Arsenal: Were the signs there all along with Alexandre Lacazette?

A clearing of the house is coming at Arsenal, and Alexandre Lacazette looks like he’s among those wanting to leave. Should we have seen this coming?

Arsenal fans are preparing for the departure of a lot of the players that were meant to take them to the next level—back to the top. Or at least competing for the top. Since that hasn’t worked out, these players feel there are better places to be, and have lost faith in the club.

The two headliners in that group of players are what some refer to as the chuckle brothers, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Aubameyang isn’t surprising. When he wanted to leave Borussia Dortmund, he pitched a fit, stopped caring, and din’t even try to hide it. So we bought him. As long as we kept him entertained, he wouldn’t do the same to us. But we didn’t keep him entertained, and so he wants out.

Lacazette though? That one hurts a bit more. Then again, it’s not exactly out of the blue, is it? All the signs were there and we just ignored it.

There’s a such thing as blissful ignorance, and that’s what was likely the case here. We got the striker we’ve wanted after years of complaining way too much about Olivier Giroud. We were always going to see the bright side with him, given his situation.

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But even early on in his time at the club, he had confidence problems. He had sulking problems. At the time we brushed it off as being something that he’d get over in time. Giroud had confidence problems as well.

With confidence being such a problem, maybe pairing him with Aubameyang was his ultimate undoing. Aubameyang is never short on confidence, and while he helped Lacazette out of the dumps once, their relationship may have played a key role in his ultimate disenchantment with this club.

The problems didn’t stop there with Lacazette, though. There were rumors of an untimely exit very early in his time at the club, after just a year. Rumors are just rumors, but even the most outlandish are based on something.

We’ve also always had to make excuses for him. “He’s been hurt.” “He’s been replaced.” “He doesn’t need to score goals, he does so much else.” But has the case been all along that he just didn’t fit well with the club, or that the club wasn’t right for him?

I hope that the rumors are still just rumors, and that he doesn’t want to leave. I never like when players want to leave. But if they’re true and he’s had enough, it wouldn’t exactly be surprising.