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.

My first post about Higuain possibly joining Arsenal was on 24th May 2013. Considering I am slow on the uptake that means the rumours started at least 7 weeks ago. Or over 49 days ago. Or 1,185 hours ago. You get the message.

Clearly, the deal isn’t happening now. Not even Arsenal, who have a record of f*cking up transfer deals would take this long on a successful transfer. Like Cahill, Jagielka, Mata and others before them, we have yet again failed to capture a quality signing.

We’ve been linked with so many names this summer it’s unreal. More than Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Barcelona and Real Madrid combined. If you believed the media, they would tell you we’ve been “linked” with Fernando Torres, Gareth Barry, Wayne Rooney, Lars Bender, Gonzalo Higuain, Luis Suarez, Ashley Williams, Julio Cesar and Marouane Fellaini. And I’m sure I’ve missed off a few names from that list.

And of those “linked” players it seems as if we’ve genuinely been interested in at least a couple of them. But reports of not wanting to pay the release clause fee (Fellaini) or the asking price (Williams) or just simply putting in low offers that will never be accepted (Suarez) are all to common.

I don’t think there’s a club in the world that has used so many excuses not to successfully sign a player.

But I think there is a bigger problem we face.

We cannot sign anyone of top class quality anymore. It’s just not possible.

The main reason is we don’t appeal to players who have ambition at the highest level, and are merely a stepping stone for players from “lesser” clubs. Look at the signings we have made over the last few seasons, they include Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud, Gervinho, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Nacho Monreal, Santi Cazorla and Mikel Arteta. While they are very good players, and some have done outstandingly well for us, they are not players of the very highest calibre. They are very good players, but not players you would find in the Premier League’s team of the season.

Just look at the clubs we purchased those players from. They include FC Koln, Montpellier, Lille, Lorient, Werder Bremen, Malaga and Everton. For those players, joining Arsenal is definitely a step up. However, if you’re already at Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City (like Higuain, Torres, Suarez and Barry) then why would you join Arsenal? Is it really a step up? And in all honesty, in a sport which is dominated by money then why would they even consider taking a pay cut?

Most footballers now are mercenaries, who would rather see out their contract (Malouda for example) than move on and play somewhere else for less money. Gone are the days of Ray Parlour who famously didn’t even read his contracts and just asked where to sign.

When we won trophies we were an attractive team to join. We already had world class players like Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Tony Adams and David Seaman, and over the years brought in players of the calibre of Marc Overmars, Thierry Henry, Davor Suker, Nwankwo Kanu, Robert Pires, Sylvain Wiltord, Jose Antonio Reyes and Sol Campbell. And we also managed to attract young talent such as Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie who would develop into world class footballers.

But since our 8 year slump that’s all stalled. We attract decent players who are on the second tier of quality and do very well, but aren’t from the top shelf. If we were going to use the shopping analogy, we’ve been buying our groceries from Tesco, not Waitrose. If we were an action movie it would be starring Steven Seagal, not The Rock.

But how can we turn this all around? For the first time in a while, we seem to have a solution to stop this vicious circle of mediocrity. We have a “war chest” and at last, some financial clout in the transfer market.

The big question is though, are we ever going to actually use it?