What is Alexandre Lacazette's Arsenal legacy?
Karan Tejwani
- 9 Jun 2022 12:50 BST
- 3 min read
Alexandre Lacazette has departed Arsenal after five years of being at the club, returning to Lyon, the club he signed from in 2017.
The French forward leaves the Gunners after scoring 71 goals in 206 appearances and was one of Arsene Wenger’s last signings before the legendary manager departed the club in 2018.
Lacazette returns to his boyhood club in Lyon, where he started his career and made 275 appearances, scoring 129 goals between 2009 and 2017.
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As he leaves Arsenal, there are mixed feelings about his tenure in North London, with the common belief he didn’t achieve his full potential at the club.
What is Lacazette's Arsenal legacy?
He certainly was not helped by Arsenal being so inconsistent in that period, having worked under three different managers in his five years at the club in Wenger, Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta.
Additionally, the rather haphazard squad construction over the years was another problematic factor: the squad was hardly equipped to compete with the best in England and Europe and that hindered his own progress.
But, the player, who was the club-record signing at the time of moving, was a largely underwhelming signing regardless of squad issues and didn’t do much to help his case.
He had his good moments: contributing to the FA Cup success in 2020 and reaching the Europa League final in 2019, as well as forming a decent partnership with Pierre-Emerick Aubamyeang.
Beyond that, though, there isn’t much to look back on as Lacazette struggled to adapt to the intensity of the league and there wasn’t a well-defined role for him.
While he often paired well with Aubameyang, signing both within months of each other proved to be a strange call, as Lacazette often played second-fiddle to him in the latter stages of his Arsenal stint.
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊
Five years after leaving, Alexandre Lacazette returns to the club where he scored 129 goals 🔥
A Lyon hero is home! 🔵🔴 pic.twitter.com/f6pItUw2Ua— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) June 9, 2022
It came as little surprise that he wasn’t offered a renewal: as years went by, his output remained low, culminating in a final season with just six goals across all competitions – a poor return for a club that had a lack of depth in attack.
Arsenal will be disappointed to not recoup any fee for a player that was once their record buy – that they had to run down his contract to let go was an indication of how little interest there was in him.
Off the pitch, it was well-noted that he had a positive impact on the squad, but on it, his contributions didn’t match and it was best for both parties to move on.
At Lyon, he will be in an environment that he knows well and succeeded in, but at Arsenal, there won’t be much to look back on with great fondness – this was a phase that had so much more potential.
