With The Sun reporting Arsenal could be about to land Alexandre Lacazette for £34 million, the Gunners punters in the Transfer Tavern have had to check what they’re drinking – Arsene Wenger signing a known striker? Surely not!
Nevertheless, it looks as though it could be happening at last this Summer for the men at the Emirates who seem to be leading the race for a well sought-after forward.
acazette has been the main man for Lyon for a few seasons now but must be growing weary of the seemingly invincible PSG team that have a stranglehold on Ligue 1 and this could be what triggers a potential move to north London.
So what do we know about the Frenchman? We’ve arguably been robbed of seeing him at EURO 2016 with France by Didier Deschamps but perhaps this indicates he’s not as brilliant as first glances suggest.
It’s an intriguing train of thought that’s been running round our landlord’s mind and this has led to him to bring you two pros and two cons to Arsenal signing the Les Gones man…
Pro 1: The Supporting Cast
Something that cannot be ignored is that he clearly has an eye for goal. Lacazette scored 23 goals in 44 games in all competitions last season working out as a goal just under every two games – the benchmark for a top striker.
Put him in a Gunners side with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Santi Cazorla laying on chances and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a title winning attack which is what the Gunners want.
Con 1: Only played in Ligue 1
The inevitable drawback of most players is that when moving from a different country there’s a risk that the new man can take time to settle in.
The 25-year old only knows the French top flight and this with all due respect doesn’t compare with the Premier League.
He could find it hard then to score goals from the off and for a fee of £34 million this could prove to be an issue threatening to not go away.
Pro 2: Gives Giroud competition
It’s not just Arsenal fans but pretty much everyone that’s seen Olivier Giroud play up top that have been crying out for someone to give him a run for his money and up top and his countryman should be able to do this.
Even if he does take a while to adapt – and that’s no certainty – he’s finally going to be the one to make Giroud stand up and perform more consistently – something that’s plagued Arsenal’s title runs for years.
Con: 2 Aerial Ability
At 5ft 7in Lacazette is on the small side. He may have been able to get away with this in Ligue 1 but in the more physical Premier League he could be overawed.
You can bet he’s had that criticism thrown at him all his life that he’s too small and has so far managed fine but what’s also a certainty is that Premier League defenders will try and bully him and there’ll be a question mark over him until we see how he deals with that should he join Arsenal.
