The Joyless Silly Season, Gooner-Style

I promised to write less about Arsenal during the summer break, but us Gooners again find ourselves on the cusp of major depression. The silly season is just that, full of rumour after rumour, with Arsenal linked to almost every available player. Yet we have made but one meager signing, and that for free and for the future. Two of our main targets are already gone, with Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic off to rival Man City and Real frontman Gonzalo Higuain to Napoli, and the Rafael Benitez project. The Jovetic interest dried up when the price was set above Wenger’s appraisal and rumours of a switch to Juve materialized. Instead Man City snatched him up last week for 22 million pounds, only slightly above what we were willing to play. But this is not as disheartening as it seems as he is clearly a talented player and has major potential upside at the young age of 23, but has a rather meager goal total (35 goals in 116  matches for Fiorentina and 12 in 33 for Montenegro). We then moved on to Higuian, whose numbers are substantially more impressive for Real (107 in 187) and Argentina (20 in 32). According to rumours, the deal was days away at 23 million pounds, but then Real balked with the excuse that they were waiting for their new manager, Carlo Ancelotti, to arrive. Today we find out he was sold to Napoli for 34 million pounds. This was admittedly far above our valuation of 22 million but, given the available remaining top striker talent, would have been a reasonable investment.

Now all our hopes remain in two baskets, both with rather large holes that could again leave egg on Wenger’s face. The main target is Luis Suarez and we just bid an astounding 40,000,001 pounds for his services, though it was quickly rejected by Liverpool. Brendan Rodgers and the board are clearly hoping to keep their best player at the Kop, or maybe sell him outside of England. Real are rumoured to be interested, but only value the Uruguayan star at 25 million. Wenger and the board are confident they can prised away the immensely talented, and troubled striker, but will Liverpoool give him away for anything less than 50 million – most of our available summer signing pot? It is still to be seen, though he could certainly facilitate the move by putting in a transfer request. The allure of Champion’s League football and working with a man known for helping get the best of strikers (from Henry to Bergkamp to trader RVP) might be enough to convince him, but what of the long trophy drought and perception of a declining empire? The other target seems even less likely, unless Chelsea turn their attentions elsewhere. He is, of course, the unsettled Man U striker Wayne Rooney. Capturing Rooney could be a coup for the Gunners, as he shouldn’t cost much more than 25 million and is still considered one of the top players in the world. However, questions about his fitness and a slight loss of form remain and he clearly prefers a move to the Blue section of London.

If Arsenal fail to secure either of these two players, the summer will again be considered a failure – amplified by the fact that several midtier teams in the EPL like Stoke and Sunderland have done serious business and Chelsea and Man City appear to have strengthened. Could it be that Wenger’s tendency to over-haggle over a few million quid or wait too long to swoop in for his main targets again relegate us to has-beens fighting for fourth place in the EPL? If so, I can only imagine this will be the Frenchman’s last season in charge. I still hope against hope that we sign Suarez and then follow up with a backup goalie who can challenge Sz for the starting job (preferably Julio Cesar) and a centre-half (Ashley Williams seems reasonable at 10 million pounds), as well as another flair player or defensive mid (Everton’s Fellaini would be my top choice, though he seems set to either stay or head to Man  United). United find themselves in a similar position, having failed to acquire any of their targets and seemingly in a losing battle to secure Fabergas, who Arsenal could then snatch for 25 million anyway, assuming the Spaniard would consider a return two years after breaking our hearts oh so nicely. In any case, all is up in the air with 5 weeks left and we Gooners forced to once again live on hope alone.