Are the Zaha rumours just a smokescreen? It won’t be the first time….

Five Other Times Arsenal Did A Zaha by Dan Smith

I remember reading a few comments a few weeks ago when I played down rumours that our budget was over 45 million .
Do the maths I was asked …….

Add up our bids I was told ……

Well now I ask some of you to do the maths! You don’t struggle to meet a 25 million asking price for Tierney if you have between 70-100m to play with. You don’t take funds out of next year’s kitty just to save a few quid on Saliba. And if you really are determined to get Zaha, you don’t start the bidding at half his valuation.
Of course, none of those deals have been completed. In fact, with the sale of Ospina, a percentage we might get from any deal for Ismael Bennacer and 3 highly paid stars off the wage bill, we continue to find ways to save money rather than spend it.

I have felt throughout the summer, Zaha is simply a smoke screen. Make customers think we have ambition, so they rush out and buy new shirts. Some gooners actually believe we will find the money Palace want. This isn’t me pretending that I know, just simply the evidence in front of us. For us to pay a record 80 million fee, Stan Kroenke would have to do something he’s never done. In the last decade he’s the only owner not to put his own wealth into the club, not one pound.
Earning so much from TV revenue and having signed an Adidas deal only bettered by Man United and Barcelona’s sponsorships, why would this campaign be any different. The whole saga is not out of the ordinary, it’s actually fairly common for us to play this game this time of the year.
Be linked with a big name to raise hope, make a bid they know will be refused, haggle for a few weeks, then say ‘at least we tried’ ….

Benzema
It became a yearly tradition for us ‘to be in talks ‘ with Benzema to the point he had some fun with the rumours on social media. He would often wait a couple of days before the window closed and laugh at us for thinking he would choose us over Real Madrid. Perez labelled a 40 million bid embarrassing (sound familiar), and guess what? No second bid followed…

Lemar
Remember two years ago when we wouldn’t listen to Monaco’s valuation of Lemar? We ended up panicking with a few hours of deadline day left, suddenly willing to pay 90 million after a u turn on Sanchez when we had months to make up our minds. This was so last moment the player hadn’t even discussed with his family the prospect of moving to England. This was so pie in the sky we had zero representatives in France to push the deal over the line, leaving it to our French Gunners to convince him with it being the international break.

Vardy
When Arsenal triggered his 20 million release clauses, the striker said he needed some time to think, originally saying he would announce his intentions after Euro 2016. I know he had just become a champion, but never should a Leicester player be pulling us along. If you want to be a big club, you act like one. Could you imagine someone telling Sir Alex he would let you know in a month?

Eventually he said he never entertained the thought of moving to the Emirates. Which of course is what the Foxes want to hear, but if that was the truth, he would have said it from day 1 and not put his wife through online trolling. The reality is he picked the comfort zone out of trying something different.

Higuain
Everyone from the player’s father to Arsene Wenger himself said he was days away from joining in a 23-million-pound deal. Then we (wrongly) thought Suarez had a buyout clause and got arrogant. We essentially put the Argentinian on hold while seeing if we could get someone better. Not surprisingly the striker didn’t feel valued as much. So, while we were indecisive (sound familiar) Napoli stole a march on us and he went to Italy . So, whoever got this wrong information about Suarez not just made us look silly but cost us a world class striker.

Suarez
Arsenal.didn’t mean any disrespect with their famous 40 million- and one-pound bid, they genuinely believed such a sum gave them the legal right to offer him a contract. The reality was, the only clause that had been triggered was Liverpool having to inform their star man of our interest. As soon as the Uruguayan made it clear he wanted to join us and started to throw his toys out of the pram, we should have gone for 55 but we wouldn’t take that extra step. He would have won us the title the following season.

Dan Smith

36 Comments

  1. Our back room team are an embarrassment to this club ,the thing is we see it every transfer window so it comes as no surprise to me .
    2 weeks ago we bid for Zaha ,knowing full well he was away at the AFCOM .we put a bid in,make him come out and say that he wants to leave and then leave him high and dry and making him look like a fool to their fans as we go quite and we hear nothing What’s happening.
    Why hasn’t Emery come out and told us our plans (if he as I’ve missed it )fans keep saying our club as changed ,but from where I’m watching it’s more pathetic than it’s ever been.

    1. Emery is “Head Coach” at Arsenal; it would be inappropriate for him to publicly comment on scouting or contract negotiations being carried out by others.
      Arsenal has always appeared to operate in a Macchavellian way with contracts and the lack of information from the club means that the media make up their own stories.

      1. Why would it be inappropriate to tell us what positions hes aiming to fill, what his plans for the upcoming season ?
        Will he give us more entertaining football than that dross we saw last season ?
        Will he stop messing around with formations and tactics ?
        Will he stop playing players like iwobi,mustafi and Xakha ?
        I didn’t mention scouting or contract negotiations .

        1. Dan, we can disagree on this one. I have experience in corporate structures, where even though an officer may be the source of the knowledge, he or she may not be authorised to comment to the media on such issues.
          At least Emery was honest during the January transfer window when he told us that Arsenal only had sufficient funds for loans, not transfers. Previously we would have been told “there was no quality availae in the market.”
          As far as answering your other questions, we will have to wait and see. Regardless of how Emery performs coaching the players made available to him, he is only contracted for the coming season. It is Arsenal, which has the right to extend Emery’s contract.
          Should Emery not meet expectations, he will leave at the end of the season at no cost to Arsenal.
          Kroenke and the Board appear to have worked out that they have to spend less replacing coaches every couple of seasons, than addressing the known deficiencies of the Arsenal squad.

