Thank you, Laca: Lacazette set to leave Arsenal

[KG3]

Club cannot give Auba, Willian and Laca big deals. Also think Partey is on serious money. Which means Laca will be sold and Auba, Martinelli and Balogen be our central options. Not bad if you surround them with Saka, ESR and another creative player.

Yeah, I doubt that will happen. Lacazette turns 30 next month and he's on an estimated £180k a week. I can't see the club pushing up his wages to over £200k a week. This may end up being his best season in terms of goals if his form continues but I can't see him maintaining this. You can see he's declined physically already. He's lost his pace, he's losing hair....he looks like a mid 30s player already. We always compare him to Auba and just don't see the logic in talking about how poor Auba has been this season (14 goals) yet entertain the idea of Lacazette getting a new contract off 17 goals. If some still stand by it being a mistake to reward Auba a new contract last season when he scored 29 goals and 31 the season before, I can't see how a new deal for Lacazette makes sense. Time to cash out if we get a good offer.

Yes exactly more hair = better player

Willian > Robben

What next are people going to start bringing up the number of tattoos players have in regards to their football ability

That's obviously a joke but physically you can see he's aging and on the decline. On that basis, I wouldn't offer a new deal. Best to cash in on him. Take a break son.

Doesn’t matter Lacazette is fast enough, theirs more to a centre forwards game than pace if it were that simple Auba would have been the main centre forward here and Dortmund (I know he was latter in career) but under Klopp he played wide to accommodate Immobile/Lewandowski, then here Emery and Arteta both use Lacazette in the middle over him, he’s not exactly Giroud slow but he’s not exactly 16 year old Theo Walcott fast either.

It doesn’t help that he’s asked to drop back sometimes you’ll see him at CDM practically, then pressing the next minute and making runs not everyone has an engine like Kantes

[Santi]

It’s almost like people don’t understand lacazettes game mate, wish they’d try playing his role for 30 mins and see how they feel.

Guy brings way more than goals and our team plays more balanced with him up top and wide players who get beyond him, at least under Arteta. If we were more on the front foot in games then I think him CF and Auba LW could still work as it did for 2 seasons before.

Can’t see us keeping him because of the Auba contract but that’ll just be typical Arsenal compounding their mistakes.

[Power n Glory]

Club cannot give Auba, Willian and Laca big deals. Also think Partey is on serious money. Which means Laca will be sold and Auba, Martinelli and Balogen be our central options. Not bad if you surround them with Saka, ESR and another creative player.

Yeah, I doubt that will happen. Lacazette turns 30 next month and he's on an estimated £180k a week. I can't see the club pushing up his wages to over £200k a week. This may end up being his best season in terms of goals if his form continues but I can't see him maintaining this. You can see he's declined physically already. He's lost his pace, he's losing hair....he looks like a mid 30s player already. We always compare him to Auba and just don't see the logic in talking about how poor Auba has been this season (14 goals) yet entertain the idea of Lacazette getting a new contract off 17 goals. If some still stand by it being a mistake to reward Auba a new contract last season when he scored 29 goals and 31 the season before, I can't see how a new deal for Lacazette makes sense. Time to cash out if we get a good offer.

Yes exactly more hair = better player

Willian > Robben

What next are people going to start bringing up the number of tattoos players have in regards to their football ability

That's obviously a joke but physically you can see he's aging and on the decline. On that basis, I wouldn't offer a new deal. Best to cash in on him. Take a break son.

Doesn’t matter Lacazette is fast enough, theirs more to a centre forwards game than pace if it were that simple Auba would have been the main centre forward here and Dortmund (I know he was latter in career) but under Klopp he played wide to accommodate Immobile/Lewandowski, then here Emery and Arteta both use Lacazette in the middle over him, he’s not exactly Giroud slow but he’s not exactly 16 year old Theo Walcott fast either.

It doesn’t help that he’s asked to drop back sometimes you’ll see him at CDM practically, then pressing the next minute and making runs not everyone has an engine like Kantes

I'm all for playing Lacazette in his optimal position which is also what I argue for Auba. But at Dortmund, Auba scored 16 goals as a winger under Klopp which is close to what he's done this season with us and that's a good record for a winger. But at least at Dortmund they had Lewandowski as the CF who was elite and a 25-30 goal striker. Lacazette isn't a Lewandowski. He has yet to score 20 for us despite playing under 3 different managers so that's my issue on that comparison. Once Auba moved to CF for Dortmund he was scoring 25-40 goals a season.

But overall you're missing the point and off track. Would you argue it was wrong to give Auba a new contract last season but it's right to offer a new deal to Lacazette in the summer? That's the main point I was getting at when responding to Swipe Right.

