‘Tipping point’: Lee Dixon sends warning about ‘well-liked’ Arsenal man’s contract

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Lee Dixon has warned Arsenal on the Handbrake Off Podcast that there will be a ‘tipping point’ when it comes to Alexandre Lacazette’s contract situation and future at the club.

Mikel Arteta confirmed over a week ago that Arsenal ‘haven’t started negotiations’ in regards to Lacazette’s contract, which has two years left to run, as quoted by the Evening Standard.

Arsenal don’t exactly have a history of ensuring that they deal with their players’ contracts in a sensible and efficient manner, even though Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang signed on the dotted line, it did take an age.

Highbury legend, Dixon, touched upon Lacazette’s contract situation and he warned that the player won’t feel valued if they don’t put a new contract on the table for him.

“I’m pretty sure Lacazette knows his value from within the dressing room,” Dixon told the Handbrake Off Podcast. “He seems like he’s a well-liked player in the dressing room. Going back to his contract. I think there’s definitely a tipping point.

“We have seen it before, where players don’t really think about moving when they have got a certain amount of time on their contract. And then as it wears down, there’s a point where they kind of going ‘why haven’t the club offered me a new contract? Why aren’t we talking about that?’ That’s the kind of grey area where the club and the player have to get it right.

“If the club leaves it too long they can almost force a player to be a little restless then you start valuing your own worth in your team. If you get to a point where you are two years away and the club comes to you and say ‘we have a new deal on the table’. You puff your chest up. You go ‘wow, they want me’. You feel secure in your own value to the team.

“And there’s no doubt that there is a tipping point. From the club’s point of view as well – we have seen it before how many times the club has got it wrong, left it too late and the player has gone ‘you know what there’s no value in me signing anything now. I might as well wait’.”

There’s no doubt that Lacazette is a crowd favourite at the Emirates, but under Unai Emery and now Arteta, he hasn’t exactly always been a regular.

There have been times when he is subbed off in the second half, he would also find himself not starting as many games as he would have liked, but that hasn’t been the case during this campaign.

It remains to be seen whether Arsenal hands the Frenchman a new deal because the relationship he has built with Aubameyang in the final third has been a strong and one worth keeping hold of.