Former Gunner says Arsenal have shot themselves in the foot over Lacazette

Kevin Campbell says Arsenal has shot themselves in the foot again as Alexandre Lacazette nears ending his time at the club as a free agent.

The Frenchman has entered the last year of his current deal and it seems he will not be offered a new one.

The Gunners are in a similar situation they were in at the start of last season when they had to sort out the future of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with the Gabon captain proving to be a key player in the previous campaign.

Arsenal eventually rewarded Aubameyang with a new contract.

But they will be more careful with Lacazette considering that Auba’s form dropped after he signed the deal and Campbell thinks it might be best for them to allow Lacazette to leave on a free transfer at the end of the season.

He admits that allowing him to stay until now is shooting themselves in the foot and they always do that.

However, he would support them if they decide not to give him a new contract despite his fine return last season.

He told Football Insider: “Arsenal have shot themselves in the foot so many times over player contracts.

“I think this is a unique situation with Lacazette though. If you are not sure about which striker to bring in, you have just got to roll the dice with Lacazette’s contract. They have done it in the past with Aubameyang and it worked out.

“If they are not going to agree on a new deal, it is obviously something that will be addressed next summer.

“Listen, maybe they could get money for him but if he stays he will be integral to how we play next season. He did well all things considered last season.

“I have no problem with him staying and leaving on a free next summer. The Covid situation has made things difficult.”

Tags Alexandre Lacazette Kevin Campbell

26 Comments

  1. We need to offer him 2 year contract with 1 year extension. He is integral to the team at the moment . We need to spend at least 45 million to replace him . Tammy Ebraham will cost 35 millions and I fell Laca is better than him.

  2. Ot: Ben white is happening!

    David Ornstein 🚨 Arsenal have struck an agreement in principle to sign England centre-back Ben White from Brighton. Deal for 23yo subject to medical & will take some time to be completed. #BHAFC always wanted guaranteed £50m
    @TheAthleticUK
    1st reported
    @TomBarclay_
    #AFC

      1. 03 Gooner and Sue, let’s hope he turns out to be worth the £50 million transfer fee, without even considering the wages.

  3. I still have mixed feelings, considering the expected investment…certainly nothing personal against the player, as I hope that he performs admirably and becomes a long-term stud defender…that said, nothing I’ve seen so far would suggest this will come to pass, but that doesn’t mean it won’t…my real trepidation over this deal concerns our ability to properly address our more immediate “needs”, from a financial standpoint, and the potential ramifications this deal could have on our other defensive assets, who have seemingly become an afterthought as a result of our preoccupation with this obviously overpriced, unfinished prospect…fingers-crossed that my concerns will be unfounded on both counts

  4. as for Laca, sell, sell, sell…we simply can’t continue with this asset mismanagement narrative hanging over our heads…things will never truly change until we fundamental change the way in which we conduct business from tip to tail

    1. We would of sold him last year if it wasn’t for the pandemic. We lost out massively because we had a lot of older players we were looking to move on Laca, Kola, Ozil, Sokratis, Mustafi, Mhki etc. Without the pandemic we’d of cleared our wage budget and had substantial cash to invest especially adding Torreira, Guendouzi and others to that outgoing list. Repeat this often but people keeping pretending it didn’t happen for some reason. We’d of had at least 200 mil to spend last summer otherwise and would still be cashing in on the likes of AMN/Nketiah/Bellerin this year anyway. We were the biggest loser in the transfer market last summer because of the pandemic, maybe Lyon was worse long-term but still less actual money lost that window. Other foreign and domestic clubs are in more trouble long term with their wage budgets and players lost value but we were set for the largest overhaul of any large club. Bad luck and an unbalance squad prior to Arteta being appointed.

      1. Another set of excuses
        Do you expect to just offload 25man squad because the coach wants to turn us to money bag city
        We are not the biggest losers we didn’t even come close to losing what real Madrid have lost yet they still remain competitive
        Don’t allow your bias mind lead you to believe we are the most hit club by the pandemic

    2. With so much riding on the outcome of this season’s league standing, it’ll be wise to keep Laca and try to get the best out of him. We’ve seen proof of new signings, excluding Martinelli, needing time to adapt to our game play to be productive. If we manage to squeeze ourselves into UCL qualification for the next season with Laca in the squad, may be we can tempt him to extend his stay with us for a couple of seasons. A known devil than an unknown angel.