[swipe right]

He’s having a better season than Pierre but he’s not elite and never will be.

[jayramfootball]

Club cannot give Auba, Willian and Laca big deals. Also think Partey is on serious money. Which means Laca will be sold and Auba, Martinelli and Balogen be our central options. Not bad if you surround them with Saka, ESR and another creative player.

Yeah, I doubt that will happen. Lacazette turns 30 next month and he's on an estimated £180k a week. I can't see the club pushing up his wages to over £200k a week. This may end up being his best season in terms of goals if his form continues but I can't see him maintaining this. You can see he's declined physically already. He's lost his pace, he's losing hair....he looks like a mid 30s player already. We always compare him to Auba and just don't see the logic in talking about how poor Auba has been this season (14 goals) yet entertain the idea of Lacazette getting a new contract off 17 goals. If some still stand by it being a mistake to reward Auba a new contract last season when he scored 29 goals and 31 the season before, I can't see how a new deal for Lacazette makes sense. Time to cash out if we get a good offer.

Yes exactly more hair = better player

Willian > Robben

What next are people going to start bringing up the number of tattoos players have in regards to their football ability

That's obviously a joke but physically you can see he's aging and on the decline. On that basis, I wouldn't offer a new deal. Best to cash in on him. Take a break son.

Doesn’t matter Lacazette is fast enough, theirs more to a centre forwards game than pace if it were that simple Auba would have been the main centre forward here and Dortmund (I know he was latter in career) but under Klopp he played wide to accommodate Immobile/Lewandowski, then here Emery and Arteta both use Lacazette in the middle over him, he’s not exactly Giroud slow but he’s not exactly 16 year old Theo Walcott fast either.

It doesn’t help that he’s asked to drop back sometimes you’ll see him at CDM practically, then pressing the next minute and making runs not everyone has an engine like Kantes

I'm all for playing Lacazette in his optimal position which is also what I argue for Auba. But at Dortmund, Auba scored 16 goals as a winger under Klopp which is close to what he's done this season with us and that's a good record for a winger. But at least at Dortmund they had Lewandowski as the CF who was elite and a 25-30 goal striker. Lacazette isn't a Lewandowski. He has yet to score 20 for us despite playing under 3 different managers so that's my issue on that comparison. Once Auba moved to CF for Dortmund he was scoring 25-40 goals a season.

But overall you're missing the point and off track. Would you argue it was wrong to give Auba a new contract last season but it's right to offer a new deal to Lacazette in the summer? That's the main point I was getting at when responding to Swipe Right.

Auba's best position in the PL is wide left.
He doesn't have the tools to deal with central defenders, hold the ball and link play.
Laca's best position is CF and he's the best we have at the club.
That said there is no way we should offer a Laca a 3yr contract. It was beyond dumb to give Auba the contract he got.
A one year deal on the same money is the very best we should offer Laca.

[Goonerz]

Club cannot give Auba, Willian and Laca big deals. Also think Partey is on serious money. Which means Laca will be sold and Auba, Martinelli and Balogen be our central options. Not bad if you surround them with Saka, ESR and another creative player.

Yeah, I doubt that will happen. Lacazette turns 30 next month and he's on an estimated £180k a week. I can't see the club pushing up his wages to over £200k a week. This may end up being his best season in terms of goals if his form continues but I can't see him maintaining this. You can see he's declined physically already. He's lost his pace, he's losing hair....he looks like a mid 30s player already. We always compare him to Auba and just don't see the logic in talking about how poor Auba has been this season (14 goals) yet entertain the idea of Lacazette getting a new contract off 17 goals. If some still stand by it being a mistake to reward Auba a new contract last season when he scored 29 goals and 31 the season before, I can't see how a new deal for Lacazette makes sense. Time to cash out if we get a good offer.

Yes exactly more hair = better player

Willian > Robben

What next are people going to start bringing up the number of tattoos players have in regards to their football ability

Xhaka > Zidane.

[jayramfootball]

He’s having a better season than Pierre but he’s not elite and never will be.

Auba's last 3 seasons
Goals : 22,22,9 Total 53

Vardy : 18,23,12 Total 53

Would you say Vardy is an elite striker?
Let's put aside that Vardy is a much better team player beyond goals for now.

What is it exactly that makes Auba 'elite'?

An elite player has to have an all-round top-level game, not just do well in one area. If it is only one area they really do have to be superb in that - Auba has averaged less than 20 goals a season since he got to the PL. It's been pretty good when taken overall, but elite? No.

