was so last summer. The club is past that, and you should be to. Amen. Goodbye.