Will Arsenal buy Mahrez after fabulous Lacazzete addition? by Konstantin Mitov
Hello good old Arsenal fans from around the world! So we’ve added Lacazzete, which is an incredible signing in my opinion. I am so happy with him, because I strongly think he’ll fit like a glove to our system. We tried Sanchez up front and it turns out having a dynamic striker works with the amount of creative talent we have.
Whether we’d keep that talent and pair it up with him is another matter. Reports suggest Sanchez wants 400k a week, but in my opinion he’s trying to price himself out of a deal with us. I think he wants to leave for Pep and City. We made incredibly generous offers to both Ozil and Alexis and if they don’t stay with the signings we made and hopefully will make, then you have to hold your hands up and admit that they just want to leave.
But if they stay, look at Alexis, Ozil and the Ox behind Lacazzete. Not too bad I’d say, but it could get even better if we sign Riyad Mahrez. I think that Lacazzete will suit Mahrez in similar ways to Vardy in Leicester. And with the quick feet of our new french forward, having both Ozil and Mahrez creating chances for him will be incredible.
Adding the Algerian does raise a few questions though. Firstly, what will be our formation? If we play with 3 at the back, putting Ozil and Mahrez behind him means moving Alexis to the wing back position, where we already added Kolasinac, or we move him on the right and then what for the Ox?
If we move back to the 4-2-3-1, than Mahrez obviously goes on the right hand side, Alexis on the left, Ozil in the middle and again The Ox will struggle. And we still do have Walcott. We also have Danny Welbeck who could play on the wing and we’re left with Giroud might be sold if your read the papers.
But the addition of Mahrez may not occur because we are unwilling to match the 50 million pounds Leicester want for him and I agree on this one. Mahrez has so far been a one season wonder and with the amount of players we have and the price tag we might not opt in for him.
The question is do we want him and who we’d get rid of in his place? I personally want him. We’ve put too much faith in Walcott too many times and it hasn’t worked. It’s time we try something new! I’d try 40 million in total with add-ons to try and get him. And it’s still a pretty high price, but sometimes you just have to pay up. With modern TV and commercial deals, prices have become too big, but I think we can afford one more expensive addition.
I must admit, that I like the fact that we’re so far doing the incoming business first. I’d like to get all the players we want, than see who we’ll find surplus to requirements and let them go. Gibbs, Giroud, Walcott and Wilshere are my prime candidates to leave.
Lastly I still wish for a new CM to partner Xhaka. I don’t trust Ramsey for the same reasons as Walcott, but if we get Mahrez I’d be pretty happy with the business this summer.
Konstantin
I would prefer Lemar as hes not afraid to work
People only complain and rag on when we fall out of the race and are being out muscled during games. The mistake would be made with the purchases, or players not sold?. We’ll prob start going easy on Mahrez because we knew what to expect, whilst these thumbing you down ..will rant on about weak team mentality, no leaders and s**t tactics all season …funny stuff if I wasn’t crying.
Don’t know how I changed my username, was gonna write about Mahrez and how other managers would avoid him, somehow it got into the username. Sorry admin, didn’t spot it until now.
I agree with you. Lemar offers similar to Mahrez and Ozil in terms of creativity but his style is different due to work rate. £40m for Mahrez is a good deal if we’re getting 2015-16 Mahrez. Lemar is one for the future and a worthwhile investment if we can be patient.
Both really depend on the Sanchez situation- He stays, we invest in Lemar for the future (and play hardball with Ox). He goes, we invest in what we hope is 2015-16 Mahrez. I hope he stays!
We still dont have a top DM. An improvement on Coq would be more ideal imo. We need to be able to switch back to 4-2-3-1 when we want. Coq exposes Xhaka too much so we have to invest there.
Sell (values as per TransfrMarkt website)
K. Gibbs £8.5
M. Debuchy £3.0
C. Jenkinson £4.3
J. Wilshere £15.3
Joel Campbell £5.1
L. Perez £12.8 so Lacazette can wear 9 and his agent can stop moaning
Total £48.9m
I don’t think it’s that Le Coq exposes Xhaka, is that Wenger (judging by positing on the field) asks Coquelin to play in a more slightly advanced starting position than he’s comfortable with, and finds himself in the final 3rd too often so that Xhaka can stay deeper and dictate from further away. That’s not coquelin’s game, and thus he struggled.
