Ever since the news that Arsenal tabled a £30 million bid for Suarez I’ve been confused. Why would Arsene and Arsenal bid for a player with so many problems? Why smash our record transfer fee on a player that will be banned for the first month of the season? It doesn’t make any sense.

So then I thought we might be playing games with Real Madrid and somehow we were trying to force through the Gonzalo Higuain deal (seriously, what has happened with that?).

But now it seems, if you believe what the papers say, that we’re willing to increase our bid to £35 million or £40 million and test Liverpool’s resolve.

So what is going on?

Regular readers will know that from the beginning, I have been hugely against Suarez joining Arsenal. I’ve said it a million times but he’s been banned for racism, banned for biting other players and if you watch this video, he is a vicious human being:

Then you see a video like this and you think he could change:

I honestly don’t know if the silly season has gone to my head, or the current heatwave has frazzled my brain, but from being massively against Suarez coming to Arsenal, I am starting to come around to the idea that the Uruguayan could come to The Emirates.

Aside from his obvious attitude problems, my argument was that if we were going to spend £40 million plus on a player, then surely there is someone else out there who is a better fit for Arsenal. But then, maybe Arsene knows what he’s after and thinks Suarez is the man, and maybe that’s why we’ve cooled off getting Higuain.

Arsene’s transfer dealings of late have been hit and miss, and ironically, it is the more defensive positions where he has got things more right than wrong. You cannot deny that Mertesacker, Koscielny and Arteta have been excellent for us, while Podolski, Giroud and Gervinho have failed to set the world alight. We’ve also had Santos come in who has been nothing short of embarrassing.

But maybe with Champions League football and a “more likely” chance of winning the Premier League as opposed to Liverpool (don’t laugh) then he might be more focused and concentrate on scoring goals. Could some of the disturbing actions he’s been guilty of be down to playing in a side where they’re destined to finish 7th in the league? Could it be because he’s frustrated at losing too many games? At Arsenal, you would expect a side like us to create a decent number of clear opportunities per game for him.

A concern I’ve had is his shots to goals ratio. He was only the 23rd “most clinical striker” in the league last season and despite being second in the goal-scoring charts, his conversion rate is poor. Maybe that’s because he shoots from ridiculous angles, maybe it’s because he’s greedy, or maybe it’s because he doesn’t believe in his team mates. I’ve always felt that his finishing wasn’t the best, and we’ll all remember the number of chances he missed against us last season at Anfield when Arsenal took all 3 points thanks for Podolski and Cazorla.

If we’re serious in getting him, Arsene must truly believe that he can settle Suarez down and get the best out of him, and more importantly that he fits into the Arsenal style of play.

At the time of writing, the voting on this mornings poll was at 58% in favour of having Suarez join Arsenal. So have we Arsenal fans left our morals at the door because we’re so desperate for success? Or do we actually believe he can change and become that prolific striker we desperately need?

Let’s end with a positive video, one that includes his best ever goals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoHyH61ZUiM

There’s been a lot of opinion on the possibility of Arsenal signing Luis Suarez. When I first heard about the £30 million bid, my initial thoughts were that I didn’t want him at Arsenal and one of the reasons was because he is overrated. Added to the fact he is a racist who likes to eat other human beings, it would not be a good fit for us, in my opinion.

But now it seems Arsenal might increase their bid for him and test Liverpool’s resolve.

There is a definite split between Arsenal fans as to whether they want the Liverpool striker at The Emirates. Without trying to sound like Jeremy Clarkson, “some say” he’s exactly what we need – while others say he has no place at our club.

So I thought I would do a very simple poll to gauge supporter opinion – simply, do you want Luis Suarez at Arsenal?

I thought about having more than two answers but there are no other conditions really – if we take him then he will have the same attitude he’s had when he was at Liverpool and Ajax. Throughout his footballing career he hasn’t shown that he is capable of changing. He deliberately hand-balled a goal-bound shot in the World Cup, dives and cheats as well as being extremely outspoken. Whatever you think about Liverpool, they have supported Luis Suarez through his racist displays (even wearing Suarez t-shirts to show support) and through his other misdemeanours. Yet, he has constantly said he wants to leave Liverpool. And if he wasn’t content about saying he wants to “move abroad” because the media are persecuting him, he’s now turned around and said he would actually be open to a move to Arsenal.

You all know what I think about him. He’s a racist, cheat, diver and bites people. I don’t care how talented you are I don’t want to see him in an Arsenal shirt. As Arseblog pointed out, we’ve had players who have had problems before but those players have usually grown up with the club and shown remorse for their actions. We’ve never forked out £35 million plus for a player with a lot of problems.

So Luis Suarez – do you want him at Arsenal?

We’ve been linked with so many players this summer and in the end, only put in 2 official bids. £18.5 million for Lars Bender of Bayer Leverkusen and £30 million for Luis Suarez of Liverpool. The rest, are just paper talk and hearsay.

As well as the players mentioned, we’ve also been “linked” with Gonzalo Higuain, Stevan Jovetic, Julio Cesar, Wayne Rooney, Marouane Fellaini, Fernando Torres, Gareth Barry and Ashley Williams. But despite all of the rumours, we have yet to sign anyone.

