Arsenal: Unai Emery better have a plan with Alexandre Lacazette
By Josh Sippie
Unai Emery is still feeling his way around his new digs at Arsenal, but he if there is one thing he better have a plan with, it’s Alexandre Lacazette.
Arsenal are in a state of development, and as long as that is the case, it’s pretty important to be patient and let Unai Emery sort himself out in his own time. I know that we all “know” this by now, but a nice reminder every so often never hurt anyone. Mostly because we don’t want to jump the gun on anything.
That said, if there is one thing we should be concerned about, even just three matches into the season, it’s the treatment of Alexandre Lacazette.
Yes, Emery deserves patience and we have to trust in what he is trying to do, but there still has to be some semblance of a plan when it comes to one of our best players. Why? Because the exit rumors are already swirling with the window on the continent set to close.
Normally, we’d just look past this as a prototypical hogwash, the likes of which we are painfully used to from years of the like. But for Lacazette, there is a degree of belief attached simply because of the state that the whole Lacazette situation is in.
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I’m not saying that these rumors are tied to anything than the flimsy emotions of a Gooner, and a rumor monger preying on just that, but it does raise a good point. If there isn’t a plan with Lacazette, we will lose him, rumors or no rumors.
There are times when it’s okay to go about using a superstar like Lacazette in the ways that Emery is doing it, but those times are simply when it’s been established ahead of time that this was going to be the plan of action.
That’s all I’m hoping for here – that before Emery went about benching Lacazette for no reason and not giving him a proper chance to exert, he made it clear to him what the plan was. You can mess around with other guys, but when you are a self-ascribed attacking team that is intent on scoring a lot of goals, you need guys like Lacazette to be on board for whatever is going on.
All this to say that whatever Emery is doing is fine. I just hope he isn’t winging this whole Lacazette thing.