This just commits is to "not quite good enough" for years to come

Klaus wrote:

Seriously, if we end up with those two I'm quitting Arsenal. There has to be some kind of limit to our ineptitude.

i think you're getting a bit carried away, to be honest. wenger has already shown hes fine with signing virtually no one (the summer we just signed cech) and signing no one will put us well behind the rest of the teams currently above us.

lacazette is better than welbeck and its not very close.
mahrez is better than iwobi and i dont think its very close.

i'll be furious if we lose alexis. and im pretty pissed at the state of the club in general, but if its a binary choice between signing no one or signing lacazette and mahrez, then i will take the latter. will those 2 win us the title? doubtful. but if people stay fit next year, if we can have a steady campaign, we can finish in the top 4. that should be the immediate goal right now.

Alexis is better than Lacazette and it's not even close. Mahrez has been on Chamberlain's level for the last 18 months or so. I guess he's a decent like for like replacement since Ox seems to be off, but seriously. The amount of bullshit we'd get for all that money... It would be a 3/10 transfer window. 0/10 if either Alexis or Özil leaves. I think we should have higher standards than just getting any kind of trash in through the door.

No problem with this signing.

Klaus wrote:

Alexis is better than Lacazette and it's not even close. Mahrez has been on Chamberlain's level for the last 18 months or so. I guess he's a decent like for like replacement since Ox seems to be off, but seriously. The amount of bullshit we'd get for all that money... It would be a 3/10 transfer window. 0/10 if either Alexis or Özil leaves. I think we should have higher standards than just getting any kind of trash in through the door.

oh i certainly wouldnt be happy with that result, but if we signed no one at all and went with what we had, i think we'd basically be giving up and admitting we are a europa league team for the foreseeable future. i dont think lacazette is trash. mahrez, who knows. he looked great 2 years ago. he probably sulked a bit last year when he realized they were dead in the water.

id rather we aim higher. but again, if its a binary choice where we either sign lacazette and mahrez or we sign no one, then i vote for the former.

Lacazette is a good signing if we keep our big two. Massive improvement on the incumbents

Lacazette is a signing that 'works with' Sanchez and Ozil staying,
as opposed to being able to lift the club if they depart.

Concern is that Aulas is playing us about and that other options are not available and we end up with no one like we did the season we botched Jovetic, Higuaín & Suarez.

I don't believe this guy's all that much better than Welbeck, if at all.

Like Dules says this smacks of business as usual and continued mediocrity. Would be hugely disappointing if we brought him to the Arsenal. Hugely disappointing. We absolutely have to do better. I don't understand how anyone who has been complaining about our drab attacking options in the past 5-7 years would see this as a remotely exciting or positive development. If we are not signing quality then forget about it. To hell with all these half assed, no one else really wants them strikers. Nonsense.

Klaus wrote:

Alexis is better than Lacazette and it's not even close. Mahrez has been on Chamberlain's level for the last 18 months or so. I guess he's a decent like for like replacement since Ox seems to be off, but seriously. The amount of bullshit we'd get for all that money... It would be a 3/10 transfer window. 0/10 if either Alexis or Özil leaves. I think we should have higher standards than just getting any kind of trash in through the door.

Amen Klaus. 

So Wengers stance is Sanchez out at the right price and Lacazette in.

flobaba wrote:

I don't believe this guy's all that much better than Welbeck, if at all.

Like Dules says this smacks of business as usual and continued mediocrity. Would be hugely disappointing if we brought him to the Arsenal. Hugely disappointing. We absolutely have to do better. I don't understand how anyone who has been complaining about our drab attacking options in the past 5-7 years would see this as a remotely exciting or positive development. If we are not signing quality then forget about it. To hell with all these half assed, no one else really wants them strikers. Nonsense.

im not keen on the guy but the bolded is just silly. the guy knows how to finish. he's like theo with welbecks workrate, and more grit and consistency than either

my issue is that he'll get us goals and little else. if we're spending big id prefer a striker has a bit more individual qualities. ive seen too many games where this cat is totally non-existent apart from a peno or scuffed chance. he's still giroud level, just take away the aerial threat and replace it with pace

unfortunately the years of neglect of the striker position means we have to get him if there's no-one else available. going in with the same strikers has now been quantified over multiple seasons to be not good enough. i think even wenger realises he cant skate by with olly and welbz anymore

I'm not a fan either but I'd put him on Lukaku's level.