How quickly folks forget how massive Coquelin was when he was partnered next to Santi and all he had to do was win balls and then give the ball to Santi. He was massive for us. Athletic, hard-tackling, covered ground, adequate to slightly above adequate feet technically. He should be our 2nd choice DM in a 4231 in my opinion, and pushing for a place in the first 11. SHould not be next to Ramsey thought….who shoulda been sold years ago in my opinion…as he’s just too undisciplined positionally and not technical enough for how we want to play.
I think Coquelin was forced to become more attacking base on the inclusion of Xhaka, and the loss of Cazorla so he was force out of his comfort zone and that is where the problems were discovered with the system arsenal used, while Santi plays well with every player in the midfield, the same can not be said for Xhaka, Ramsay, Elneny and Coquelin.
What most be considered is the right pairing for the appropriate opponent, the coquelin in front the back four reaped great success, because then his duty was to protect the back four and allow Cazorla to initiate the attack, with Cazorla out the team he had to now play a double role, with that ability not in his DNA. The pair also did not seem equally
O.T
There are reports emerging that Mahrez has returned to Leicester for pre-season training. This might mean that we have made progress with Lemar. Fingers Crossed
My current best x1 would be
_____________Cech
Mustafi Mertesacker Koscielny
Bellerin Xhaka Ramsey Kolasinac
___________Ozil Alexis
___________Lacazette
2nd x1
_______________Szczesney
______Chambers Holding Gabriel
Chamberlain Wilshire Coquelin Monreal
_____________Walcott Perez
________________Giroud
Rest of squad
Ospina Niles Elneny Welbeck Iwobi Adelaide
Did you really say “Alexis at wing back”?
Leicester have priced Mahrez out of the question at £50 mil and we have just upped our bid for Lemar to £40+ mil.
As much as I prefer Lemar to Mahrez, Mahrez is not bad at #50million… Former PFA… But the silliest mistake would be selling Bellerin for anything less than #60million pounds.
mehraj will walk into first 11 dont worry
we need a replacement for our new abu diaby (cazorla)➡Goretzka?
Who does Mahrez replace? Not better than Ozil, Lacazette, or Sanchez. And even last season Ox was superior to him. He certainly doesn’t walk into the squad.
I understood Lemur is our first choice and we are still pursuing him. Good news is that apparently he is good friends with Lacazzete who has been having a word in his shell so to speak – so hopefully we might get a nice surprise in signing him.
I think lemar is a better player than mahrez anyway why pay £50.00 fot a one season wonder
I would sell Gibbs, giroud theo and Perez as Welk as ox and bring in a holding midfielder
Giroud must be kept at all costs we need another option for teams that sit and defend deep, I’m not gonna say anything more on Maherz as I’m definetly outnumbered when it comes to what i think of him and said all I have to say on the issue but here are some players in the same price bracket as mahrez … dembele, Dominico from sassualo, Brandt, Lemar, Marco asensio, Reus, Douglas costa, Ivan perisic, pulisic from Dortmund, goncalo guedes, gelson martins, balde keita, Coman, should I keep going ? You want cheaper options munir from Barca is looking for a new club so is Adama traore he’s got no end product but he sure can dribble and has loads of flair, I would rather we spend 10-15 mil on someone we don’t need than 40-50 mil on someone we will never be able to resell. If it was up to me I would wait till real made an offer for mbappe and then sweep in for isco or asensio playing the waiting game for a winger or Isco as he played mostly as a winger for Rm isn’t a bad move. On the deadwood: these players got to go regardless of who comes in to replace them: Walcott, jack, Gibbs, debuchy, Jenkinson and one of the keepers or both if a younger keeper has been touted and Martinez is the superstar I keep hearing he is , I personally don’t rate him that highly but haven’t seen enough of him to be certain, I do remember that reading game a few years back and he was clueless to be honest.
We’ve got to sell Giroud for Giroud sake, actually he Want to remain here but it’s obvious Lacazette will bench him and world cup is around the corner, Wenger is poor in terms of rotating the team, we may see less of Giroud totally.. and hope you still remember that even if Perez leaves, Welbeck won’t.. He’s the backup bro.