  5. Wenger shot us in the foot a few times like with having both Aubameyang and Lacazette together and giving Ozil a massive salary

    But that’s history now.

    We have a promising future to look forward to with Saka, Martinelli, Smith-Rowe, Tierney, Holding, Gabriel, Tavares and looks like Ben White will join us too

    So try and be positive and more patient guys and gals ❤👍☺

    1. The 3 players you mentioned perform under Arsene. Is MA the right manager with skill to manage & coach players? Is MA the right manager with tactics? The answer is yet to be proven.

      In life, looser blame others but not themselves.

      1. @Kenny.
        Sorry but stop it.
        We weren’t all born yesterday, we witnessed one player that performed out of that lot, that was AUBA.

        The other 2 were mediocre / average all throughout.

        If they performed well under wenger then why did we drop outside of the Top 4 in Wengers last 2 seasons? And if they performed under wenger then why did wenger get sacked with all of them performing well?

        Stop trying to rewrite history.
        😊

        1. I wonder how you fare in your education. Do you know what is comparison?

          6th in 2018/2019
          8th in 2019/2020 &
          8th in 2020/2021

          Is 6th better than 8th?
          The 3 therefore perform better under Arsene than under MA.

          Arsene get sack because his KPI is top 4 and qualify for Champion league and the fans like you want him to go. Are you born in 2018?

          I don’t know the KPI fro MA, may be top 8.

          You have to stop smear Arsene, Arsene had did a lot for Arsenal. Do you know how to appreciate?

          1. I think you missed Unai Emery, under whom Arsenal finished 5th in 2018/19?
            Arsenal finished 6th under Arsene Wenger in 2017/18.

  6. I think it will be difficult to replace him now, we aren’t getting over £20m for him IF we get a club to buy but seems no one is interested in buying him or rather clubs are waiting for his contract to end before approaching. Hopefully we can convince him to sign extra 1yr or 2. In 2yrs , Auba, Laccazet and Willian should be out of the club, but next summer we should be going in for a marquee striker

  7. I think Arteta struggles with senior players because of his age and inexperience. The young players at City always rave about how he helped them.
    The recruitment this time around is more to suite his strengths it looks like. Who knows this might just be the strategy that turns this club around or gets him kicked out. One more advantage is that most of these players have a high celling and with or without Arteta the club might end up making a good money.

  8. Yes he did well like Campbell say. But the problem is that no more European football. Costly underachieving stars like Willian on 200k/week and in some ways like Aubameyang on 250k. With all this money given away Tottenham pays Allí, hojbjerg, sissolo, bergwijn… So it is no surprise we can’t afford some more money even if signing Lacazette who always gave his best and helped youngsters would make way more sense than having semi-retired Willian here. But i think it is impossible to move Willian. He wanted to stay in London and has more money than any other club would want to spend on that guy. So i may be wrong but i can’t see him leaving unless we buy him out like ozil.

    1. 👍 Lacazette’s contributions to Arsenal FC are under valued by some. How much would he cost to replace?

      1. So true. During Laca’s time here with us, his consistent work-rate and fighting spirit haven’t been matched by one player in the squad, except Tierney.

    2. i better have laca in the team even until he attains 38 other than some mediocre players i see in the team. Who doesn’t see laca’s work rate and fighting spirit. His overall contribution in terms of work rate is unmatched to anyone else currently in the team. Sometimes i see laca is underated by some ignorant fans. Whoever says we sell laca should shake his head thoroughly.

  9. Why are the JA admins so obsessed with what Kevin Campbell thinks? He is simply another Gooner who once played for us and is not what I would call, even remotely, a legend!

    His many views, constantly aired on this site show him to be very far from a realist and his judgements are mostly unsound IMHO.

    Recommending that YET ANOTHER player leaves on a free is close to idiocy and as far from an intelligent view as it is possible to be.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors