Speculation surrounding Alexandre Lacazette's Arsenal future has been continuously growing for a while now. The Frenchman, who was signed in a deal worth around £52 million in 2017, has just under a year left on his current deal and will be available to join another club for free when it eventually expires.
Back in August this year, football.london reported that Lacazette is expected to see out his contract at Arsenal and he had no plans to extend his stay at the Emirates.
I can understand Lacazette's decision, and I believe it is the right one. He is 30-years-old and now finds himself starting on the bench most weeks. Despite this, the club may have other plans in mind for the striker.
During his pre-match press conference this morning, Mikel Arteta was asked about the player's situation and if he was still getting 100% from him. His response leaves some big question marks.
"I had no doubts about that, and if I did I would probably have suggested doing something different with him in the summer.
When a player cannot find the motivation and interest in just his financial future, it is not the case with Laca and he has shown that since I’ve been here every single day and that’s why he is a really important player for us."
The Spaniard was then asked whether Lacazette definitely won't be offered a new contract and he replied: "No, we will see. Anything is possible."
Now, a lot of Arsenal fans including myself would have read or listened to that and been left feeling a little bit concerned.
Lacazette has spent four years with us, he's scored 68 goals for the club and has won an FA Cup. All of that is great and I've enjoyed having him as an Arsenal player. But as mentioned above, he's now in this early thirties and has, as it stands, no long-term commitment to the club.
It needs to be accepted that now is the best time for all parties involved to move on. Taking what Arteta said from his presser, it very much sounds like Lacazette could have been sold in the summer but because his attitude is still positive, the decision was made for him to stay.
Just because a player isn't pushing for a move, doesn't mean they should remain. Of course, we don't know the details of what the situation was like behind the scenes during the summer, but it was reported on several occasions that many clubs had shown strong interest in Lacazette.
Now I don't know about you, but turning down chances to cash in on a player who could soon leave for free or for an even lower price makes no sense to me. What are we actually getting out of it?
In recent times, we have seen the club take a more ruthless approach when it comes to players whose contracts are running out and are perhaps past their best. We have also seen a fresh transfer strategy put in place that focuses on younger individuals coming through the door.
As much as I love him as a player, extending Lacazette's contract would defeat the whole point of recent transfer business and only take us backwards rather than forwards. In addition to that, the team is struggling to create opportunities and score goals as it is.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is failing to reach the same impressive levels as he has done in previous seasons, Eddie Nketiah also has under a year left on his contract and looks set to leave, whilst Folarin Balogun doesn't appear quite ready to feature regularly in the league. So in short, change in the striking department is desperately needed.
Arteta and Edu must now act decisively with the January window creeping closer. If a deal can be struck, they should cash in whilst they still can and line up a replacement.
With how things are going for the Gunners at the moment, sorting out the striker situation at the start of the new year could either make or break their season.
Do you think the club should offload Lacazette and sign a new striker? Follow The Arsenal Way Writer Chris Davison on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
