Arsenal facing surprise January Lacazette transfer interest

Arsenal have a host of players they still need to move on in the coming transfer windows and while January is always a difficult period of the season to both sign players and sell, every now and then a surprise comes up.

Looking at the list of upcoming transfer sales, there are around seven or so members of the squad who are either due to leave in the summer when they’re deals are up or are among those considered expendable.

Alexandre Lacazette is on that list, albeit as someone who is most likely just to see out his contract at Arsenal for the remainder of the season.

Perennially linked with a move to Italy, where Inter are often mooted as a destination, or back to France where he started his career, there was no success in moving him on in the previous window. The striker situation still needs tending to.

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Arsenal facing surprise January transfer interest in Alexandre Lacazette from Saudi-led Newcastle United as Magpies eye huge reinforcements

Efforts were made with a list of replacements including Tammy Abraham and Lautaro Martinez. Failure to move Lacazette and/or Eddie Nketiah on nipped those moves in the bud, with the former joining Roma and the latter primed to sign a new deal at Inter.

But there is always January, right?

As per The Northern Echo, Newcastle are interested in signing the Frenchman with the club’s new Saudi-led owners keen on bolstering the squad in the winter window. This is ideally with an eye on not getting relegated, which would be somewhat unfortunate in the wake of the successful completion of their £305m buyout of Mike Ashley.

Boasting an bottomless transfer kitty, the Magpies can still spend in the region of £200m in January and remain within the limits of the Financial Fair Play. Despite that inviting proposition, Amanda Staveley has tempered expectations by insisting the club will take matters slowly; no Kylian Mbappe’s and Erling Haaland’s just yet.

The focus for the short-term will be on acquiring Premier League experienced talent – James Tarkowski and Jesse Lingard have also been mnetioned – with the aim of steadying the ship and merely avoiding relegation this term. For that reason, Lacazette does fit the bill for them.

One issue is that while some monetary gain (both in fee and wages off the bill) for someone due to leave in six months would be hugely welcome, can Arsenal afford, in the non financial sense, to let Lacazette go?

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