What is going on with these transfer bids — and rebids?
A juicy rumour appears out of nowhere linking Arsenal to a player we can all see is exactly what the team need – you know you have seen those tidbits many times – right?
Then the next snippet comes out saying ‘club x’ refuses the bid.
Umm? Usually in short order another juicy morsel floats across the screen saying that ‘Arsenal make an improved offer for player x’ and we await with baited breath for the news that the offer has been accepted and the player to eventually be unveiled at the Emirates.
Except the media swiftly announce with unseemly glee that the new super dooper improved offer has been rejected, too.
That normally cues the delightful blogger rants about tight fisted Arsenal, or dithering AW, or …. Well you get the drift. So, what is really going on?
The above sequence is, of course, made worse by the news that Madrid or Chelsea or Manure or Citeh have smartly collared various top class (and some not too top class) players who will almost certainly improve their squads and simultaneously reduce our chances of winning the premier league.
It is clear that Arsenal are intent on buying new players and have already shown that by spending around £52m on La Caz, but seem to have run into trouble when making offers for Lemar and others, which has increased the fans’ frustration – and let’s be honest the Arsenal fans’ frustration does not take much to be unleashed.
Back to the earlier question; ‘what is really going on?’
Allowance has to be made for the media’s eagerness to invent stories to boost their ‘hits’ and many of the stories of various players that Arsenal have been linked with are absolutely and self-evidently untrue.
However, there are other stories that are so detailed that even the most cynical are led to believe there is some truth in them, no matter how unlikely.
Take for example the stories about Mbappe, and the very detailed news about how much we have offered for him, and the improved offers after the seemingly inevitable rejection and the ‘facts’ that other clubs are also interested or have lost interest in him and so on and so forth.
Like a juicy worm attracting a fish, with the fatal hook artfully concealed, the Gooner fans are drawn into believing that there is something intriguingly possible about this story and fatally their hopes are increased that a super talent is to be ours, only for Arsene to reveal in an interview that no bid has been made for Mbappe, let alone an increased bid, and none will be made as he is sure the youngster will either stay with his club or join one of the Gulf state clubs, Citeh, PSG, or a Spanish club, and you could hear the hopes of the fans crash to the floor.
Leaving aside the manipulation of the media and some copy cat blogs, there must be something else going on, because Arsenal’s campaign to buy La Caz ambled through much the same type of bid-rejection-increased bid- rejection-successful bid before agreeing personal terms with our new centre forward.
On to Lemar, our much desired target, wanted to perhaps replace Santi Cazorla, and we see much the same process being enacted, if the rumours are true in this case.
Why do we need to struggle so much to arrive at the willing buyer/willing seller scenario so that we can acquire the player? Are we really being financially mean? Is Mr Wenger really dithering by being undecided as to whether we need Lemar – or should it perhaps be Mahrez? Oh, why can’t Wenger just simply agree to pay whatever the amount the other club are asking for the player from the outset. After all is said and done (again) they have the power in these circumstances, don’t they?
Now this, I think, is where many of the club’s detractors, and of course Wenger’s too, simply overlook a simple and obvious fact – the majority of the top clubs, and some of those in the second tier, from whom we want to buy relevant top players, are owned by incredibly rich men, known as oligarchs for a good reason, or bottomless money pits, known as state-owned clubs, and we all know who they are, simply do not need the money, however much is offered.
The only way these mega rich clubs will sell their players is if they have a vested interest in doing so – the manager does not see the player fitting in with the team selection or style — the player and the manager do not get on – the player is not getting as much playing time as he wants and is agitating for a move – and so on.
So, these stories of bids and rejections and improved bids are unlikely to be true – it is more than likely a club has to register an interest in a player they want to buy, and wait to see if his club makes its mind up to sell – and letting the other clubs and the player’s agent know, and then sit back and await the club who are prepared to match their transfer valuation and meet the player’s personal terms, while they go through the same process to recruit a replacement.
Financial meanness or dithering do not come into it, so those people giving the club or the manager grief should take a breath and give them, and him, a break. It’s not transfer money that is key here – even £200m for someone like Neymar is just petty cash to these ultra-wealthy club owners – the key is, they will only sell when and if the player is deemed to be no longer of benefit to them.
There are always wheels within wheels in these things!
Written by Zee
Posted by Jeremy Bongo 
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 