Why shouldn’t Arsenal interest us?

AH, the delights of the transfer window…don’t you just love it?!

Liverpool continue to seemingly play out the role of Sisyphus each year, continually pushing a boulder of player links up Mount Transfer and as we near the top the likes of Aspas, Mignolet, Toure and Alberto cheer us on and we see sunshine and the Premier League trophy beckoning us in for refreshing beverage, Champions League music faintly playing in the background accompanied by Armenians and Uruguayans ready to massage our weary feet.

We get close, so close just to see a handsome German man and numerous foreign vultures kick said Boulder back to the bottom, chuckling away to themselves as we trudge our way back to the beginning, thinking surely this won’t happen again.

I write this, inspired by one of the aforementioned vultures, specifically the one with a French accent often seen around the North London area who flutters his eyelashes at our troubled genius with a propensity to chitter-chatter more than he probably should.

Worth noting here that those who feel some anger towards little Luis should check out of timeline on Twitter of @lbceleste to get a fuller understanding of what has actually been said – you know, the kind of stuff that won’t sell newspapers!

Anyways, I digress, back to Monsieur Wenger and his proposed bid(s) for El Pistolero. I look at these and think to myself, ‘you know what, Arsenal could provide us with the platform to move forward’. I can hear a collective ‘WHAT?!?’ from the massed ranks who read my work, but hey, hold your horses…I didn’t mean sell Suarez to them – that would be what Cypress Hill Called ‘Insane in the Membrane’!

So how is it that Arsenal could provide us with a platform to move forward?

As with everything in life, those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it (prize for whoever knows the author of that quote!). First and foremost, when discussing where Arsenal have fallen down in recent years is one name: Robin Van Persie.

Arsenal Football Club took the decision to sell their star striker who was in red hot form as he was entering the last year of his contract, instead of risking losing him for nothing the following summer (a thought process not entertained by Borussia Dortmund it must be said!) Fair enough, you may say, let’s not have a player at our club who doesn’t want to be there when we could got £20+ million from his sale and rebuild in his absence; it’s not like there is a shortage of teams abroad that would be interested and could afford him. No problem here.
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The problem comes to the club they sold to – a rival. The argument could and has been made that both United would have won the league had they not signed RVP, and that Arsenal would have won something had they retained him. A question without no answer for sure, but a question that should never be raised.

We were somewhat fortunate with the sale of Torres in that he was nowhere near the level of player he could be when he left and the money Chelsea paid was out of this world.

The difference is that whereas Torres flourished in a system setup to suit him, Suarez is one of those unique talents that can light up anywhere from the New Bucks Head (anyone know that ground?) to the Bernabeu, regardless of who plays with him.

He is the player that dragged us kicking and screaming through the tough first half of last season and who further complimented us when the team was able to turn it on in the second-half. We have to be realistic, we can talk about loyalty in football but this is never simple and the day will come at some point when we wave goodbye to Suarez. But while we have him under contract we can retain control over his destination and must learn from Arsenal’s mistake.

The sale of Suarez isn’t the only learning curve we must take from the Emirates though. Arsenal find themselves at the end of the process we are just undertaking. They have their stadium and paid for it, leaving them in a very enviable position. From the outside it appears that during this process they remained frugal; something that clearly irritated the fans and understandably so.

They have seen some of their brightest stars leave and win trophies with only limited investment into the squad of established stars. Arsenal have retained a quality squad, but not one that will truly challenge the likes of the Manchesters or Chelsea, but have continually delivered the coveted Champions League, essentially maintaining a status quo.

With our transfer window so far delivering pretty much zero outlay, we are strengthening the squad without yet delivering the established player (like Mkhitaryan would have been) that would push us forward.

We are not in a position that requires us to maintain the status quo as we are fighting to break back into the top 4. We have ground to make up. WARNING: Gratuitous name drop – and as John Barnes once said to me, investment off the pitch will bring financial reward on it. If you can’t offer Champions League you have to show to players and supporters serious aspirations. This is not the time for balancing the books, this is the time to invest (sensibly) particularly in light of vastly increased TV money and no movement towards reducing ticket costs!

I’ve had a 3 week break, so I hope you enjoyed my rusty return! If you agree, disagree, or have any points surrounding this please leave a comment of find me on Twitter @timdibs
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