Not that we do, but if there was a choice now to keep Auba or Laca at the end of the season, it would be Laca all day long.

[jayramfootball]

Club cannot give Auba, Willian and Laca big deals. Also think Partey is on serious money. Which means Laca will be sold and Auba, Martinelli and Balogen be our central options. Not bad if you surround them with Saka, ESR and another creative player.

Yeah, I doubt that will happen. Lacazette turns 30 next month and he's on an estimated £180k a week. I can't see the club pushing up his wages to over £200k a week. This may end up being his best season in terms of goals if his form continues but I can't see him maintaining this. You can see he's declined physically already. He's lost his pace, he's losing hair....he looks like a mid 30s player already. We always compare him to Auba and just don't see the logic in talking about how poor Auba has been this season (14 goals) yet entertain the idea of Lacazette getting a new contract off 17 goals. If some still stand by it being a mistake to reward Auba a new contract last season when he scored 29 goals and 31 the season before, I can't see how a new deal for Lacazette makes sense. Time to cash out if we get a good offer.

Yes exactly more hair = better player

Willian > Robben

What next are people going to start bringing up the number of tattoos players have in regards to their football ability

That's obviously a joke but physically you can see he's aging and on the decline. On that basis, I wouldn't offer a new deal. Best to cash in on him. Take a break son.

Of all the ageing players we have at the club, it's Auba who is most showing his age. He's slowed down and can't maintain his effort for a whole game.
His runs are not close to being as sharp as they were 2 years ago - he has done it in bursts, but again can't maintain it. That is why he's struggled to score goals. He's simply getting too old and it shows.
For those that actually cared to look into it, it's not just this season, he has been slowing down in terms of minutes per goal since his second season with us to the point this season where it's fallen off a cliff.

Laca has not slowed down at all. In fact this is his best season for us. In terms on minutes per goal he is right up there with the best strikers in the league.

[theHotHead]

I don't agree that Laca has slowed down, I never saw him with blistering pace or anything like that. He still puts in maximum effort and even when he is not scoring he contributes a lot to the team.

[Santi]

I don't agree that Laca has slowed down, I never saw him with blistering pace or anything like that. He still puts in maximum effort and even when he is not scoring he contributes a lot to the team.

Exactly. It’s just one guy is a shiny toy with a bunch of bumlickers and the other actually works for the team.

[swipe right]

He’s having a better season than Pierre but he’s not elite and never will be.

Auba's last 3 seasons
Goals : 22,22,9 Total 53

Vardy : 18,23,12 Total 53

Would you say Vardy is an elite striker?
Let's put aside that Vardy is a much better team player beyond goals for now.

What is it exactly that makes Auba 'elite'?

An elite player has to have an all-round top-level game, not just do well in one area. If it is only one area they really do have to be superb in that - Auba has averaged less than 20 goals a season since he got to the PL. It's been pretty good when taken overall, but elite? No.

Not that we do, but if there was a choice now to keep Auba or Laca at the end of the season, it would be Laca all day long.

Vardy is absolutely an elite striker. There is simply no question about it. Auba is also elite because he puts up high numbers every season for every team he plays for in every league he’s played in. Unfortunately for Auba he joined Arsenal at a time when the club has seen managerial turmoil and unlike Leicester, at Arsenal the manager is completely in charge of the first team. The recruitment has been shabby, the midfield is dead and the tactics are clueless. Auba would be shining surrounded by creative midfielders with him focused on finishing. FFS Arteta has him tracking runners on the flank. Bloody show me one instance where Vardy does that.

[jayramfootball]

He’s having a better season than Pierre but he’s not elite and never will be.

Auba's last 3 seasons
Goals : 22,22,9 Total 53

Vardy : 18,23,12 Total 53

Would you say Vardy is an elite striker?
Let's put aside that Vardy is a much better team player beyond goals for now.

What is it exactly that makes Auba 'elite'?

An elite player has to have an all-round top-level game, not just do well in one area. If it is only one area they really do have to be superb in that - Auba has averaged less than 20 goals a season since he got to the PL. It's been pretty good when taken overall, but elite? No.

Not that we do, but if there was a choice now to keep Auba or Laca at the end of the season, it would be Laca all day long.

Vardy is absolutely an elite striker. There is simply no question about it. Auba is also elite because he puts up high numbers every season for every team he plays for in every league he’s played in. Unfortunately for Auba he joined Arsenal at a time when the club has seen managerial turmoil and unlike Leicester, at Arsenal the manager is completely in charge of the first team. The recruitment has been shabby, the midfield is dead and the tactics are clueless. Auba would be shining surrounded by creative midfielders with him focused on finishing. FFS Arteta has him tracking runners on the flank. Bloody show me one instance where Vardy does that.

