Arsenal have been accused of ‘tapping-up’ Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling, but are they innocent?
The goalposts are certainly flexible when it comes to the terms of unlawful pursuits of players, with a number of big clubs given huge leeway when it comes to talking about rival clubs stars, and Arsene Wenger is one to claim victim of such offences.
Alexis Sanchez was most certainly being tapped-up during the campaign and the summer, while Hector Bellerin also appears to have been strongly pursued by Barcelona, and the player was even claimed to have handed in a transfer request during the close-season.
Virgil Van Dijk was the biggest supposed target who was unlawfully pursued by Liverpool, with the Reds being forced to apologise to Southampton, who in turn refused to allow the player to switch.
Arsenal and Chelsea were also claimed to have been interested in his signature, but no official contact is believed to have been made, and one reporter even speculated that no offer came in because those clubs also made contact through the wrong channels.
The North-London side are now claimed to be pursuing City’s Sterling wrongfully, as they are believed to be hoping to tempt his current club with some sort of swap deal for Alexis Sanchez in January.
Alan Brazil said: “Is that not tapping up?
“The window’s shut now so we shouldn’t be talking about this until January, should we?
“And Arsene Wenger’s always whinging about tapping up.
“You know it’s illegal, it’s a joke. You should just get on with it. If you’re Sterling, how do you feel if you’re Sterling?”
Have Arsenal been out of order in their pursuit of Raheem? Have they done any worse than City have when Alexis is concerned?
Pat J
If Sterling wants to join Arsenal, it would be a miracle. And Arsenal do not a player like him, they already have similar players like Welbeck, Walcott and Nelson.
Rather than pursuing Sterling, Arsenal had better focus on PSG’s fringe players, like Draxler, Pastore, Moura and Di Maria. They seem to be able to read the games better and more technical.
Is it also not a tapping up when we constantly reading on tabloids that Alexis will be moving to Manchester city, Manchester united, and PSG in January. The guys will stop talking about Arsenal.
This has to be a joke?
Alan F**king Brazil at Talks**t. They have always had an agenda against Arsenal which is quite frankly embarrassing.
The rumour of an apparent swap deal written in some tabloid rag and he is reporting on it as if its fact. Tool!
Yeah well to be honest it goes both ways. Mancity interest in sachez was reported by the tabloid which could just be a fact or a rumour. Actually we don’t know because neither arsenal nor Mancity confirmed their interest in alexis.
Alan Brazil? Who is this clown? He should brush up on his definition of “tapping up”. When Barca post Twitter messages about how they would love to have Bellerin on their team, that’s tapping up. When Pep goes on record saying that Alexis is a great player, and would certainly make City stronger, that’s tapping up. When some tabloid paper pulls a rumor out of thin air that we’d like to have Sterling as part of the Sanchez deal, that’s called BS.
And when Wenger tells everyone what a great player shawn wright Phillips is, that’s tapping up
I find it hard to believe that most clubs don’t in one form or an other tap up players including Arsenal.
The only defense or proof Wenger has, on the contrary, is that he didn’t even know Lemar didn’t want to join us before making a last minute “bid” for him. So if we don’t speak to the player during the transfer window perhaps we also don’t do it when the window is closed. 🙂