Did Arsenal try to sell Lacazette to balance the books?

Obviously during the international break we expect some very strange stories and Arsenal transfer rumours to fill in the gaps in the media sports pages, but this morning’s revelation that Arsenal were considering Alexandre Lacazette during the transfer window has a ring to truth about it.

Football.London have reported that the Russian football agent Dmitry Cheltsov told the Russian Sports Business Gazeta that he had tried to offload Lacazette to Zenit St Petersburg in the summer for a cut-price fee. He was quoted as saying: “I offered Alexandre Lacazette to Zenit. Their sporting director Javier Ribalta said to me: ‘Are you crazy? His release clause is €68m.’

“I told him you can negotiate with Arsenal. I am sure they will be ready to accept something between €50m and €55m. His salary would be €7-8m after tax.”

Considering that Lacazette scored 19 goals for Arsenal in the last campaign it seems strange that the Gunners would be willing to let him leave, but the fact is that the Frenchman rarely played a full 90 minutes and it is possible that the Board was aware that he has an underlying medical problem that they were trying to manage. Remember that has been going on even while Wenger was manager.

Another possibility is that Emery had worked out that he needed a left-winger more than he needed two top Number Nines, and was willing to sacrifice Lacazette to help cover the cost of Pepe. That money was then recouped by the sale of Iwobi instead.

Why do you think Arsenal would have tried to sell him (if it’s true of course)?

13 Comments

  1. Yeah, probably because of Lacazette’s allegedly medical problems and his low goal tally. I reckon Lacazette to be more of a team player than Aubameyang, but we can’t have a main striker that cannot play for ninety minutes in a match and the one that often gets injured

    If the club’s medical staffs found serious issue in Lacazette’s health, Arsenal had better sell him while he is still highly sellable and before his injuries worsen as he gets older

    Barcelona are facing similar problems with Dembele and we can’t have our main players skip too many games like Dembele

  2. I thought the rumours of a sale during the summer were a bit odd, there was talk of him going to Spain but I couldn’t see us letting him go. He was our fans player of the season, he’s in-sync with our other talisman, he modeled the new shirt, it was all a bit strange. This one here is even stranger, Russia, sure why would he even want to go there, Russians don’t want to be there. I reckon he was just thinking this himself and he probably likes the idea of Lacazette playing for St P.

    We would have to get a Mon game after this break. They need cut out these international breaks and just extend the summer camps or something, like a pre-season because friendy’s are meaningless but before the competition starts would give them more meaning. The players in these friendly’s might not be playing well before the end of season and some will be injured, surely before the competition kicks off is when they should be looking at them all playing together.

  3. Arsenal didn’t try to sell Lacazette, it was his agent just punting him around for his own ends or to get Lacazette a rise.
    He hasn’t got any medical problems ffs, where does this stuff come from?

  4. I know it’s the interlul but this story has got to be one of the most ridiculous and we are giving oxygen to it….smh.

  5. Rubbish. Considering that he was the preferred CF by Emery to Auba.
    You know agents hawk players around.

  6. No.
    I wish we could balance the books by selling Xhaka, Mustafi, Ozil

    We’ve done poorly in the market in terms of selling
    Iwobi,Koscielny, Bielik and Ostinato went for a total of approximately £40 million. That’s fine

    But we released Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla and Welbeck on free transfers.

    In transfers (according to trsnsfermarket) we are over £88 million in the red

    Emery has spent approx over £200 million I think
    Pepe £72 mil
    Saliba £27 mil
    Tierney £24 mil
    Luiz £8 mil
    Martinelli £6 mil
    Torreira £26 mil
    Leno £22 mil
    Sokratis £14 mil
    Guendouzi £7 mil

  7. laca is the best technical player we have at arsenal,he is a perfect model of a classy striker. He is clinical,Can play with his back to goal,can playmake can dribble,just name anything and lacazette does it perfectly. if arsenal should sell him we better start looking for 100million plus to sign a replacement that is even hard to come by.aubameyang might even contemplate leaving the club

  8. touch not my Laca.anyway Xhaka seems to know how to lick Emery’s boot better,cos I can’t get d reason he has a sure place in this team.

  9. Considering age I would keep Laca over Auba but that is only if you have to sell one. When fit I think Laca can do more for the team than Auba.

    I know the above might not be a popular view on here and I recognize that Auba knows how to score goals but so does Laca and he is more of a fighter who can give defenders a harder time in the box and he gets more involved in play outside of the box IMO.

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