Nigel Winterburn claims that Arsenal will regret losing Alexandre Lacazette in the near future, but won’t blame the striker for looking to an exit.
The Frenchman has started just one of our nine Premier League matches so far this season, the recent win over Aston Villa, but could well be set for an extended run of action after two impressive outings in the last seven days.
Laca came off the bench against Palace and immediately brought an energy with was lacking, moving to gee up the fans in the process, and he eventually mustered up an equalising goal deep into injury time to save his side’s blushes.
The 30 year-old was then in top form during our win over Villa also, and some are now questioning whether we should be allowing him to leave without a fight, which is certainly what appears to be happening from the outside.
When asked if we would regret allowing the former Lyon star to leave, Winterburn told Tribal Football: ‘It’s looking that way.
‘Arsenal’s policy, this season particularly, is to bring in younger players, but then you have to respect the decision on Lacazette’s behalf.
‘He may feel he isn’t getting enough game time and needs to move on or is he somebody who feels he might want to stay?
‘I don’t know those details, but anyone who has anything about them wants to play football and to me he’s a guy who thrives on playing games.
‘I’ll be disappointed to see him go if he does leave because I still think he has an important part to play for Arsenal.’
While our transfer policy will lose some credibility in losing such a player for free after allowing his contract to run into the latter stages, I don’t feel as though his departure will prove to be a regret as such.
Those feelings will of course come to fruition if his potential replacement turns out to be a flop however, but the biggest regret when the time comes may well be that we didn’t offload him sooner, before the likes of Patson Daka and Odsonne Edouard had left their previous clubs, with both already showing signs of being top Premier League signings this summer.
Should Lacazette be offered a new contract?
Patrick