  2. Half of Arsenal rumors are a guise to sell more merch. Our club is the most anti-fan club in the world, of course the Zaha rumors were a smokescreen.
    What is deeply worrying is the fact that nothing big has happened transfer-wise and it’s mid-July already. I guess whatever was wrong with the club is still wrong with the club.

  3. I’m gutted about Wilf… after that bid, I became very excited… now nothing, all gone quiet.. I bet we’ve given up on him now – too pricey!!

  4. My hopes are not high for transfers
    Consequently my hopes are not high for a top 4 or even top 5 finish

    It’s a good way to avoid great disappointment

  5. OT

    Its infuriating that Ziyech WANTS to come here for only £30 million and Emery doesn’t seem interested or maybe hampered by lack of funds or both

    There. Had to get that off my chest

    1. I watched Ziyech played

      He is more of a no 10 than a specialist winger. Perhaps that’s why no big club bid on him and Fekir (only Real Betis is interested)

      We need a winger in the mold of Salah or Mane, not another no 10

      1. If we can’t get someone like Salah or Mane then I’d be happy with Ryan Fraser to be honest

    2. Where is the proof that Emery isn’t “interested in Ziyech”? Maybe Emery, like many of us, believes what funds are available should be used to upgrade the defense?

  6. The truth is ever since the wenger days, the transfer window has been Arsenal’s biggest nightmare, they don’t like to sell or sign players. I’m sure they would prefer the window never existed, it has been deeply rooted into the culture of this club to hate the transfer window. Arsenal would rather keep a terrible player for years just because they don’t want to have to replace him, the risky nature of the market as regards spending money scares the sh*t out of them.

  7. Because of the new Adidas deal, Arsenal have to buy a popular player or they could lose a lot of fans

    But I’m afraid it’s gonna be a fringe player like Malcom, instead of Zaha

    We need a good left-footed RW, but the one that has decent right leg to race with the opponents and does not always force himself to cut inside. For instance, Pepe and Chukwueze

    1. I don’t think this is true..
      They can do what they want and they will still have people cueing up to buy seats.

      That’s why they have us over a barrel.
      Upwardly mobile football fans and tourists who can afford the expensive season tickets will keep them afloat and do they care one bit. Of course they don’t as long as the books look good and we are ‘perceived’ to be competing;)

      Edit through the gift shop!

        1. Why would a tourist buy a season ticket, rather than simply buying match day tickets?

          1. Because they have lots of money and it’s a drop in the ocean. I know of instances where very expensive houses are owned in the UK (in the high millions) and the owners frequent them a few times a year only.

            Like I say a lot of money!

          2. Fair enough ArseOverTit; that also accounts for some of the empty seats at the Emirates, despite high ticket sales.

  8. Sky sports report we have made an 25m bid for tierney. I think we can be sure of getting him now. Next complete Saliba and we have a defense for 6 years, bellerin, holding Salina tierney.

    1. That guy is better than zaha by my estimation and younger too. Though I wouldn’t mind having zaha. Malcolm is bang average.

      1. Malcom doesn’t suit the Premier League. His stamina plus defensive contribution (pressing) is insufficient for a player that isn’t on Hazard’s level attack-wise. I wouldn’t say he’s average, though, and at 22, he can still develop a little bit with the right coach – like Klopp or Pocchettino.

  9. Pfff

    I do get that with a club with no action it’s difficult to come up with reality based articles..but come on people…another blah blah on Zaha?

    We will sign:

    Tom tit
    No One
    Jack Sheet
    Chea p n young

  10. The drag it out for ever transfer policy is because
    of poor transfers in recent seasons.

    Perez fee 16m Sold 4m.
    Debuchy fee 15m. free transfer.
    Welbeck fee 16m. free transfer.
    Sanchez fee 36m. free transfer.
    Ramsey (MV) 50m Free transfer.
    Cazorla fee 17m free transfer.
    Wilshere(MV)15m free transfer.
    Mertz fee 14m Retired.
    Cech fee 12m Retired.

    About 190 mill loss in transfer funding in 2 seasons.
    But there’s more coming.
    Mustafi 41m Aubameyang 60m Socrits 30m Ozil 42m are losing value fast
    and no one will pay their salaries unless they go to China and most don’t.
    How can we move them on before they too leave on a free?
    We stand to lose another 170m on top of the 190m already lost.
    Teenage cheapies, jurassic freebies + one fan pleasing marquee is the Arsenal way now.

  11. Ok Wikipedia it says that everton soares is currently Arsenal player ?? Any truth to this or is this just crap?

  12. Any news on Spurs meeting with Saint-Etiene yesterday over Saliba. How did go.? By now he should be spurs players

    1. Mobella you just spoke my mind. I was gonna say that. If that was good ol kev,by now Phil would be trying to strangle him with his grey hair.

    2. I don’t see why Saint-Etiene wouldn’t accept Spuds bid. It will come down to what Saliba wants and we will just have to hope for the best.

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