If Arsenal Weren’t So Incompetent They Would Have Signed This Striker

As it becomes clear that Arsenal’s “summer transfer strategy” is pretty much non-existent, I wonder why Arsenal didn’t try and get Radamel Falcao.

The Columbian striker went to AS Monaco for £50 million and with the complete shambles that has happened with Luis Suarez, £50 million for Falcao would have been the marquee signing Arsenal fans would have craved as well as being a phenomenal piece of business.

As it becomes clear that pursuing Luis Suarez is making Arsenal look lame in the transfer market and Liverpool like a strong club with firm attitudes towards players wanting to leave (not like we were with Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie) then I still don’t understand why we didn’t go for Falcao.

If Liverpool weren’t so determined to keep Suarez and there was even a slight possibility they would sell him to us, it is generally agreed that the price to complete such a deal would have been in the £50-£55 million territory. But the way we’ve conducted ourselves it’s obvious it’s not going to happen now.

It was universally accepted that Radamel Falcao was the 3rd best player in the world, behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. He managed to score a simply stunning 70 goals in 90 games for Atletico Madrid and 72 goals in 87 games for FC Porto. He’s been outstanding for the last 5 seasons now and his goalscoring record is only bettered by, you guessed it, Messi and Ronaldo.

And the strange thing was, when Falcao moved to Monaco he actually said that he moved to the French side because he wanted to follow in the steps of his idol Thierry Henry:

“My heart has been with Monaco since my idol Thierry Henry played there.”

So we missed a trick there didn’t we? If he “loved” Thierry so much then why not join the club where he enjoyed the most success? Of course, his big wages may have been a factor in “loving” Monaco so much but according to Gazidis we could have paid similar sums anyway.

How great would it have been if Arsenal weren’t so useless and went for Radamel Falcao this summer? That really would have been a real sign of intent and the other teams in the Premier League (and Europe) would have stood up and taken notice of Arsenal.

Plus we’d be credible title challengers and the fans would have faith in the club. After all, if we had £70 million to spend and were willing to spend £40-£50 million for Suarez (who has all his baggage and is banned for the first 6 games of the season) then Falcao would have been a dream signing.

As it stands today, we can only imagine what could have been:

 

20 thoughts on “If Arsenal Weren’t So Incompetent They Would Have Signed This Striker

  1. Lol Falcao lied about his age…
    I’m not sure but I think you will find that probably third party ownership of image rights and no tax might have had more to do with his decision than Henry. Just a thought..

     
    • Exactly my thoughts, the amount of money we would have had to muster to match what the parties involved got from the Monaco deal would have been truly beyond us, and that’s leaving aside the extra expense probably involved in avoiding the 3rd party ownership rules in England.

      No reason why we couldn’t have got Higuain or that Martinez fella, or any number of strikers that could provide an improvement to our squad but not Falcao.

       
  2. We didn’t sign him because the PL does not allow third party ownership, or players who move twice within 12months
    Also Monico is a tax free haven, so he won’t pay any tax, and it may well turn out he’s 2yrs older than he stated, £54mill is a lot for a player with no resale value, great player though….
    How about another article on how we missed out on Cavani? Or why we should buy Messi+Ronaldo?

     
  3. If you weren’t so incompetent you would have done some research into why Falcao went to Monaco. I’ll give you a hint: the evils of 3rd party ownership.
    There is an awful lot to critisize Arsenal for this transfer period, but to say we should have got Falcao is beyond ignorant.

     
  4. Falcao is 3rd party owned. So that makes it a no go. The Falcao ownership structure is highly complex which reduces his sell on value. Neither Porto or A. Madrid made negligible if any profit from his transfers

     
  5. Your header says “writing about Arsenal since 2006” with the negativity you display against the club why bother?
    Talking about Falcao in hindsight seems to me to be pretty pointless.
    Personally the racist bitey thing is not someone I would want at the club but I support the cub and if they want him then lets get him.
    You complain about Arsenals conduct during this transfer, what have they done wrong? Arsenal have made two bids, if as is generally accepted Arsenal know the wording of the contract then the 2nd bid is purely to trigger the option to speak to Suarez, supposition on my part but I would think that’s so Wenger can guage the player in terms of resolve and if he can handle him.
    With regard to Nasri & Van Persie the clubs stance has never changed in the fifty years + I’ve supported them Arsenal will not keep unhappy players, “No player is bigger than the club” was the headline many years ago with the Charlie George saga and that remains true today.

     
  6. Furthermore, RVP & Nasri had only ONE year on their contracts left-do it was either sell or let them walk away for free. Please try and use better examples to get across your point or don’t litter web space.

     
  7. Facts are what you need to write an article like this and obviously an unbiased view towards the clubs efforts in obtaining players.
    Like many Arsenal supporters you have forgotten what real supporting is about.
    Can I assume that if Arsenal was relegated you would stop supporting them or is your loyalty measured by the clubs success like the players you shun!

     
  8. Why do people talk about 50-55 million as if it has no meaning. That is one hell of a sum of money and no footballer is worth that in my mind. The fact that Arsenal have bid up to 40 million for someone is shock enough this summer. Falcao has gone for mega bucks and will probably look for ‘special’ tax incentives he will never get in uk. I fail to see how a bid of 40 million makes you look lame as some people are trying to make out it is derisory, if true Liverpool were prepared to accept less than we offered then have had second thoughts or are trying to bleed us dry. The American owners have to back their new manager but they clearly have no idea what they are doing. Wenger certainly knows what he is doing but is not prepared to do a Leeds and I am thankful for that.

     
  9. Whether Falcao was owned by a third party or not or whether he is two years older than he has stated is irrelevant as he would never have joined a club like Arsenal anyway. Arsenal are either utterly incompetent or they have deliberately put in low bids they knew would fail – £40,000,001 would only enrage Liverpool and make them dig their feet in wouldn’t it ?

    The truth is Arsenal are not an ambitious club and Wenger is certainly not an ambitious manager. Couple that with an owner who has no love for Arsenal or interest in “soccer” then you have a recipe for disaster…

     
  10. Falcao joined Monaco as athletico could never sell to real directly. He will only stay there for 1 year before Madrid make him there 2014 marquee signing

     
  11. And what makes you think that if Arsenal came with 50m, Monaco would not up theirs to 60? Would you stand a bidding war with those moguls?

     
  12. He gets paid £165K per week at Monaco. There is no income tax there.
    Arsenal would have to had paid him approx £350K per week before tax & NI deductions. That’s £200K more than Suarez allegedly wants

     
  13. Liverpool knew 6 weeks ago arsenal wanted suares but have stalled on the transfer so its imposable for him to move before the deadline at the end of the month
    all the roumers are boring me now whoever arsenal sign it wont be good enough for some people

     
  14. the points on falcao 3rd party ownership, his age and the tax benefits of Monaco cannot be bettered by anything arsenal could offer. personally, i think we have unsettled Liverpool enough to remove a potential threat to a higher finish than we have achieved for sone time and that they will either be left with a very expensive reserve. hopefully real mad will use the money from our purchase of Benzema to remove bale from the spuds, but late enough for them not to replace him. the special one has rattled the cage at the scum. the prof is the senior manager in the league and has done a great job to get us where we are. its his turn now to play the game, have faith

     

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