Time for Arsenal to move on and not allow themselves to be exploited

Everyone and their uncle knows that Arsenal need to strengthen significantly this summer and it is expected that clubs will seek a premium for their players but that does not mean that Arsenal should allow themselves to be exploited.

It is now being reported that Sampdoria wants €55 Million for Joachim Andersen and Dennis Praet, which is a bit of a jump up from the €44 Million we offered last week.

Apparently, the Serie A side reckons that Andersen is worth €30 Million and Praet worth €25 Million.

Now, the thing is this, there are other targets out there that are just as good on paper as those two but available for far less and we should know when to say no and move on.

This is one of the big problems these days with clubs outside of England, they see a Premier League club coming and whack up their prices accordingly and I will admit that is to be expected, they see how much we are making from TV money and they assume they can take advantage.

But just because our clubs are loaded with TV money does not mean we have to pay the inflated prices they are demanding and in my opinion, Andersen and Praet are not worth that amount of money.

Additionally, Premier League clubs have to abide by financial fair play rules, well, apart from Manchester City maybe and there is only so much they can keep splashing out.

If Andersen or Praet had Premier League experience that would be one thing but they don’t and it is not as if we do not have a record of buying players in the €30 Million range that have failed to transfer their form to the English game.

For me, it is time to walk away and look at alternatives.

33 Comments

  1. Before walking away to the alternatives, who are the alternatives and how much they worth. Saliba, my choice with Anderson, worth 25m, Palacio 20m who else are linked to that can do the job at less price. As much as I don’t enjoy these recycled rumour, it is better than lack of info from the club. I thought we were done with that with Ivan and Wenger out.

    1. To be honest I will 20m for Palacio for being South American and Argentine alone. We haven’t had much of those????. Have we?

  2. Cheaper alternatives such as….
    I didn’t really read that post but I scanned through for possible alternatives but you failed to mention any. The fact that a player is relatively unknown doesn’t mean he’s not good enough or worth a particular price. Torreira contended for our player of the year and he wasn’t really known before we signed him,so a player’s fame doesn’t matter at times.

    Now, I can’t say he’s a good player cos I’ve not seen him play, so at the same time I can’t say if he’s not good enough. I mean, you didn’t mention anything about their abilities and you think they’re not worth a particular price?

  3. I agree its time to move on. There are other players out there for less money, and silly to splash that amount of cash for these two. Hopefully management feels the same, and won’t waste weeks trying to haggle 5 million or so off the price tag.

    Still very early in the window, and no need to settle for these two without much movement from other clubs. Maybe with some movement from other teams opportunities will arise from which we can take advantage; that seems to be the operating procedure of Arsenal.

    Rather see Holding getting a good opportunity next year; he was starting to find some form and consistency.

    Prices tend to go up when English clubs go shopping, so no need to get taken advantage of by clubs selling.

    1. I agree Durand; we just have to have faith that the Arsenal scouting network has a number of options under consideration. Arsenal cannot afford to overpay due to the number of positions needing upgrading.

  4. 55 M is too big for two mediocre players that failed to bring their club to Champions League zone

    Arsenal can use that money to get three PL-proven players whose contract will expire in 2020:

    – LW or RW: Ryan Fraser
    – LW or RW: Ryan Sessegnon
    – CB: Eric Bailly

  5. Why are we never interested in players from EPL? Always looking abroad for solutions and get bang average players most of the time too.

      1. Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young were fantastic fullbacks/ wingbacks in their early days at Man United

        Andrew Robertson came from Hull City and he is the best attacking LB in EPL currently

      2. Uhhh most of Liverpool’s team. And City have gotten Delph, Stones, Mahrez, Sterling from within the league. Spurs have gotten Sissoko, Trippier, Dele Ali (lower leagues, but still), and notable amount are from their own academy. Chelsea have picked up Kante, Giroud, Barkley, Alonso has previously played in England. All our rivals have significant players in their squad that have come from other English teams. When I look at our squad, almost everyone is from abroad. And Lacazette, Auba and Leno are really the only standouts.

