Typically, managers don’t welcome transfer gossip about their players, as they find only downside to it. Transfer rumors are incessant, they could survive anything, even nuclear war, and they have the potential to be a hindering distraction to a gaffer and his team.
On the other hand, they can also be viewed as high praise, and that’s the route Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is going with the latest transfer narratives surrounding his striker Alexandre Lacazette. Arteta takes it as a compliment.
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“I am always happy when people talk about our players and speculate, that means they are doing well and they are getting attention from other clubs,” Arteta said.
“The situation with Laca, we’ll address in the summer, speak to him and just propose the future that we want — and that’s it. Now, I just want players focused and only focused on performing and getting the best out of them for the team.
“I think he has been in really good form for months now. I think he is sustaining that level. He is scoring goals and providing the team with something different as well.
“His work-rate has been phenomenal and it is what we want. We need those type of players hitting the best level when we want to have the chance to do that, because over the course of the season we have been missing goals, we have been missing that creativity in the final third and we need those players to step in and make the difference for the team.”
Lacazette, 29, has been linked with the likes of Sevilla, Atletico and Roma. At the end of the season, he’ll have just one year left on his current deal, so it’s up to the Emirates brass this summer to figure out the situation.
This will be their last chance to cash in on the Frenchman, or risk losing him on a free in the next summer.
Or they might re-up, as Lacazette has seen a nice uptick in form recently; bagging three goals in his last five games.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.