Arsenal: Selling Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette necessary

Arsenal have a decision to make on the futures of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. It is necessary that they sell at least one this summer.

In Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Arsenal have boasted two of the very best centre-forwards in the Premier League. Only Mohamed Salah has scored more goals than Aubameyang since he arrived in the league in January 2018, while Lacazette was named the Gunners’ Player of the Season last year and has been heralded for his all-around play in leading the line.

As others have fallen away, left on the cheap, or repeatedly suffered injury after injury, Arsenal have increasingly had to lean on the duo. And on almost every occasion, they delivered. Both are excellent. And yet, despite all of this, for the progress of the team, it is necessary that least one is sold this summer.

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Aubameyang is the more obvious candidate. He will be 31 in June and his contract expires at the end of next season. Either Arsenal tie him down to an expensive deal that sees him stay well into his thirties, they let him leave for nothing in a year, or they accept the position they are in and cash in while they still can. None of those outcomes are ideal, but that is the situation that club engineered for itself last summer.

Then there is Lacazette. He will turn 29 at the end of this month. He has two years remaining on his contract and will be in almost exactly the same situation that Aubameyang is in now next summer, only he will be one year younger. Again, either Arsenal must tie him down to a new contract, which would be expensive but could end by his early-thirties, thus not carrying quite the same risk as a new deal for Aubameyang, face the prospect of losing him for free or on the cheap in the coming windows, or sell him now for the maximum possible price.

In reality, Arsenal cannot afford the wages of both. They also cannot afford to lose both on a free. Such is the dependence on them, and not just for goals but in their all-around play, their impact on the entire team, and their leadership and character in the dressing room, they will need to be replaced, and finding elite-level goalscorers is not easy or cheap.

And so, the club is left in a conundrum. They cannot afford to lose both, at least not for less than their maximum value; they cannot afford to keep both. Where do you go from here?

Somehow, Mikel Arteta and co. must retool the attack, release the dependence on Lacazette and Aubameyang, and look to build what will be his long-term project. Realistically, neither Lacazette or Aubameyang will play a major part in that. And yet, the project is not ready for them to move on. The club is in a bind.

Nevertheless, it would be more pressing and concerning if Arsenal kept both, on new deals or not. Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Martinelli are talented and raring for more opportunities and money raised in a sale would allow the club to invest in a replacement. Thus, they engineer the succession process slowly, doing so over two seasons, not in one fell swoop.

What would be catastrophic is if Arsenal either bankrupt their future by signing them to long-term, high-end deals that they cannot afford to pay and Lacazette and Aubameyang cannot deliver upon or they allow both to leave on a free and are stuck trying to replace them with no money. Because of that, selling at least one is necessary.