You need some work on your reading and comprehension skills. I said that apparently Arsenal was LED TO BELIEVE that any bid more than £40 million would be sufficient. Nowhere did I say that it actually was sufficient.
That said, it actually should have been sufficient. Luis Suarez did have a release clause and Arsenal met it. Liverpool simply decided not to honor the contract. If you don’t believe me, just ask Liverpool owner John Henry.
Still, that isn’t the point. Arsenal misread how it would go down and looked like fools - could have recovered with face-saving overbid for all parties but decided not to… and we have Giroud and Sanogo parade forever… regardless, it is just one data point among many that paint a pointillist failure.
I think anticipating that Liverpool would simply breach the contract sounds like wisdom with the benefit hindsight. Even for Arsenal, millions of pounds is a significant sum of money and offering (for example) an extra 5 million as a “face-saving” fee in case Liverpool ignored their contractual obligation is absolutely crazy. Liverpool made no attempt to negotiate for anything like that either, so how much would it have taken? If they were willing to breach contract to reject the offer then we weren’t getting him, no matter what.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I fucking hate Luis Suarez and I’d have a hard time supporting a side with him in it and I’m delighted we didn’t sign him even years after the fact. But leaving that aside, this is not Football Manager, you don’t just press the plus button a few times to get your bid accepted.
I have no issue giving them the benefit of the doubt in this case, like I said. However, do you think one of the big clubs would have folded so easily in that situation? Maybe it was simply that Suarez would have fought had it been Barca and not us, forcing 'Pool’s hand… but Arsenal definitely misread the situation - I’m not so sure what Henry did was unfathomable as you say, but I will happily concede the Suarez case.
Re: Suarez, he is a nutter, but he is a wonderful, wonderful footballer… one of the top, top players and we would have won a title with him between then and now.
Either way, our ability to identify targets and get them is shambolic, Suarez notwithstanding.
Sure that’s what was said and its a lovely story that I bet helped some Liverpool fans sleep at night but we don’t know the true reasons he stayed at all.
No comment on our transfer policy you’ll notice, just saying I’ve never bought that part.
Will you just change the fffing record…this was years ago now. We made a bid which triggered the release clause, Liverpool said it didn’t and the player didn’t accept what the club said. Club said not for sale and we didn’t bid higher. End of story…maybe go back to the forum on the old site - you would be more welcome there than here!
Many fans haven’t understood a precise thing: Arsène will not spend for a player much than he spent for Mesut Ozil. It’s crazy to pay over 50M of pounds for a normal player. This is a crazy game who Arsenal will refuse to be part of that, making a right choice.
Lacazette isn’t a worldclass striker and neither Icardi. If the solutions are to buy Lacazette and Icardi, I sincerly prefer van Persie or Falcao.
The market has changed since the Özil transfer and that’s Wenger’s problem he doesn’t adapt to the current climate. Özil would be sold for much more in today’s market.
I think a video on ArsenalfanTV a little while describes Wenger to a tee in that he’s an analogue manager in a digital world, which is one of the main reasons he will never win the premier league again.
He’s happy to bang on about “scary” transfer fees and buying for the sake of buying when his contemporaries are sucking it up and just spending the money therefore winning as a result. We’re going to get left behind at this rate no two ways about it.
I’m happy to have an analog manager who bought Xhaka for 30M and not Pogba for 100M+
Lacazette or Icardi for the right price are players good enough to be part of our squad but are two question marks in England. I could accept an hazzard around 30-35 maximum 40M, not 50.
Happy to have a manager that won’t win another league title under his tenure and could well leave the club in a shambles when he finally decides to leave when he should’ve have done the honorable thing and resigned years ago?
Also who’s talking about extremes comparing the transfer of Pogba to Xhaka?
We’re talking about not replacing a world class striker in what is approaching 5 years, you ‘Wenger in’ fans act as if the money for transfers is coming out of your pocket get a grip and realise football is vastly different from the dream world in your messiahs head.
£30mil just about gets you a Troy Deeney in today’s market, you need to wake up.
With the TV money increasing for everyone, fees are going to continue to go up. If Arsenal adopt Ivan’s youth policy, expect Arsenal to fall further behind.
Without some ready made stars in the lineup, the only hope is to have the big clubs fall off in a season (like last year) in order to have a chance to compete for a title. Not likely that Man U and Chelsea suck along with City not caring again in the same season.
Fees are going to go up for young players as well. Trying to poach 17 or 18 year old stars from other academies will become more expensive as the transfer bubble continues to grow.
So I can only assume Ivan’s plan is to start bringing in actual youngsters in the 7 or 8 year old range and hope that they all develop a la Southampton’s academy. And if that’s the plan things might get pretty ugly in the first team as more talented older players push their way out of the club and aren’t truly replaced.
