Well, we’ve Certainly had our fair bit of Arsenal news filtering through yesterday, didn’t we? One good, one probably not so good, so let’s start with the not so good first: Alexis.

He’s said to assembled members of the press that he’s made up his mind what he wants to do but isn’t telling anyone. So there. Ner-nicky-ner-ner. He was asked about whether he’d be joining Bravo at City but all he could say to that is ‘good question’. Then move on. 

I’m afraid to say that it looks a little bleak at this point from where I’m looking at it. I mean if he’s thinking about staying and his agent has given him the green light on the megabucks deal Arsenal have on the table that he wants, then he’s probably not saying much and then signing it when he’s back from the Pointless International Tournament of Russia Cup that he’s currently participating in. 

If you’re not telling anybody then the chances are you’re going to do something that’s going to upset some people and that will be Arsenal fans. So as I’ve said previously I think this is all just the prelude before a RvP-esque exit. 

The difference this time is that there is no way we should be letting him go to anybody domestically. If City come knocking we need to do what I used to do when a domestic club offered me money for a player in Championship Manager. If a rival bid £10million I’d propose £40million as a counter offer. So let’s do that to City. 

“Sure guys, you can have Alexis. £200million and he’s yours”. 

Let’s see how much they want him then.

What it means is that the club need to start making moves to replace him and that means in both position and goal tally and after the Ornbomb I spoke about on Thursday, the Ornacle dropped another Lacazette shaped one by saying the player was nearly an Arsenal player. That was also reported by Sky Sports and so it looks like this deal will be done by the beginning of next season.

It’s a funny one though because it’s hardly getting Arsenal fans excited. There’s quite a lot of ‘Meh’ going about but I guess it’s probably been tempered by the fact that the player is 26, he’s spent a lot of time in Ligue 1, he’s nabbed a few penalties in his scoring record and he’s also not Kylian Mbappe. I think that last point is probably one of the biggest causes of the ‘mehness’ to be honest with you. We got shown a picture of a dream and game-changing move and now that has been taken away for a less attractive option.

I’m not as against this signing as some though. Yes, he’s probably a bit too much, but everyone is in this market and we were always going to have to break our transfer record on a striker, whoever it was, so I’m not worried about that.

I also think that the Giroud/Lacazette national team debate is not one we should be having either. Last weekend I spoke to a mate who’s a French Arsenal fan and so watches more French football than me and he was telling me that Laca isn’t a straight swap for Giroud in the national team, Griezmann is, so you can’t really make the comparison. If we’re talking about Griezmann versus Lacazette then obviously we’d all prefer Griezmann because he’s top level, but he’s not available and it looks like Mbappe has probably chosen Madrid so we might as well move on. So in a way I’m kind of pleased that the club isn’t waiting for an unobtainable player, but instead is acting now, to get the job done. We have to give the club credit for that. If they can get him over the line before they go on tour then it’ll be a positive mood. 

We also have no idea how well he’ll do in England. For all we know he could set it alight in the Premier League. He’s fast and runs in behind. Imagine how that might help someone like Özil, who we just have to get sorted on his contract, which I feel is more achievable than the playing version of Jose Mourinho, only sticking at a club for three years (Alexis). 

And finally on that, let’s look at the fact that he was about to sign of Atletico Madrid, who when it comes to strikers know their onions. If they were tying up a deal before their transfer ban, doesn’t that tell you something about the man we’re getting? 

So all in all I’ll be happy with the deal when it happens. But what will need to happen is that we get a replacement for Alexis on that attacking left hand side. Thomas Lemar anyone?

Catch you all tomorrow.