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Good Job Wenger – Lacazette’s Arrival And Pre-season Mood Suggests Arsenal Stand A Great Chance For A Strong Start

Why Arsenal Stand A Great Chance Of Going Into The Next Season On A Strong Note

Two more years for Arsene Wenger at Arsenal – that piece of news was met with much disdain from a large set of the Gunners supporters, after having grown frustrated with the Frenchman’s tenure.

The 2016/17 season was a rather difficult one for the North Londoners, as they finished outside the top-four places in the Premier League for the first time in twenty years. But an FA Cup triumph at the end of the season – their third in four years, seemed to have earned enough credit for their manager to be rewarded with another new contract.

However, the start to the summer has been quite impressive from the manager and the club. They haven’t wasted much time to get things kicked-off in the transfer market. A deal was agreed for Schalke left-back Sead Kolasinac quite early in the close season, following the expiry of his contract with his former club.

Then, Wenger didn’t dilly-dally in his approach for striker Alexandre Lacazette and went out and captured the Frenchman for a club record fee of £46million, which could eventually rise to £52.6million. And to follow that up, they have been going all out in their pursuit of AS Monaco and France winger Thomas Lemar. Arsenal had a bid rejected for him earlier this month, but are reportedly going back with a bigger bid of £40million, after having already agreed on terms over a £90,000-per-week wages with the 21-year old.

Sead Kolasinac

This isn’t the sort of aggression and intent one associates with Wenger and Arsenal in the transfer window. Over the years, that has been one major point that has been held against the Frenchman – his inability to get the big deals done in the transfer market. But the manager looks enroute to set it right this time around however.

Yes, there are several issues that hang over the club at the moment – most notably the contractual situations of three very important players in Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. All the three stars are in the final twelve months of their contracts and are yet to agree on extensions with the club.

However, Ozil all but confirmed that he will be at the club next season, with his comments that he is looking forward to playing with new signing Lacazette. Things are a little different with Sanchez though, as the player is supposedly keen to reunite with former boss Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, while the “Ox” too is bending towards an exit with Liverpool interested.

But according to latest reports from the Daily Star, the club are ready to put their foot down on the situation and are not going to sell the two stars to their immediate title rivals. This is another strong move from the club and the manager, who have, in the past, sold their best players to their title rivals and have suffered because of it.

With the pre-season training kicking off earlier this week at the club’s Colney training base, things do look quite rosy at the moment for the Arsenal supporters. The likes of Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain returning to training, joined by new signing Kolasinac, and record-signing Lacazette too expected to join the team soon, the signs are quite good. Sanchez, who was away on international duty with Chile for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017 in Russia last month, has been given an extended break, with question marks surrounding his future.

Apart from that one issue, the early signs are extremely good for Arsenal. Having added a quality left-back in Kolasinac and a proven goal-scorer in Lacazette, if they manage to bring in Lemar and a few more quality additions, they will, without a doubt, go into the coming season, on a very strong footing. Perhaps, Wenger’s new contract extension wasn’t that bad after all?