#2 There’s a lot of pressure on him at Arsenal
At £46.5m, Lacazette might not have cost quite as much as Romelu Lukaku did for Manchester United, but even so, his fee is nothing to sneeze at by anyone’s standards. Not only was the fee the highest received by Lyon for any player, but it also broke Arsenal’s own transfer record, set by the signing of Mesut Ozil for £42.5m in 2013.
The difference was that Ozil was already a proven world-class talent – he’d played at the very top level for Real Madrid and won plenty of trophies, and he’d also starred in World Cup and European Championship campaigns for Germany.
Lacazette meanwhile is only just starting his international career – at the age of 26 – has yet to play in a tournament, and isn’t really proven on the world stage in club terms either.
Nobody’s saying that Lacazette might not prove to be a world-class talent, but the truth is that he hasn’t proven that yet on the biggest stage and we’ve seen before that huge fees can act as a millstone around a player’s neck. Look at Fernando Torres at Chelsea for instance, or Andy Carroll at Liverpool.
If Lacazette fails to really hit the ground running then you can bet that the chants of “what a waste of money” will be raining down from opposing fans. And if that does happen, can he really play to his potential? Again, it’s another massive question mark.
