Newcastle United managerial target Unai Emery was disappointed to miss out on the chance to sign Alexandre Lacazette in summer 2017.
But the then-Paris Saint-Germain manager wouldn’t have to wait much longer to share a dressing room with a man who turned down the Ligue 1 giants in favour of a £47 million move to Arsenal.
Ten months to be precise.
That was the gap between Lacazette’s big-money switch to north London and the appointment of Emery as Arsene Wenger’s replacement.
“When I arrived at PSG we were thinking of signing Lacazette,” Emery told the Daily Mail at the time.
“We liked his quality and characteristics. He was at Lyon and it wasn’t easy to sign a player from there for PSG – but he was an option for us.”
Would Emery have brought Lacazette to Newcastle?
Given Lacazette would go on to win Arsenal’s player of the year award during Emery’s one and only full season in charge at the Emirates – producing his best goal tally as a Gunners player along the way – it’s safe to assume the France international was worth the wait as far as Emery was concerned.
And, for a while at least, it seemed a reunion might be on the cards at St James’ Park.
After all, it’s surely no coincidence Lacazette was being linked with a move to Newcastle United at roughly the same time Emery was emerging as one of the front-runners to take Steve Bruce’s place in the St James’ hot seat (Mirror, 24 October, page 54).
But with Emery deciding against a return to the Premier League – committing his future to Villarreal while thrusting Amanda Staveley and co back to the familiar surrounds of square one – should we draw a line under speculation linking Lacazette with a move to Tyneside too?
Given the wages and project on offer at Newcastle, nothing should be ruled out at this stage.
But Emery’s enviable contact book certainly would have come in handy when it came to reinforcing a wafer-thin squad.
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