Arsenal must sell Alexandre Lacazette this summer

Alexandre Lacazette’s performance versus Slavia Prague is a case study of why it makes absolutely zero sense for Arsenal to sign him to a new contract this summer. At 29 years old, he’s in the prime of his career and he’s not nearly good enough. That isn’t going to change as he gets older.

The reality is that Lacazette’s production will only decline in the years to come. The scary part about that is he’s not even productive enough now.

Considering the fact that Arsenal are already committed to paying Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Willian (neither of whom have covered themselves in glory this season) extravagant wages well into their mid 30’s, the idea of sinking even more money into a depreciating asset like Alexandre Lacazette isn’t just bad; it’s insane.

It’s wonderful that Laca works hard for the team and is willing sacrifice his body to hold the ball up. It’s great that he’s popular in the dressing room and helps with the young players. Those are all compelling reasons to keep him on as a coach. At the end of the day, however, Lacazette is a striker. His job is to score goals…and he doesn’t score nearly enough of them. He never has and he never will.

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Arsenal must sell Alexandre Lacazette in the summer transfer window

In fairness to the Frenchman, it’s natural for a club to want more goals from its center forward. Unless Robert Lewandowski or a young Luis Suarez is up front potting 30 per season, fans will inevitably want more to see the ball ripple the back of the net more from whoever leads the line.  So, it’s one thing for Lacazette to not score as many goals as fans might want him to score in a perfect world. It’s another thing entirely that Lacazette doesn’t score the goals he’s supposed to score.

Throughout his Arsenal career, even in the middle of the one ‘hot streak’ he has every season (where he scores seven of his 15 goals in six weeks), Lacazette has lacked a clinical edge in the most critical moments. He lacked it twice against Slavia Prague. He lacked it earlier this season when he was in one-on-one with Alisson, and on countless other occasions in years past.

The list of Laca’s greatest (or rather worst) misses is at least as long as the highlight reel of his best goals. The problem is that at nearly 200,000 quid per week, Lacazette is paid to provide a lot more greatest hits than near misses.