As the end of the summer transfer window drew close and Arsenal still had not added to the squad since the early signing of Granit Xhaka, the very cheap addition of young Rob Holding from the lower leagues and the Japanese forward Takuma Asano who did not even have a work permit to play in England, the fans were beginning to get desperate.
So many of us were starting to wish that Arsene Wenger would spend money on anybody and were mightily relieved that he did just that in the final days. In the cold light of day, however, we can take a more objective look. The jury is out on the Spanish forward Lucas Perez as many of us know very little about him.
At least he was not a mega money transfer, though, unlike the other late buy Shkodran Mustafi, who became one of the most expensive players in the club’s history. Mustafi is at least a full and regular international with Germany and all of us are hoping that his transfer fee proves to be justified, but there is a suggestion from Spain that we might be a little disappointed.
Metro have reported that Roberto Fernandez who is the sporting director of La Liga champions FC Barcelona has suggested that the Gunners may have paid way over the odds for the German defender and if that is true, in these days of crazy money being spent on players by Premier League clubs, perhaps he will not turn out to be the player we needed after all.
The official said, ‘I think we’ve done good deals.
‘Umtiti in the current market would be worth a lot more.
‘The Premier League ended up paying €40m for Mustafi, for example.’
Barca paid not much more than half of Mustafi’s price to Lyon for Umtiti, but is that just because English clubs are being overcharged or have we got the better player?
Bob.