This is just my theory, of course, but I think that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have just suffered a real blow in the summer transfer busdiness and I lay the blame firmly at the feet of Man United. The Old Trafford club’s decision to pay way over the odds for Angel Di Maria is having knock-on effects and they are not in favour of the Gunners.
I am not saying that United have agreed to pay what some media outlets like The Mirror claim could be as much as £72 million, has been done to hurt the Gunners. That would be paranoid and daft, but I do think it is the reason for Real Madrid suddenly deciding that they will keep hold of Sami Khedira despite the fact the German will be leaving them for nothing next summer.
There were rumours and reports that Wenger was about to launch a move for Khedira for a cut rate transfer fee of around £12 million, which may well have been enough even though the Spanish club wanted more, because they also need to watch the balancing of their books. Now they have made United pay at least £20 million more than Di Maria should have cost, they can afford to keep Khedira, leaving Arsenal and Wenger with very little time to sort out an alternative. So what now?