Former Gunner Ray Parlour has urged Arsenal to follow in the footsteps of Liverpool and spend big this summer.
Quite a simple demand to make and one we would all love the club to implement if it was not for some pesky little problems with that desire.
Speaking to the Daily Star, Parlour had this to say
“They are a long way behind Liverpool and Manchester City. Maybe they have to spend a bit more money.
“You see what Liverpool did – they needed a centre-back and in comes Virgil van Dijk. Nobody mentions how much he cost now. The same with Alisson in goal.
“It’s all about investment. As much as I hate to say that money is everything, but it’s always gone that way.
“Sometimes you have to go beyond your budget, absolutely.
“If you can attract a player and you know he is very keen to go, sometimes you have to push the boat out a little bit further and take the gamble.”
You see, the problem with this from Parlour is that he leaves out some very critical elements when it comes to Liverpool buying Virgil van Dijk and Alisson.
Liverpool sold Phillipe Coutinho to Barcelona for a whopping £142 Million and that puts money in the kitty, without that and other sales Liverpool would simply not have had that sort of money to splash out.
It is irritating when these pundits, especially former Gunners, come out and say do this, do that because another club did it without actually including how they did it.
Anyone can say, let’s follow Liverpool, let’s follow Man City and leave out the huge sales and Champions League runs that the Reds enjoyed and the punishment facing Man City for their largesse.
The bottom line is we can follow the Liverpool model but that means selling our high-value assets to finance new acquisitions.
Is that what Parlour is really urging when he says follow Liverpool?