Arsenal: Clearly Atletico Madrid don’t want Alexandre Lacazette that much

This isn’t the first time Atletico Madrid have wanted to pry Alexandre Lacazette away from Arsenal. This time They’re bringing even less to the table.

Mikel Arteta looks determined to keep everyone at Arsenal. Every single player. For some, like Granit Xhaka, I’m thankful. For others, like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, I’m skeptical. And then there is Alexandre Lacazette, who sits somewhere in between.

Lacazette is an interesting specimen because you really have to appreciate what he does for the club outside of scoring goals. But for a starting striker, that’s hard to do. It’s not like he’s as consistent as Roberto Firmino, who plays a similar role.

As such, the idea of selling Lacazette is a mixed bag. It’s really not appealing. At all. But it’s not not appealing either. The big question is getting the right value back on him. Because if you sell based on goal value alone, you’ll never approach what he’s actually worth.

But there will always be interested clubs, and Atletico Madrid have been interested the longest. Even before Arsenal signed Lacazette, the Spanish side were in the hunt to land the French striker.

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According to recent reports, they are returning to the bartering table, trying to secure Lacazette’s presence form the Gunners. But clearly they don’t want him that much, because the reports indicate that the main bargaining piece they’ve brought to the table is Thomas Lemar.

I can not be any clearer about this—we do not want Thomas Lemar. Lemar completely lost all relevance when he left Monaco. He has yet to contribute to a single goal in La Liga and last year, he contributed to only as many as Sead Kolasinac did for us. That’s not a sparkling resume, and his continued distance from the spotlight makes me believe more than ever that Lemar was a product of the Monaco system. Even still, he only had one really good year. The fact that he’s never been able to get anywhere near that return is a massive red flag.

At least with Lacazette, we know what were getting. And what we’re getting is a former player of the season. With Lemar, we’re getting a big ol’ question mark.

If he can’t succeed at the top of La Liga, he’s not going to help us get to the top of the Premier League. And he’s certainly not of a value to swing a Lacazette deal. Not even close.