Well now, we have a different view of elite of you think the likes of Vardy and Auba are in that category.
Both good strikers over their careers, but both way too limited as footballers to be called elite players.

[swipe right]

He’s having a better season than Pierre but he’s not elite and never will be.

Auba's last 3 seasons
Goals : 22,22,9 Total 53

Vardy : 18,23,12 Total 53

Would you say Vardy is an elite striker?
Let's put aside that Vardy is a much better team player beyond goals for now.

What is it exactly that makes Auba 'elite'?

An elite player has to have an all-round top-level game, not just do well in one area. If it is only one area they really do have to be superb in that - Auba has averaged less than 20 goals a season since he got to the PL. It's been pretty good when taken overall, but elite? No.

Not that we do, but if there was a choice now to keep Auba or Laca at the end of the season, it would be Laca all day long.

Vardy is absolutely an elite striker. There is simply no question about it. Auba is also elite because he puts up high numbers every season for every team he plays for in every league he’s played in. Unfortunately for Auba he joined Arsenal at a time when the club has seen managerial turmoil and unlike Leicester, at Arsenal the manager is completely in charge of the first team. The recruitment has been shabby, the midfield is dead and the tactics are clueless. Auba would be shining surrounded by creative midfielders with him focused on finishing. FFS Arteta has him tracking runners on the flank. Bloody show me one instance where Vardy does that.

Well now, we have a different view of elite of you think the likes of Vardy and Auba are in that category.
Both good strikers over their careers, but both way too limited as footballers to be called elite players.

Who would you consider as elite strikers in England nowadays?

[jayramfootball]

He’s having a better season than Pierre but he’s not elite and never will be.

Auba's last 3 seasons
Goals : 22,22,9 Total 53

Vardy : 18,23,12 Total 53

Would you say Vardy is an elite striker?
Let's put aside that Vardy is a much better team player beyond goals for now.

What is it exactly that makes Auba 'elite'?

An elite player has to have an all-round top-level game, not just do well in one area. If it is only one area they really do have to be superb in that - Auba has averaged less than 20 goals a season since he got to the PL. It's been pretty good when taken overall, but elite? No.

Not that we do, but if there was a choice now to keep Auba or Laca at the end of the season, it would be Laca all day long.

Vardy is absolutely an elite striker. There is simply no question about it. Auba is also elite because he puts up high numbers every season for every team he plays for in every league he’s played in. Unfortunately for Auba he joined Arsenal at a time when the club has seen managerial turmoil and unlike Leicester, at Arsenal the manager is completely in charge of the first team. The recruitment has been shabby, the midfield is dead and the tactics are clueless. Auba would be shining surrounded by creative midfielders with him focused on finishing. FFS Arteta has him tracking runners on the flank. Bloody show me one instance where Vardy does that.

Well now, we have a different view of elite of you think the likes of Vardy and Auba are in that category.
Both good strikers over their careers, but both way too limited as footballers to be called elite players.

Who would you consider as elite strikers in England nowadays?

Unfortunately Harry Kane.
Goals per PL season over a long run of seasons : 21,25,29,30,17,18,21 (his two seasons below 20 were injury-hit seasons where he was out for 10 games) ... but , and very importantly he is also brilliant at holding the ball up, muscling out defenders and linking play between the midfield and attack. Over that same period he also has 33 assists.

I don't see any other striker at truly elite level in England. Salah is close, but I find his decision making to be suspect (he wastes a lot of good attack opportunities)

When you look at the PL history of top goalscorers, we're going through a bit of a downturn in terms of goals scored by the golden boot winner.
That's the problem when you start labelling good strikers like Vardy and Auba as elite... where does that put Kane? Super Elite? I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to say that Auba is as good as Kane.

[theHotHead]

Ok I get what both of you are saying. I would disagree with Jay inasmuch as I think the numbers Vardy and Auba post take them into the elite bracket, the consistency (this season not so). But both are top level strikers that I would put in the elite level. Above them you have the likes of Kane, then above Kane you have Lewandowski, Neymar and Mbappe. Above them you have Neymar and then Cristiano and Lionel. What I have shown are levels of eliteness though.

Where I agree with Jay is the limited nature of their games, clearly enough for Jay to not put the 2 of them in the elite level and I can't argue with that. Shut off Vardy's supply and he is dead, shut of Auba's supply and he is worse than dead.

If you shut off the supply to Neymar, Mbappe and Messi they drop deep and murder you.