Ray wrote:

So Wengers stance is Sanchez out at the right price and Lacazette in.

If so that should see a lynching - Lacazette is an upgrade on current CF options but is not any replacement for losing Sanchez without another player being signed.

Gazza M wrote:

flobaba wrote:

I don't believe this guy's all that much better than Welbeck, if at all.

im not keen on the guy but the bolded is just silly. the guy knows how to finish. he's like theo with welbecks workrate, and more grit and consistency than either

my issue is that he'll get us goals and little else. if we're spending big id prefer a striker has a bit more individual qualities. ive seen too many games where this cat is totally non-existent apart from a peno or scuffed chance. he's still giroud level, just take away the aerial threat and replace it with pace

unfortunately the years of neglect of the striker position means we have to get him if there's no-one else available. going in with the same strikers has now been quantified over multiple seasons to be not good enough. i think even wenger realises he cant skate by with olly and welbz anymore

So a Theo with Welbeck's workrate is still perhaps 2/3 of the player we need. Like I said he's essentially the French Darren Bent. What's the purpose of another Giroud level player? This would be a stylistic rather than substantive signing. Similar to the Welbeck/Theo vs Giroud argument. 

There can't be no one else available - that would just be incompetence. We have to be able to close on quality players even if we are paying what is perceived to be excessive fees. Take the temporary financial hit, win a few titles, build a winning culture, 
Send a message to opposition teams - we are ready and willing to play in the big leagues, even without champions league. Look at Juve. They got fucking relegated and are still putting Serie A in a figure 4.

It's about the mentality of the club now. This signing would do very little to put us back in the winning plane. Don't want. Please God, don't want.

flobaba wrote:

It's about the mentality of the club now.

That's essentially how I see it too. Just add up all the great strikers who have switched teams since we sold van Persie. There should have been more than enough of them for us to get at least a couple during that time. Instead the only player we've bought who even resembles a decent striker is Alexis... whom Wenger only stuck up front out of pure necessity last season, and then removed again at first convenience.

We finally have the cash to go big for the best quality we can find, and instead we look likely to end up with a dud that no one but Atletico wanted despite him scoring about 100 goals in the last three years. Bloke's as unwanted by his own national team as he is by the rest of the top clubs in Europe. How much time and money do we have to waste before we realise how flawed our approach is? You pay the extra money for better quality, whether it's £10 or £20 or even £30 million. We can absolutely afford it.

Our big problem last year wasn't the sheer number of goals we scored at any rate. We scored more across all competitions than we've done in a single season since the 1930s. What we lacked was players who could swing games in our favours, who could do it in the small moments where a football match is actually being decided. Lacazette will do absolutely nothing for us in that respect.

Apparently Aulas said yesterday (for whatever that's worth) that Lacazette wants to leave and if Arsenal match Atletico's offer (47M + 10M), he can go. I started the summer hating this possibility, but it feels like there isn't much of an alternative. Lacazette + Lemar - Giroud + young backup striker - Welbeck - Walcott - Perez would represent a decent summer in my book (if we kept Sanchez, which it feels like we most likely will).

Lacazette's ability to create for others is an added bonus, with 51 key passes from open play the fourth best return in Ligue 1 last season.

Klaus wrote:

flobaba wrote:

It's about the mentality of the club now.

That's essentially how I see it too. Just add up all the great strikers who have switched teams since we sold van Persie. There should have been more than enough of them for us to get at least a couple during that time. Instead the only player we've bought who even resembles a decent striker is Alexis... whom Wenger only stuck up front out of pure necessity last season, and then removed again at first convenience.

We finally have the cash to go big for the best quality we can find, and instead we look likely to end up with a dud that no one but Atletico wanted despite him scoring about 100 goals in the last three years. Bloke's as unwanted by his own national team as he is by the rest of the top clubs in Europe. How much time and money do we have to waste before we realise how flawed our approach is? You pay the extra money for better quality, whether it's £10 or £20 or even £30 million. We can absolutely afford it.

Our big problem last year wasn't the sheer number of goals we scored at any rate. We scored more across all competitions than we've done in a single season since the 1930s. What we lacked was players who could swing games in our favours, who could do it in the small moments where a football match is actually being decided. Lacazette will do absolutely nothing for us in that respect.

Aside from mbappe who else currently fits that description though? Morata?

I'd rather Lacazette than Morata.