With the exception of Belarus, South Korea and now, Germany, global football is currently suspended. The Premier League has been given the all clear by the government to restart in June, behind closed doors. Arsenal FC resumed training this week, albeit in small groups only.
However, there are still plenty of question marks when it comes to Project Restart, and we’ll learn more as the days go by. Until football actually returns, we still have plenty of transfer news items to cover. So let’s take a spin through the Arsenal rumor mill in cyberspace.
We actually did two batches of Arsenal transfer rumors today, for the second go here.
This edition is all about the strikers and we start with the concept of a potential swap deal of centre forwards. Alexandre Lacazette may be wearing out his welcome both on and off the pitch. Off the pitch, he got caught doing something, again that he he warned by the club not to do.
On the pitch, young scorer Eddie Nketiah has been supplanting him in the latter stages of the season, before it got shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has wreaked absolute havoc on the financial well-being of football clubs, and it’s put Arsenal in a place where they likely won’t be spending too big this summer transfer window. Ditto for Atletico Madrid, who have an eye on Lacazette, according to AS.
And as it turns out, Atletico has a player the Gunners are interested in- Thomas Lemar. The former Monaco Man almost joined Arsenal, or Manchester City as the 2018 summer transfer window winded down.
However, Arsene Wenger and Arsenal didn’t get their act together until the last minute, and their shot at him fell apart. Now, two years later, Lemar is still getting it done, but his asking price will be cheaper (as will most star players) now.
The 24-year-old doesn’t fit at Atleti, but he could be just right for Mikel Arteta’s system.
Elsewhere, the Arsenal player most linked with a move away this spring is 30-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang. The list of potential suitors is somewhat long, and now you can add Paris Saint-Germain to the list, and that’s according to Le10Sport.
However, the French outlet says that PSG are only interested to the tune of £35 million, which seems like a pretty light bid.
However, like we said, money is tight in these times and Auba is set to leave on a free one summer from now, so it’s best Arsenal get something in return now, before they risk losing him for nothing in 2021. The scoring production has been there, the numbers show that- now is the time to cash in, before it’s too late.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is 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,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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