Report shares who Edu will try to sign if Lacazette or Nketiah leaves Arsenal

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According to The Daily Mail, Arsenal already have a target in mind if Alexandre Lacazette or Eddie Nketiah leaves the club – it’s Alassane Plea.

The two Gunners strikers will soon enter the final year of their contracts. Arsenal will either have to extend their deals or sell them this summer to avoid losing them for absolutely nothing next year.

The Athletic recently claimed that Arsenal have offered Nketiah a new deal, just to protect his value. Lacazette’s future, on the other hand, is still up in the air, and it won’t be a surprise to see him leave the club before the window shuts.

Arsenal are preparing for either one of their strikers to leave this summer, if not both. If they do, the report claims that Edu and Mikel Arteta will try to sign 28-year-old Borussia Monchengladbach star Plea.

The Frenchman has been Die Fohlen’s star man for a couple of years now. He joined Gladbach from Nice in 2018, and has scored 37 goals and has provided 20 assists in all competitions since.

Plea is in the prime of his career now and Gladbach would hate to lose him. However, he only has two years left on his contract and this his value will only go down if the Bundesliga giants decide against selling him this summer. That opens the door for interested parties like Arsenal to make a move.

Should Arsenal sign Alassane Plea?

Plea is very similar to Lacazette. He likes to hold the ball up and lay it off to his fellow attackers, and his shooting is really good as well. However, he is 28 already and he only scored 12 goals in all competitions last season – five less than Arsenal’s French number nine.

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If Lacazette does leave, Arsenal will surely need a replacement. Plea is the right profile for Edu and Arteta to look at, but he’s not the right age for us at the moment, and the fact that he has no prior experience in the Premier League is a problem as well.

If Arsenal cannot bring in someone younger and more prolific than Plea, we’ll be better off keeping hold of Lacazette. The former Lyon man was one of our best players last season, and he is more than capable of maintaining the same level for another year.