Ray Parlour has claimed that recent reports have him believing that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will extend his deal, which will lead to Alexandre Lacazette leaving to raise funds for a goalscoring midfielder.
The two forwards have both been linked with the exit door this summer, but fresh contract talks are believed to be on the cards for the Gabon international, which could well see Lacazette moved on the the coming window.
Some reports have claimed that both goalscorers could well be moved on, but Parlour doesn’t believe that Arsenal would let both leave at the same time.
“Well I don’t think they’ll lose both,” Parlour told talkSPORT.
“It’s a situation where I don’t think you can afford to lose both.
“At the moment it’s very positive, the talk from the club itself looks like Aubameyang could be signing a new contract which would be brilliant news for Arsenal, and that could mean Lacazette could be on his way.
“There’s been lots of talk about him, Juventus has been mentioned for Lacazette with a player coming to Arsenal, I don’t know what sort of player is going to come to Arsenal that way.
“But I think Aubameyang is so important, he’s the one who scores you the goals.
“If you took him out of the Arsenal team now, who scores the goals?”
The former midfielder goes onto claim that the money raised from the sale will have to be invested in midfield, with not enough goals coming from our current options.
“I mentioned it last week, there’s no goals from midfield, that’s the big problem Arsenal have,” he added.
“[Bukayo] Saka scored a really good goal against Wolves, he was playing in the right position on that right-hand side, but that’s where they’ve really got to address in this transfer window.
“They lost Ramsey to Juventus who is probably the only player who can score goals from midfield and they didn’t really replace him with anyone.
“[Lucas] Torreira won’t score you goals, [Matteo] Guendouzi won’t score you goals, [Granit] Xhaka, [Dani] Ceballos doesn’t score you enough goals, [Mesut] Ozil isn’t even in the team.
“So that’s where they’ve really got to look at in the summer.
“As much as they really need a good centre-half as well, I think an attacking midfielder.
“But they’re hard to find and they cost a lot of money, the good ones.
“Whether Arsenal have got the money to spend, we’ll have to wait and see.
“That’s why they probably have to let Lacazette go and maybe get some money in to buy a midfielder.”
Will Arteta be prioritising a goalscoring midfielder this summer? Could we see our side part with a striker in order to add an extra dimension from midfield?
Patrick