Mikel Arteta has come out and said he believes that the time is now for Arsenal to spend big and create a squad that can really compete at the highest level and win trophies. He also said that the Arsenal dressing room a great place to be right now, as there is an excitement going around as to who Arsenal will bring in.

Oxlade-Chamberlain has also been positive about any possible signings, adding it adds competition for places and creates a stronger group of players overall.

So if the fans were excited about new arrivals, then so are the players it seems.

But who will we sign?

Arsenal are notoriously secretive about their transfer dealings and despite the season finishing over 2 months ago, we only know of 2 official bids that we have made.

With the media obviously making up stories and linking us with anyone who is available, who are we actually going to sign?

Who do you think Arsenal are chasing and who do you think will actually be an Arsenal player before the start of next season?

Answers on a postcard!

In the summer of 2011, which only 2 years ago, Arsenal lost one of their most popular players. At the time, he was the captain who had made over 300 appearances, scored 57 goals and made an impressive 100 assists – and he was only 24 years of age.

Cesc Fabregas was probably the biggest loss emotionally Arsenal have had for a long time. Players like Nasri, Adebayor and Van Persie have been and gone with hatred and resentment the main feelings, while Fabregas was a real icon at Arsenal. He came through the ranks, played alongside legends such as Bergkamp, Henry, Vieira and Gilberto, and was a massive part of our team. We’ve never had such a popular player leave at their peak, with players like Freddie, Bobby, Thierry, Dennis and Paddy leaving towards the end of their careers. So when Cesc left, it hurt. Badly.

I’ve bought every Arsenal home and away shirt since 1994. I’ve got a framed signed shirt from the 2005 FA Cup Winning Squad which is pride of place on the wall. Of all of the players I’ve seen since supporting Arsenal over 26 years, Cesc is one of the players I will always remember with great fondness.

He had fantastic vision, a great range of passing, could score some fantastic (and important) goals and most of all, he wore the shirt with pride. When he stepped onto the pitch with Arsenal, it mattered.

When he finally left, I remember watching compilations of him and getting teary. I’m not afraid to admit I got very emotional when Cesc moved on to Barcelona.

But now, there is a real possibility that Cesc could come back to Arsenal. Manchester United have placed a £25 million bid for the Spanish midfielder, but Arsenal have first refusal. So if we really wanted (and apparently we have the means to do so with our “war chest”) then we could beat United to the punch.

Arsenal rarely divulge their transfer targets but surely Manchester United’s £25 million bid would have alerted them and at least got Arsene Wenger thinking. How better to show the Arsenal fans that they were serious about turning things around and mounting a real challenge by having the return of the prodigal son?

So the big question is, would you welcome Cesc back to Arsenal?

I’ve already had a few messages on Twitter with people saying that they wouldn’t take him back because he’s not the same player he was but I would take him back in a heartbeat. A midfield of Cesc, Wilshere and Arteta, with Cazorla to boot? Yes please!

He left in 2011 for an initial fee of £25.6 million (which could end up being around £35 million depending on his success at Barcelona) so even if we got him for £30 million we wouldn’t have lost out too much. At the time, there was also a widely reported 50% sell on clause so depending on what Arsene is thinking, he may prefer to have half of any fee another club might pay for him.

Would Arsene Wenger consider taking him back? The relationship had always been more than amicable and even in Cesc’s first Barcelona press conference he told everyone how much he loved Arsenal and owed so much to Wenger.

And would Cesc consider coming back to Arsenal over moving to United? It’s clear that Manchester United are one of the teams that will be fighting for the title next season along with Manchester City and Chelsea.

Do we need to show our intent first by buying some top class players before Cesc would even think about moving back to Arsenal? Even though he loves Arsenal I’m sure if he was considering any move away from Barcelona one of the main issues would be how competitive the team is in terms of fighting for the major trophies.

So maybe he would need assurances that we were serious about bringing in some real quality this summer (remember, he’s seen this all when he was at Arsenal) before coming back to Arsenal.

A pipe dream? Perhaps, but I’ve seen stranger things happen!

So would you have Cesc back? Cast your vote below:

I posted an online poll at the weekend, asking if Arsenal fans wanted Gonzalo Higuain or Luis Suarez at the club. There were a few other options you could choose from, including; neither of them, both of them, someone else or I don’t think we’ll sign anyone.

And the winner with 44% of the votes was Gonzalo Higuain. This is interesting as it seems as if the move is now dead, and Arsenal are looking to increase their bid for Luis Suarez. The Liverpool striker was a close second in the voting, with 30% of the votes.

Interestingly, some supporters thought that Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski would be a better option, although it looks like he is off to Bayern Munich either this or next summer.

The main reasons why people preferred Higuain over Suarez included the fact he would be suspended for the first 6 games of the Premier League season, has a history of biting people and can get himself banned for long periods of time.

But according to John Cross, it seems that Arsenal have had encouragement about a possible deal for Suarez happening.

So I’ll guess we’ll have to just wait and see.