By Sir Hardly Anyone
Sorry about the formatting on the original publication of this post. It looked all right at first and then went very odd. I have removed the offending text now.
OK the story is that he is at the training centre and having a medical. So what do we know of the man…
1: He is a goal scoring centre forward
2: Lacazette has also played as a winger
3: He is the youngest of a family of four boys.
The ranking is for Lacazette, not the team.
| Date | Home side | Score | Away side | Mins | Ranking | |
| 02-04-2017 | Rennes | 1 : 1 | Lyon | 90′ | 5.8 | |
| 05-04-2017 | Metz | 0 : 3 | Lyon | 85′ | 7.59 | |
| 08-04-2017 | Lyon | 1 : 4 | Lorient | 26′ | 5.9 | |
| 13-04-2017 | Lyon | 2 : 1 | Besiktas | 90′ | 7.02 | |
| 20-04-2017 | Besiktas | 2 : 1 | Lyon | 90′ | 9.07 | |
| 03-05-2017 | Ajax | 4 : 1 | Lyon | 14′ | 5.95 | |
| 07-05-2017 | Lyon | 3 : 2 | Nantes | 62′ | 6.35 | |
| 11-05-2017 | Lyon | 3 : 1 | Ajax | 90′ | 8.83 | |
| 14-05-2017 | Montpellier | 1 : 3 | Lyon | 90′ | 9.84 | |
| 20-05-2017 | Lyon | 3 : 3 | Nice | 86′ | 8.55 |
Here are his game statistics. There were three other games in the course of the years, which are not listed separately, but are included in the totals.
| Season | League | National Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |
| 2009–10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2010–11 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 2 |
| 2011–12 | 29 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 43 | 10 |
| 2012–13 | 31 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 37 | 4 |
| 2013–14 | 36 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 2 | 54 | 22 |
| 2014–15 | 33 | 27 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 40 | 31 |
| 2015–16 | 34 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 44 | 23 |
| 2016–17 | 30 | 28 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 7 | 45 | 37 |
| Total | 203 | 100 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 7 | 47 | 15 | 275 | 129 |
| Career total | 203 | 100 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 7 | 47 | 15 | 275 | 129 |
So there we have it, our new record signing. Now the questions are:
1: Will Giroud leave or will he stay in order to come on as a replacement, perhaps with Lacazette moving out to the wing?
2: Will Alexis stay and play on the wing; something that would be quite extraordinary, given the different way each of them score? I think it would be worth Arsenal forcing Alexis to stay just to have one season for that.
3: Will he get on OK with Ozil so we can see magnificent through balls turned into goals?
4: Could you imagine Lacazette on one wing, Alexis on the other and Giroud down the middle and Ozil spraying passes to all three of them? What defence could cope with that?
5: How about Ozil on one side, Alexis on the other Lacazette down the middle?
6: Behind them… will Ramsey and Xhaka be the permanent fixtures? After all they looked rather good in the latter part of the season.
7: That suggests a back five, which is why we bought Kolasinac.
8: Here’s the squad – it will have to be reduced to 25 in due course.
It looks like 2-3 tables got jumbled together at the start of the article (strengths, weaknesses and how he finished the season) – not sure if only for me or if it will look a bit messy for others as well.
Since I’m writing something here for once, I’d like to say how much I love that Untold exists – I hope you continue many years into the future, and that step by step we see improvements to many of the parts that are wrong with football today (some are just FA, like you highlight, but many are still sadly spread in the rest of Europe).
I can pick 7 to leave or not in the 25 they are marked with a *
GOALKEEPERS (4)
Wojciech Szczesny
David Ospina *
Emiliano Martinez
Petr Cech
DEFENDERS (12)
Mathieu Debuchy *
Kieran Gibbs *
Per Mertesacker
Gabriel
Laurent Koscielny
Rob Holding
Nacho Monreal
Shkodran Mustafi
Calum Chambers
Hector Bellerin
Carl Jenkinson *
Sead Kolasinac
MIDFIELDERS (9)
Jeff Reine-Adelaide*
Aaron Ramsey
Jack Wilshere
Mesut Ozil
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Santi Cazorla
Granit Xhaka
Francis Coquelin
Mohamed Elneny
FORWARDS (9)
Alexis
Lucas Perez*
Olivier Giroud
Theo Walcott
Alex Iwobi
Danny Welbeck
Joel Campbell*
Chuba Akpom
Alexandre Lacazette
Will Akpom and Chambers be allowed to go on loan or will players like Theo & Wilshere be sold?
Sky sports is reporting the he has completed his medicals. But I wait to read official announcement from the club.
No hiding please Sir. Hardly. Your posts gladens my day especially in this transfer nonsense.
Lacazette to AFC does not make my blood race but I’ll welcome him with open arms.
The it’s bright, he is clear and clean. No fear. Arsenal fc oyee
Thanks Emil. Yes it looked ok at first then went bonkers. Removed the offending bits now.
Looking forward to welcoming Lacazette. Hope he justifies the confidence reposed in him.
9 players to be soon out of the 25?
Wow, a really big clear out.
Lets see how Arsenal will manage this.
Perez can leave, was a presurised buy no doubt. hope Laca assist to leaque champs. Boss can’t flop after lengthy period of Laca assessment.
Our thoughts seemed to align for the most part about who’s to leave either on loan or sale…
Goalkeepers
Szczesny needs to be the No 1 now…. Should be given that opportunity again..
Defenders
100% with your choices
Midfield
I feel Jeff should stay and be given more playing time in the first team, it’s high time he delivered some good like Iwobi 2 seasons ago..
Wilshere needs to be sold now or in January because of his injuries – the team has persevered enough; other players need that opportunity (he’ll be a hindrance).
Santi will only play a bit-part role this coming season if recent news are anything to go by…
Forwards
Giroud needs to go – too good to be a 3rd choice. The world cup is coming up and he needs a starting place to stake claims for the Les blues… I appreciate him too much to see him down the order.
I’ll prefer Perez staying – he’s yet to have a good run in the team and quite more technical than most thought. I watched some of his performances again last season, the guy is good…. Can play on either side, especially the right wing.
I agree with you on Campbell…. Outright sale.