Well I wasn’t going to write anything else about Suarez, but let’s face it, what the hell else is there to write about for Arsenal fans? We may sign someone one day, but it’s August and so far we have one free transfer in and about a dozen free transfers out. Yes, all right, a small amount of money has changed hands to get rid of Denilson and get Djourou on loan, but that’s about as exciting as it gets.
Two bids for Suarez have apparently been turned down, the second one a cheeky bid of £40,000,001. I wouldn’t normally use the term ‘cheeky’ in case it were construed as an attempt to look like a loveable chirpy Cockney, but in this case it’s actually valid. You don’t get much cheekier in football than adding an odd pound on to a bid to activate a clause. Not that it seems to have done much good.
As it happened, while I was sitting around thinking whether I could be bothered to write anything at all, I came across this Times piece from April, immediately after Bitegate. 
Tony Evans (who I think is a Liverpool supporter), rules out the possibility of Liverpool wanting to sell their best player despite how much trouble he is, on the basis that Liverpool need to add to their stock of quality players rather than reduce it if they’re ever going to get back in the Champions League. True enough.
He also says there is definitely no £40m buyout clause, though the fact he mentions that figure and the subsequent action on bids certainly shows that the figure means something.
There may be a case for selling Suarez at £60m and replacing him with a few lower quality buys, says Evans, though I can’t really see the logic there. In any case Liverpool’s buying record in the £15m-£20m zone is pretty poor. As is their buying record in the £35m zone if it comes to it.
He finishes by saying Liverpool should value the bitey one at £75m. If that’s the case I can tell you now Arsene is never going anywhere near that figure. And rightly so.
By way of light relief, here’s another piece from Giles Smith in The Times, from way back in January, when QPR and ‘Arry were still in the Premier League – you remember those days. What fun they were.
Twitter: @AngryOfN5
angryofislington 
You forget we sold our young Italian keeper Vito to Sunderland for actual monies!
You’re right – I did forget.
At first I was shocked that Wenger had bid the 40 million +1 at all, but in hindsight he had also had a 30 million bid for Goetze turned down last year, so the old fox has been headed this direction for some tome. Clearly he isn’t keen on spending but when he is willing he prefers gambling on players who bring something a bit different.
One starts to get the the impression that this is likely Wenger’s final contract before he heads off to PSG and he has been hoarding his stash for one last roll of the dice. Question is who?
In Suarez’s case he brings baggage. But perhaps Wenger feels he can get at least one year of decent behaviour and high performance from the guy before he heads off to Paris, at which point the great cantakerous little bugger would be Steve Bould’s problem after that. In that case 40 million? 50? Same difference. Main issue would be timing the next bid at a point where LIverpool was destabilized enough to sell. Already their captain is concerned enough to set off the alarm bells.
More far-fetched concept is maybe this is part of a Wenger bluff designed to pry loose Benzema, wouldn’t obviously want want to sit the bench behind Suarez and C. Ronaldo in a world cup year. And therefore Wenger bid the bare minimum needed to kick off the Suarez sale process. We know Wenger has had a longstanding interest in Benzema and he does fit the profile.
Whatever the case, the chances are basically zero that Suarez will not at some point do something else stupid and juvenile and completely embarrass his new club.
“Whatever the case, the chances are basically zero that Suarez will not at some point do something else stupid and juvenile and completely embarrass his new club.”
And this is why I wouldn’t pay a plugged nickel for Suarez. He is not worthy of the uniform. Period.
Sorry, forgot to speak English there: And this is why I wouldn’t pay tuppence for Suarez. He is not fit to wear the kit. Full stop.
Still struggling to come to terms with the very idea of this guy playing for us, and still loathe the thought.
Liverpool seem to be valuing Suarez in a price range that might have some credibility without his baggage, Few clubs can afford that sort of money and its seems that they (Madrid for sure) have made it clear that they wouldn’t touch him with a bargepole (neither should we). With that in mind, Liverpool’s strategy seems to be to scare anyone off with big numbers.
Their problem is rightly or wrongly, Suarez feels he is in a set of circumstances where the club agreed to let him go, so feels screwed over, which means this will all get very interesting….
Me? I’d rather see us go after Benteke and give Giroud some competition, or better still put a cheeky bid in for Dzeko (who could well end up 4th choice at city again), or maybe both — it would be harder on wages, but right now we might be able to get both for what it might cost to prize Suarez from Liverpool.
Also, the fact is that Suarez is 26. Arsenal would likely give him a 4 year contract. And we KNOW Arsenal would not re-sign him when the time to review his contract comes at 28 or 29. Arsenal is also wildly averse to taking accounting hits on players
So if all this is true, Wenger must be convinced that not only can this guy behave himself for 3 years but can prove to be still worth a huge sum of money at the end of that time.
Really hard to believe….
Suarez is clearly going to be worth less in 3 years than he is now, so if Arsenal buy him they’re going to lose money. (Another reason why I don’t want him.) But I wouldn’t say they’re wildly averse to writing money off – they wrote off Park’s value in the accounts last year.
Sorry but that statement makes no sense: Arsenal wrote of Park and therefore we cant say they are averse to writing off money? Why do you we have a long list of “dead” players who were on the books the past few years?
You cant post a lone example and say that negates an entire prevailing trend.
I suspect what is behind this is that its a counterweight to the open hand that Wenger has on the player budget. He can spend it as he likes, but if he makes mistakes then the executive/club side expects him to either make do with the player he has or take the loss out of his own budget. In turn Wenger expects the dud players to either accept not playing or take the loss on their own budget in order to get playing time elsewhere. Thus we get a log jam, which has not loosened until the budget increased, out of which these losses are now being taken.
As for Suarez, Wenger does not do 30 year old strikers, so Wenger must be convinced that he is a missing piece that will make the club wildly succesfull – in which case he will get flogged of in 2-3 years, at which point Sanogo should be entering peak and Akpom getting in his stride.
One hell of a gamble at this. Personally for 40-50 million, I would have thought it was a no brainer to spend 25-30 bulk on Jovetic, still leaving enough to buy Capoue or Kondogbia and central defender.
Wenger must see things in Suarez that we cant. But I’m just not convinced that he can play that well AND not blow up and get suspended again. He probably acheive, one or the other but is not capable of both IMO.
Will be interesting to see how this plays out, because for all of LIverpool’s bluster, it seems that they are expecting to sell him and are down to basically posturing in order to wring out Wenger’s wallet and appease their fans by not appearing to roll over too quickly.
I knew that would set you off. So predictable.
You said ‘wildly averse’. That implies they are likely to avoid it at almost any cost, which they clearly don’t.
That Park is such a rare and memorable case proves the point, so you’re heading nowhere. Not surprised that you’re more interested in argument than football