ARSENAL NEWS: ARSENE WENGER’S RUMORED TRANSFER DEALS INCLUDING KYLIAN MBAPPE AND ALEXANDRE LACAZETTE ASSESSED

Arsene Wenger needs a striker if Arsenal is finally going to get serious about reclaiming a Premier League title it hasn’t seen for 13 years.

The identity of that man is a more difficult question to answer.

Adding goals to the team means spending money, something Wenger has become only slightly less resistant to over the past few summers.
It also means selling Arsenal as a destination for trophies to some of the world’s elite forwards. That might be the toughest part. Here, Newsweek rounds up Arsenal’s most likely signings up front this summer.

Alexandre Lacazette

The Lyon striker is deadly with both feet, in and around the penalty area. Lacazette has shown his class repeatedly in Ligue 1 and in Europe over the past few seasons, with his thunderbolt against A.S. Roma in the Europa League quarterfinals in 2016-17 just one hint of his enormous capabilities.
Jean-Michel Aulas, the Lyon president, wants Arsenal to pay £57 million ($76.2 million) for Lacazette. That’s the sum Atletico was willing to spend on him before its transfer ban came into force.

It sounds ridiculous and in any other, normal walk of life it would be. But Lacazette is a proven goalscorer and assist-maker and those qualities come at a premium price. £57 million actually isn’t all that much, given the money Arsenal makes from matchday revenue and the television deal it profits from. It is intriguing that Lacazette has reached the age of 26 without having played outside of France. But that may simply have given him extra seasoning—and a desire to prove himself in the Premier League.

Kylian Mbappe

If Arsenal wanted to go out and shout to the world from the rooftops of north London that it means business this season, it would bust the piggy bank for Mbappe.

The teenager looks as surefire a bet as any teenager can to become a global superstar. At 18, Mbappe is already terrorizing opposition defenses. And of course—barring injury or circumstance—he’s only going to get better over the next few years as he transitions into adulthood. That’s a scary prospect.




It’s not as simple as just “showing ambition,” though. If Real Madrid wants Mbappe then it will almost certainly get him, scuppering Arsenal’s dreams. Lacazette may be the more realistic proposal.

Sergio Aguero

Pulling a deal off for Aguero would certainly require imagination, which is more than can be said for the theory behind it. To whit: Alexis Sanchez may be leaving Arsenal, Pep Guardiola likes Alexis Sanchez, Pep Guardiola maybe doesn’t like Sergio Aguero quite so much, Arsenal needs its elite striker and…

We get a monster swap deal that sends shivers and shockwaves through the Premier League as Sanchez and Aguero shoot their respective new clubs to glory and trophies.

Or not. This seems highly unlikely to come off, not just because Aguero and Sanchez are some way apart in value. Sanchez would probably like a move to City but treating Aguero like the pinata in the deal isn’t going to make him best pleased, even if he does end up accepting a move to Arsenal. Wenger can do easier deals this summer than this one.

Olivier Giroud

So we’re cheating a little bit here as Giroud is obviously already an Arsenal player. But if the worst comes to the worst—or, given Arsenal’s legendary torpidity in the transfer market, if Wenger ends up signing no one—then Giroud can do an okay job.

The Frenchman, linked with a move to Marseille this summer, has often been described as a “plan B” option, meaning he can’t be relied upon to carry the attack for a Premier League title contender.

But on his day—like when he’s scoring ridiculous scorpion kicks—Giroud can be excellent. Obviously putting Arsenal’s title hopes on his shoulders isn’t what anyone with a vested interest in Arsenal wants. But no one normal really wants nuclear weapons, either, and apparently we have to have those. Next to Trident, keeping Giroud seems economical.

Source:Newsweek.com