Have Arsenal Given Up In The Transfer Market?

Arsenal fans, myself included, have become frustrated with our lack of activity in the transfer market. Despite having a “war chest” which is widely reported to be around £70 million, Arsenal have struggled to get close to making a deal happen.

It was strange that Ivan Gazidis publicly announced that we had £70 million to spend on players and we could afford the top wages, suggesting that affording £250,000 salaries would not be a problem. This has instantly weakened our position in the transfer market – that’s if we intended to spend anything at all.

On top of this, it has given the media a field day, and we’ve been linked with Stevan Jovetic, Gonzalo Higuain, Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez, Gareth Barry, Cesc Fabregas, Lars Bender, Marouane Fellaini and Ashley Williams. That’s 10 players (and I’m sure I’ve missed some other names) and out of those, we’ve made 2 concrete bids. One for Lars Bender which was instantly denied, and £30 million for Luis Suarez, which we know is well below his market value, which is roughly around the £40-£45 million range.

And according to reports, Real Madrid value Gonzalo Higuain at £37 million while we want to get him for closer to £22 million.

So have Arsenal given up in the transfer market?

The problem is, we haven’t haven’t paid the top top money for players since we signed Dennis Bergkamp in June 1995. He joined for £7.5 million which back then was massive money.  In terms of record transfer fees in that year involving British football clubs, Andy Cole moved from Newcastle United to Manchester United for £7 million and Stan Collymore from Nottingham Forrest to Liverpool for £8.5 million. In 1995, Arsenal paid top dollar for a world class player.

But now, however ambitious Arsene Wenger and Arsenal may have been, and while there may be good intentions, it seems that we have bitten off more than we can chew.

For the first time in about 20 years, we’re going for proven, world class talents. We’ve spent decent sums on Thierry Henry, Andrei Arshavin, Sylvain Wiltord and Jose Antonio Reyes but apart from Arshavin, they still have something to prove and weren’t commanding the top prices because they still had some potential to fulfil. For example, when we bought Thierry Henry in 1999, a certain Nicolas Anelka was sold for £22.5 million.

So now we’re after players like Luis Suarez and Gonzalo Higuain (who are reportedly valued at £45 million and £37 million respectively) we’re struggling to compete. We have our war chest but we simply don’t know how to spend it. We’ve tried screwing down transfer fees and getting bargains for so long that if we did pay the top money for these players Arsene Wenger might keel over. We simply have no idea how to negotiate effectively at the top end of the market. We don’t have a David Dein type figure to seal these deals.

This useful website lets Arsenal fans know whether we’ve spent any money in this transfer window.

Will it still say “no” once the transfer window closes?

Who knows.

 

12 thoughts on “Have Arsenal Given Up In The Transfer Market?

  1. Affirmative. Wenger n Ivan are not interested in spending huge sums on players that’s why they go 4 the second-hand or primary school players who are always cheap. Just check the speed with which Man shitty have been signing top quality players yet, we can’t sign even an ant……SHAME.

     
  2. You say Suarez is reported to be worth 40-45million, rather than listen to whats reported why dont you just listen to what Brendan Rodgers says instead. When you consider Cavani went for 55 million, then Luis is in that top level bracket. Stop listening to John Cross, he knows nothing. Arsenal will have to spend huge to land Suarez despite what you may think. LFC was mocked for being bullied in the transfer market with Hendersons value and Carroll, so make no mistake about it there is no chance they will there best player go for anything like what is being reported.

    PS there is no buy out clause. Stop spouting this rubbish John Cross.

     
  3. Totally in agreement, Wenger is dithering, he is frightened to actually put in proper bids for quality players. Remember the £19m bid for Bender, hello, Wenger, go back with another bid that might just appeal to his club (say £25m), then maybe he might be purchased! The whole notion of attempting to sign Suarez is just absurd on so many levels: talent-wise he isn’t worth over £30m, he is banner for 6 more matches and to boot, he is a ticking time bomb that is bound to go off again during the season which will result in yet another long ban – so what a great buy huge would prove to be…yet as he will cost any club £40m and it goes against the Wenger ethos in The transfer market, I can see it happening as Wenger may pa nick towards summer’s end!

     
  4. Arsenal have not given up on strengthening the squad (this summer) because they were never in the transfer market in the first place! Their Arsene is drunk on his Wenger-nomics and won’t dig into his ‘darling profits’ to sign any recognizable big name players. In fact, it is so nauseating that an stunted and ailing Arsenal FC is plotting to dish out a new contract to their ‘dick-head’ of a manager. And Wenger and his co ‘dick-heads’ like Ivan Gazidis are hell-bent on extending the septic rot at Arsenal beyond an eight empty years! Ouch! Stench, stench! Yuck,ck,ck,ck,ck…….

     
  5. Jovetic to city for 22m. Where is Gazidis and Wenger?
    They will not buy anyone, excepts young talents. Trying to buy Rooney or Suarez is just a lure for fans. It will end up with Sonogo or other youngsters and by the way will Wenger risk buying someone that sends Giroud or podolski on the bench.
    It is all a well rehersed scenario. Wenger is only interested in his scholarly attitude, finding and developing talents. He cannot and will never be able to win anything except the fourth place trophy.
    How could AFC lose on Jovetic, if Wenger was really interested? 22m is a price that is realistic for Arsenal. So why do we need Hugain for 37m? or Rooney or Suarez. Rooney does not play as an upfront striker anymore. Ferguson has found out last season , that this position is best suited for Van Persie. We do not need a player in that position , but one to score more goals than Giroud (especially against the big teams) and we do have Theo , Podoski, Cazorla and the OX . Rooney is definitely a lure , as we all know that he would never leave Manu for Arsenal.
    He is not interested,Wenger is just buying time till the end of the transfer period.
    Suarez for sure will cost more than 30m. No way will AFC pay that price as they were unable to match that of Jovetic.
    We must stop believing in Wenger and Gazidis manipulative schemes. They just need to fill the stadium, make a lot of noise and publicity, attract a nice part of the uprising youth population (world wide) and turn them into Arsenal fans, convince sponsors that they are trying their best to land top-top stars.(and when they finally are unable to do so , prove that they are still succesful as the noise generated will definitely increased sales of shoes, shirts ot whatever there is to sell)
    WENGER IS AN ECONOMIST NOT A COACH ANYMORE.

     
  6. As an Arsenal fan i have learn t never to listen to this Wenger- Gazidis nonsense for the past 8 years.Its always the same crap they say. They are a bunch of an ass that need to be thrown out of the club.NO ONE IS BIGGER THAN ARSENAL.Its we the fans that make the club not THEM.

     
  7. I still think what Arsenal need more than anything else,is a new manager,Wenger
    just hasn’t got a clue,as I see it, all Arsenal need,is first get rid of all the rubbish
    Wenger has brought in over the past few seasons,them that are on £50 to £60
    thousand a week,and playing about three matches a season,them that cost Arsenal millions in a season,and do very little for it, secondly,they require a good all round defender,a top class goal keeper,and a striker that can hit the back of the net,once you have that,combined with our 60,000 +first class supporters,
    we could win the league,and the silverware we all want, any manager with
    with £70,000,000,to spend should do that quite easily. “UP THE GUNNERS”.

     
    • Technically true, but anyone following this lot for the past decade should know, there’s little hope of that happening. And even if Wenger left would you trust this lot to sort out a replacement? Face it guys, same shit different year.

      Mad props to the author though for posting’em past the abuse.

      Not enough realist in the world I guess, and way to many suckers, can’t you just hear them laughing up in that board room.

       

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