here is how i've gone through the 5 stages of grief to get to acceptance on this:
- our striker options right now are giroud, walcott, and welbeck
- giroud is a good option off the bench
- if you add alexis as an option there, then we're missing a wide/supporting forward, so it strengthens one area and weakens another
- right now, we are envisioning getting in mbappe, which isnt going to happen, so we're pissed about the dropoff to lacazette, which is understandable
- lacazette is clearly better than giroud, welbeck and walcott. he is a completely different type of striker compared to giroud
- if we are going to play 3 ATB and play a more counter attacking style, then lacazette will be far better in the system than giroud, welbeck or walcott.
- if this is a binary choice between lacazette or keeping what we have and going with that, then i am in favor of signing lacazette.
- he might cost £40-50m. thats a lot. however, we supposedly have £100m or so to spend. given the other holes in our squad and the lack of quality in our squad, we need to spend the other £60-70m fixing the team. that means probably buying another supporting forward (lemar?) and a goalkeeper. if we spend £125m on mbappe, its unlikely we'd strengthen elsewhere. hes 18. he looks awesome. clearly has bags of talent. but the track record for teenagers coming into the league and dominating right away is spotty at best and more realistically, not very good. in ronaldo's first season at united (who had a good team already), he played 40 times and scored 6 goals. now sure, he was a winger and not a striker, but he didn't come in and slay the league in his first season.
the atmosphere around the club is not great right now. for an 18 year old to come in, for a record fee (by a huge margin) and be expected to carry the team could be problematic. and lets be honest, he'd be our starting number 9 and the weight of expectations would be there, no matter what anyone says. he starts his career going goalless in 6 matches and people would be freaking out, no matter what they say now.
we should still be aiming for the very best talent. but given everything else, including the current state of the first team, i actually think signing lacazette and fixing 2 or 3 other holes in the squad might be preferable. in reality, it doesnt matter. nothing matters.
saw the goals comp was already posted. whatever.
