Proposed Swap Deal Involving PSG and Arsenal Makes No Sense

We’re midway through the month of January and there has been minimal activity in the transfer market from Europe’s top clubs.

There’s been daily speculation regarding transfers and Paris Saint-Germain has been included in those rumors, but as of right now, the capital club has yet to sign anyone as they prepare to compete in four tournaments in the second half of the season.

In a recent piece by Bleacher Report, our good friend Sam Tighe proposed a rather absurd swap deal involving PSG and Arsenal FC. Tighe writes that Leandro Paredes and Thilo Kehrer should be sent to Arsenal for Alexandre Lacazette.

The Frenchman would return to Ligue 1 due to Arsenal having too many attack-minded players with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nicolas Pépé, and Mesut Özil the likely starters for the Gunners and Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson, and several other youngsters coming through the ranks.

Tighe believes Lacazette-to-PSG would be a smart move because then, Leonardo, PSG’s sporting director, could sell Edinson Cavani to Atlético Madrid this winter instead of allowing him to leave on a free transfer at the end of the season.

Of course, L’Equipe already reported that PSG will not let their all-time leading scorer leave in January but Tighe seems to think Lacazette is so much more of an upgrade over Cavani that Leonardo would be willing to ship the Uruguayan to La Liga in the remaining days of the transfer window.

In order to land such a “prized asset” in Lacazette, who I might add has scored one more goal than Cavani despite El Matador missing months due to injury, PSG would need to send Paredes and Kehrer to North London.

While both players have yet to solidify a consistent role in PSG’s starting lineup, both have shown a lot of promise and are highly regarded.

Kehrer could very well be PSG’s starting right-back in the UEFA Champions League this season and Paredes is next in line should a midfielder go down with an injury. He’s arguably the best passing midfielder PSG has in their squad and it would be foolish to let him leave to facilitate a move for a striker PSG doesn’t need.

Tighe argued that PSG is one of the few teams that need Lacazette and can afford him. First of all, Lacazette isn’t playing over Mauro Icardi and if the Argentine goes down with an injury, Kylian Mbappé can play the striker role with Neymar Jr. and Angel Di Maria on the wing. Sure, if Mbappé and Icardi go down, I suppose it would be nice to have Lacazette but that’s unlikely.

This swap deal does not benefit PSG whatsoever. They do not need a striker at all and there hasn’t been one linked with the club since Icardi signed for PSG last summer and Tighe called them “losers” for bringing the Inter Milan striker to Paris via a loan with an option to buy.

At the end of Tighe’s piece, he writes that the deal would benefit three parties (Arsenal, PSG, and Atléti) but at no point does he say how it benefits PSG other than facilitating a Cavani transfer. If Cavani were causing issues and becoming a cancer in the locker room I could see how that would benefit PSG but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The final nail in the coffin for Tighe’s swap deal idea that actually makes no sense is that in 2017 when Lacazette joined Arsenal, the striker said that he actually turned down PSG as reported by RMC Sport (via ESPN).

“We talked with PSG but quickly I know that it wasn’t where I wanted to go. In France, for me, it was only Lyon. PSG could have enabled me to make progress because they have great players but I wanted to experience another league.”

While I appreciate the writer’s effort to “maintain realism” in this piece, the truth is this particular swap deal is as likely as Liverpool FC not winning the Premier League this season.

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