I rate Giroud highly. He is a better finisher than Welbeck. You guys should not forget that Welbeck could be injured for 3 months. His fitness level is a doubt. Welbeck hardly stays fit for a whole season. Giroud is always fit. Good at heading the ball. Bellerin hardly crosses the ball unlike Sagna. There is no better header of the ball like Giroud. Away to Man United, it was Giroud that gave us the point. Sanchez on so many occasion slows down our attack. He thinks he is some Messi. Gets dispossessed more often. If he fails to sign 280K per week contract, he should be sold. We will move on. Other players will step up. Keep Giroud, Walcott and Perez. Sell Sanchez if he fails to agree a 280K per week offer. Other exciting players who We should consider are Mor from Dortmund and Isco.
Asensio ??…no way Madrid is selling him ….to anyone!!
Some good questions and I must say it’s a relief that you wrote something other than the usual stuff.
I’m reading that we went back in for another try at Lemar. I would hope that this is because Wenger sees him eventually playing CM, ESPN described him as tall Cazorla. That sounds great! but I doubt Arsene would bring in a winger/forward expecting him to adapt to that role – straight away. That’s why if this rumour is true, and it does look to have legitimacy behind it, you’d have to worry about how persuasive!! we’re being with Alexis Sanchez.
One thing I do like about this window …is how we opened talks with our top targets, as well as the contingency targets. Like with Mbappe being our top target, we opened talks with our second option too, and we got the job done instead of seeing someone poach (cough! Suarez/Higuain) from right under our noses. Now, either because of Alexis departure, or because one is a first choice target while the other is a second choice, we seem to be talking with Lemar and Marhez. And if the rumours are to be believed, it could be more than we know, there’d likely be talks with players that we don’t know they’re having.
I really hope Arsene intends on getting us a CM player even if having to spend allot of millions on a wide-man. Also if Lemar is seen as Santi’s replacement, I think it would be wise to get a quick fix along with him, and give him (Lemar) the time we gave Santi to adapt.
You’re right about Ramsey!. I’m a fan of his, I prefer “all round types (not all round s**t if anyone was thinking of saying). But to go into season thinking we are sorted would be ignoring everything we’ve seen over the years. Not just injuries – when his head is not in it he can be a very wasteful and selfish player. Discipline problems too! so the formation can be a biggy with Ramsey. I liked what I’d seen in the season run in though, so if we do get another CM player it’s good that one will likely be a better passer – whilst the other will create problems and open space up with his runs.
Everyone is really into Riyad Mahrez and Thomas Lemah, but the player I would love to see filling the void left by Alexis Sanchez`s departure would be James Rodriguez.
Arsenal would not feel any impact of Alexis loss…James can as well be an upgrade to Alexis based on his technical know-how and vasertility.
He can beautifully take up the void left by Carzola as well…
Well, just thinking out loud..
James is really good, but I think you want him cos he’s a big name player, which isn’t bad, but mahrez and Lemar are also at his level in terms of ability, I have seen all of them play..
I think you may be right, if Alexis does leave James Rodriguez coming in would be unbelievable and we would probably forget about Alexis straight away. However I don’t think your giving Lemar enough credit here and Mahrez on his day is just as good as James. Any one of the 3 would be great but James being a R.M player and the money involved to get him would be exciting . Can you really see this Manager and this Board breaking our transfer record twice in one window
It looks like Rodriguez will be available this summer if Madrid get Mbappe
I heard that they would sell Bale for around £88 million if Mbappe chooses Real Madrid.
Mbappe liked Lacazette’s photo in an Arsenal kit on Twitter.
And Monaco have left Lemar out of the promotional picture for their new away shirt.
Sorry O.T.
Glad to see Jens on board but I’m not sure what his role will be as we have also just recruited a new goal keeping coach in Sal Bibbo.
One things for sure though, if anyone’s arse needs kicking he will do it!
Lehmann is taking charge of training in general, there be no more laughing and joking about during sessions, from now on.
Interesting, first Lehmann and now BFG, could one or both of these end up being Wenger’s puppet “yes man” in the future?
Arsenal have announced club captain Per Mertesacker will transition to the role of academy manager at the beginning of the 2018-19 season.
The club confirmed the scheduled appointment via their official website on Friday, and Mertesacker expressed his delight to be taking the next step in his football career at the Emirates Stadium:
“This is the start of an exciting new chapter for me and I am delighted that I will be able to stay part of the Arsenal family. This season I will remain fully focused on my job with the team and am looking forward to a successful last season on the pitch. After that, I look forward to the exciting challenge of helping produce young players good enough to play for the Arsenal first team.”
