The problem with having a low budget is that you are very limited in what you can do with that budget and for Arsenal, the solution is to bid low and hope for the best.
According to the media, that is exactly what happened with Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney with Arsenal tabling an offer of £15 Million, ten million below the Hoops asking price of £25 Million.
The bid was rejected out of hand and it is the second such offer that the Gunners have failed with.
Arsenal initially offered up Carl Jenkinson, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Emile Smith Rowe or Eddie Nketiah in some sort of swap deal but that appears to have been rebuffed thus the straight cash offer.
So, in conclusion, we offer a swap deal, no good, then we offer up £10 Million below the asking price, no good either, so what next?
Well, the same report is claiming that another bid is expected within the next few days so it is a case of wait and see.
But I sense a pattern here, there have apparently been multiple bids for William Saliba, Dennis Praet and Joachim Andersen just to name a couple and while that is fine, you never go in with your maximum first time out but Saliba’s club St Etienne are losing patience and Tottenham have moved in on Joachim Andersen.
There are other examples and the feeling that I am getting is that whoever is handling these reported bids is struggling to get to grips with the process.
All this dithering and low balling is letting other clubs in and annoying the clubs we want to do business with.
Celtic named their price, either bid close to it or not at all because when you offer just over 50% of the asking price you give the impression that you are not really serious.
Anyway, another bid is expected for the 22-year-old left back, let’s see if Arsenal are more serious next time around.