When it comes to the best academy in world football, Arsenal’s hale ending must be ranked immediately.
The people of North London have a proud history of producing several authentic, global beaters like Tony Adams, Ashley Cole and David Rokersle.
This incredible belt of talent continues to this day with all the first team patrons, including Bukayo Saka, Ethan Nuwaneri and Miles Lewis Skelly.
Unfortunately, so many incredible players are passing through the system, Arsenal is going to slip through the gap. This is what happened with Harry Kane.
Worse, another star who left the club under Mikel Arteta has recently been compared to the captain of England.
Young Arsenal slipped through the gap
Before you get to Kane, it’s worth looking at someone like Michael Oris who has let other young Arsenal slip through his fingers.
Yes, it’s not widely known, but before he spent time at Chelsea, Manchester City and the academy of reading, the French superstar spent time with the gunners.
The only saving grace here is that his potential return to Stamford Bridge fell apart a few years ago. Because Bayern Munich’s incredible produce of 24 goals and 25 assists could have seen the Blues become a rival for the real title.
It was Serge Gunaburi who should have kept the gunners holding on to the Bayern player and another young man.
Now the Germans made it from the Hale End and played several games under Arsene Wenger, but after a poor move on loan to West Bromwich Albion, the people of North London sold him to Welder Bremen for around £5 million.
This was a big mistake. Just a year later, the Bayern giants came for him and, following another year of lending, he became a serious star for them, earning 159 goals involved in 291 games.
Finally, the most notorious example of Arsenal releasing an overly young player is now the now legendary Kane, who was let go at just 12 years old due to concerns that he was simply not enough.
Since then, the England captain has regretted that decision many times with an outrageous tally of 402 goals and 108 assists in 616 games.
What’s more, his record for the people of North London is outrageous, with him scoring 15 goals and offering two assists in just 21 appearances.
In short, Arsenal was wrong when it came to Kane, and now the remaining player under Arteta has been compared to him.
Former Arsenal star compared to Kane
Considering the former Arsenal player who may have been compared to Kane, your mind may soon go to prolific people for the club, like Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.
But instead of Gabonne’s genius, the player in question is his former striker partner, Alexandre Lacazette.
Yes, that might be a bit surprising, but the 34-year-old is a forward compared to Bayern Ace, which comes from Fbref.
They compared similar positions in the top five leagues of Europe, the Champions League and the Europa League, creating a list of the 10 players that are most comparable to each, and concluded in this example that the British are fifth in the last 365 days.
By examining some of the underlying numbers that the pairs rank closely, we can better understand how they reached this conclusion.
Lacazette & Kane | ||
|---|---|---|
Statistics per 90 | Lacazette | Kane |
Non-penalty forecast targets | 0.51 | 0.50 |
Progressive Carry | 1.05 | 1.09 |
Goals per shot | 0.19 | 0.16 |
Expected assist | 0.21 | 0.21 |
Live Pass | 22.4 | 23.4 |
block | 0.57 | 0.60 |
carry | 18.3 | 19.4 |
All statistics via FBREF for the 24/25 league season | ||
These include, but are not limited to, all of the metrics per 90, including progressive carry, goals per shot, expected non-penalty targets, blocks, expected assists, and more.
Now no one has tried to claim that the former gunner ace, who left the club in 2022 without doing anything, is just as good a player as the former Spurs star.
But in addition to the statistical similarities, he enjoyed a career revival before returning to France and departing for Saudi Arabia.
For example, in his first season with a dangerous “goal machine” dubbed by former teammate Sokratis, he scored 31 goals in 39 games and provided six assists, followed by 22 goals and five assists in 35 games of the season, and 19 goals and three assists in 42 games last year.
Ultimately, it was probably right that Lacazette would leave when he did, but we can’t help but wonder if Arteta and Co want him to hold on to a season or two longer, given his form over the past few years.