        1. Prices.

          Talent proven in the PL costs 40 – 60 mill. unless old like Giroud or as of yet unproven, which is a gamble. A gamble that Spurs and Liverpool seem to be good at, though.

          Doesn’t mean we should emulate it if our own version of the same has backfired:
          – Oxlade
          – Walcott
          – Chambers
          – Welbeck
          – Mkhitaryan

          we’ve had a lot of failures from players bought within the league because we can’t afford the best, but cannot identify the top up-and-coming talent.
          Ultimately our scouting seems incompetent…

          1. Good comment. I agree that our scouting seems to be a huge problem. This is why I don’t trust our signings abroad. They just rarely turn out to be good unless it is somebody of very known quality like Auba or Lacazette. Xhaka, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Sokratis, all average-below average players that haven’t really impressed. And now we are linked with Carrasco who nobody has cared about since he went to China. I don’t like it. Would rather go after Fraser. We know what we are getting with him. We know he can handle the league.

        2. To suggest that Anderson and Praet were responsible for their Team’s failure to qualify for the Champions League is utter nonsense.It’s like saying Leno and Lacazette were equally culpable for Arsenal.On a more constructive mode Anderson has most of the attributes needed to be a success in the PL apart from the fact that he is very slow on the turn.The fact that Praet rarely figures for Belgium is due to the fact that they have an abundance of top quality midfielders unlike England.They are also the highest ranked international side at present.

    1. PL Players are very expensive Wan bissaka 60m,Zaha 150m and not Zimbaewan Dollars bur sterling pounds

      1. Mane, Lovren, were not that expensive when you compare them to what they achieved. Kante, Chelsea got for cheap when we were going after Granit Xhaka in the same price range. I’ll admit City’s buys were all the most expensive EPL talents, but the rest of our rivals have done well buying EPL stars for prices that are not too crazy. Right now there is Fraser, Conor Coady, Ndidi who are all great players that can improve us, and are not absurd prices.

  6. Good glad we can move on now hopefully these players we’re never gonna help us or a upgrade on what we have currently.

    Torreira had a good world cup doesn’t mean everything we should keep buying from the same team these guys are bang avarage.

    Might as well stuck with Ramsey if this is the calibre of players we’re going for.

  7. Arsenal should pay the money, l believed these players had been scouted and watched properly. There is no need penny pinching, the difference should not be the reason for us backing out,except if the club management is looking at the fact that they are not good enough.

  8. Refusing to pay 10 million difference on the price is not penny pinching. We should say no deal to them and walk away. They will likely come chasing after us to do a better deal. If not, so be it. IMHO only Andersen is worth getting anyway.

  9. I dont if I am the only one.. being linked with players like praet, veretout, Palacios, saliba, Anderson, some CB called the viking I forget his actual name.. anyway.. now I know we dont have CL to offer nor do we seem to have a significant transfer war chest.. are you telling me that these types of player are wot we are aiming to take us to league titles and champions league titles.. NO they are not..

    Look at it this way..

    Sampadoria want 30m for Anderson? Well manolas has a 35m release clause I would sooner spend the 5mil extra and get manolas in..

    They then want 25mil for praet who to be fair looks lightweight or even 20odd mil for Palacios no thank u.. I’d sooner see Declan rice signed for 50mil than both these players!!

    But either way we will still be dithering around till atleast July before we sign anyone.. I’m hoping next 2 weeks

  10. We should not pay a penny more! In fact, we should pay nothing! They are a bunch of mediocre players that will only add onto an already bloated wage bill. Better no transfers than bad transfers.

    1. @QC,
      Can’t help but agree with you. For instance Anderson has never played a single game for his national side and also has no goal to his name for club side in 39 league games since 2017! Very mediocre stats indeed.

  11. When you have money you must learn to say no, opportunists will always be around you looking to exploit you if you are weak. If the board has refused to pay the fee am fully behind them!

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