Does Jens Lehmann seem like a “yes man” to you?
Even BFG, he probably respects Wenger as is appropriate, but he clearly has a strong enough personality and is respected himself by all the players.
I don’t think either of these Germans are going to be “yes men” to anyone.
I want Mahrez to come to us but not at £50 million. We can’t let clubs make us pay more than a player is worth.
If we sell Alexis at £50 million then we should not buy Mahrez at that price. He has had one excellent season where Varde, Kante and teammates played excellent. He hasn’t proven he’s worth that much.
There are other wingers out there just as good or better.
£35 million or move on.
Same with Lemar. If Monaco want £80 million then it’s not going to happen. Hopefully they will accept £40 million
There are others too like Douglas Costa, Goretzka, Rodriguez, Brandt, Keita, Gotze, Yarmalenko, Bernard, Vela etc.
Apparently we’ve inquired about Fabinho. Himself and Lemar where a little unsung from last season. Mbappe and Bakayoko got most headlines with big clubs supposedly on their cases. Fabiho plays right back originally and was very tough at CDM, he has a good shot and long ball too, scored goals which is good for someone in that position. Bayern will most likely get Goretzka. Mourinho and Pep were said to be interested in Fab also.
mahrez wont fit cos hes not coming ffs
it will be lemar
we dont want a 50 mllion plan b
O. T News from Chile press has it Sanchez will stay at arsenal after agreeing an improved contract offer from arsenal. However no details of the contract. It’s possible Sanchez wants to be a part of the impending success story that’s the new arsenal. And if I were an advisor to Sanchez I’d tell him to stay and be a celebrated demigod/hero at arsenal rather than be a nobody in all the clubs he’s played at after retirement. The guy has superb passion for the game and it’ll be a shame he belongs nowhere after he’s retired or even before like van persie or nasri or hleb. Look at Simone, Zidane, Henry, even zamorano and Massimo Salas who are inter legends
He belongs somewhere and that is Udinese Lol..
You can’t love money and still want a statue of yourself carved by fans…
We need some good songs for when Laca scores
To the music of loca loca
His shot is like a rocket LACA LACA LACA
Looks like he picked their pocket LACA LACA LACA
He scores for fun and shows it LACA LACA LACA
We hate the scum you know it LACA LACA LACA
The French are really bad at chants. The lacazette one was dreadful.
Alexadre Lacazette! Lacazette!, Alexandre Lacazette! my fair lady.
Not only buying but selling / releasing is also equally important. There are too many average players with us which are supposed to be offloaded with immediate effect. Jenkinson, Debuchy are surplus from last season and we didn’t offload them and paid one full year wages without any benefit. Wilshere is going to be another Diaby so no sentiments encash him. Gibbs is surplus now so sell him immediately. Coquelin and Wallcot are not at all consistent players and we’ve invested many year with them so release both. So we can earn not a bad amount and save a lot in wages. Buy Goretzka and Seri so midfield is well equipped. We are champions again I believe. What do you guys.
I like the way Arsenal (Arsene) has changed its approach to strengthening the team this summer.
Before Wenger was (or seemed) only interested in doing just enough for us to remain competitive, replacing players who have left and sometimes not always on the same quality (Giroud-Van Persie).
This summer he seems to want an instant return to top level football (Champions League) and titles. So we are now coughing cash even before we sell.
Make no mistake about it quite a number of players will leave before transfer window closes. The squad is too big and a little imbalanced as it is right now.
Perez
Campbel
Walcot
Debuchy
Jekinson are almost certain to leave. With the 3-4-2-1 I dont see how they will fit especially Walcott.
Get Lemar and I think we can rock and roll. I love Mahrez but Leicester can swallow that price and puke it elsewhere…
I think Lemar is a long term CM creativity option – he may start a little upfront but I think Wenger is looking at how flat we got last season without Cazorla and he is trying to address that.
I also think if Alexis leaves Wenger will(might get) Mbappe…if not I think he convinced him to develop one more year in Monaco and arrive at the Emirates next year.
Next seasons commentary…
XHAKA TO LACAZETTE… BOOM… GOAL!!!
Fans be like: XHAKA LACA BOOM BOOM!!
Am just loving this lacazette guy…..hope next season we will rock expecially with what ozil produces