Wednesday 24 July 2013

It will end in tears

Photo of Liverpool striker Luis Suarez

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.


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