It will end in tears

Well silly season has gone into hyperdrive in the last 24 hours. Coming days after Liverpool rejected a 35 million bid from Arsenal for their talisman striker, Arsenal decided to up the ante and activate a supposedly public clause in the Uruguayan striker's striker that means the club must inform him both him and his representatives of the offer. Granted the bid was done in completely tongue in cheek fashion by Arsene. 99p over the required the fee to activate the clause is completely un-Arsenal like and more importantly it does seem to suggest that unlike previous seasons we are saying money is not the major stumbling block it once was for us. However in the modern day of social media, 24 hour news coverage and intense scrutiny it seems a bit of a flawed clause. Surely if Arsenal have bid for the player then his agent, representatives and everyone under the Sun will be able to tell him of the bid?

What this move would have done is unsettle an already unsettled striker. It is well known that Suarez wants out of Liverpool. In his previous statements he has potentially burnt his bridges with the Merseyside club by slating the media, by slating the clubs supposed lack of support and suggesting he needs to be plying his trade in the Champions League. Will this bid force his hand to hand in a transfer request? I doubt it. Modern day footballers are too scared of losing loyalty bonuses to be man enough to do such a thing as handing in a request. It seems this could turn into a potential saga to rival Cesc Fabregas' long drawn out move to Barcelona 2 years ago.

What does this saga mean for Arsenal? Well while it can be viewed as a positive due to a new stance of making bids public, putting big numbers up for transfers and showing a huge slice of ambition I can't help feeling that this will all end up tears for Arsenal and Arsenal fans. Other transfer target Gonzalo Higuain appears to be on his way to Napoli, a confusing transfer considering the money we are reportedly offering Liverpool, meaning a sizeable fee to Real Madrid which can help them towards their rebuilding act. The talk has been of Gareth Bale joining Madrid but personally I don't see them making their move till next year. I believe Bale has been convinced to stay another year and if no champions league place is claimed he can leave. So that means Madrid will have to strengthen other parts of their team and most notably their front line. Luis Suarez fits this bill perfectly. Can I see Liverpool preferring to sell Suarez to Real as opposed to another premiership rival? Of course. Can I see Suarez preferring to go to Arsenal over Real? Not a chance. That's potential 2 transfer targets gone out of the window. Chelsea have been very vocal about their hopes of signing other reported target Wayne Rooney. Again that is likely to mean another potential target gone as we can't compete with the financial juggernaut that is Chelsea.

All in all I hope Wenger and the board know what they are doing because fans have started to turn up against the early post season optimism and want to see actions over words.

All's quiet on the Western front

Another weekend has passed and no activity as of yet on the Arsenal transfer front. Of course due to it being silly season it hasn't stopped the papers, journalists, online columnists and anyone with access to Twitter going wild. If you believe each of these sources everyone under the sun has been linked with Arsenal and on the verge of joining Arsenal and everyone has rejected a move to Arsenal.

Seems to make perfect sense to me, but while the team has been quiet on bringing in the new faces that have been desperately needed for the last 4 years there has been more of a ruthless streak to the club's dealings this summer. Gone appear to be the days where we would allow players to simply run down their contract and move to a club on a free or getting the cheapest available transfer fee. Take the example of Andre Santos and Denilson, two Brazilians who had time left on their contracts but the club decided with no possible buyers out there they have shown a mean streak of mutual terminating contracts and getting the players of the books. Bravo to the board, Wenger and all involved. While the same can't be said for the likes of Chamakh and Bendtner it marks a step in the right direction. The rumours of a transfer of Gervinho out of the club also looks to be on the horizon. Reports suggest Roma are potential suitors but the transfer fee banded around has been around the 8 million euro mark which would be a substantial hit on a talented but frustrating player.  If Arsenal play their cards right they could recoup their money back on the Ivorian however I fear we will need to accept the hit to move forward.

If deals for Bendtner, Chamkah and Gervinho could be reached it could potentially take our spending to -£12 million. No bad considering a warchest of 70 million has been touted. With 19 days till the new season kicks off and fans becoming irritated by constant spending by other rivals and other clubs around us it might be time for Arsenal to show their ruthless where it is really need. Off the pitch. Get the deals done before a ball is kicked at the Emirates and give the fans a huge lift before our opening game against Aston Villa and let us believe that this year will ACTUALLY be different.