Former footballer and pundit Stan Collymore has had his say on the way Arsenal are conducting their transfer business this summer and he has not held back in his opinion.
Now, Collymore does not carry much credibility because of his antics in his personal life and while I do not personally agree with a lot of what he says his comments are good for a debate.
Writing in the Sunday people, the former England and Aston Villa forward called out Arsenal for the £40 Million bid for Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha
“I’m not sure what Arsenal are playing at, offering £40m for Wilfried Zaha,” Collymore wrote.
“Not when they know he’s valued at double that by Crystal Palace, who sold promising, but inexperienced, full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka to Manchester United for more than that.
“It smacks of Arsene Wenger’s days at the club, when he was on a crusade for financial prudence in football and didn’t want to fuel a transfer market fire already burning out of control.
“I thought they had moved beyond that mentality and had brought their transfer policy into the 21st century, but clearly not.
“Unai Emery obviously likes Zaha, and that’s easy to understand because he’s fast, strong and aggressive and only 26.
“As that’s the case, pay the going rate and stop embarrassing yourselves with bids that won’t succeed and just make you look foolish.”
He further goes on to compare our transfer dealings to that of Tottenham but I will not bore you with that part.
So, does he have a point? Are we embarrassing ourselves?
Personally, I do not think we are, I do feel that we are acting like amateurs and that all we have achieved is to annoy the hell out of Palace but Arsenal are not the first and will not be the last club to put in a lowball figure.
Also, Palace are having a laugh valuing Zaha at £80 Million, he is not worth that and they are in cuckoo land if they think a club will pay that.
But of course, Collymore will not call out Palace, it is far more lucrative in terms of getting peoples attention to have a go at Arsenal.
Anyway, that is my opinion. Do you think Collymore is right? Has Arsenal embarrassed themselves?