OPINION
£40 million doesn’t even seem like that much money in modern football.
When you have rookies like Aaron Wan-Bissaka moving to Manchester United for considerably more than that, or a fairly average player Ayoze Perez going to Leicester City for just £10 million less, it almost feels as if £40 million is the new £15 million.
But it wasn’t that long ago that £40 million was still a fair whack, the kind of fee that commanded attention and respect.
What’s more impressive than £40 million though?
How about £40,000,001?
That was Arsenal’s thinking when they lodged a bid for Luis Suarez back in 2013, as reported by the Guardian. That figure triggered an obligation in the Uruguayan’s contract whereby Liverpool had to inform him of the bid, and the hope was that the Gunners would be able to force through a move off the back of that.
From the outside, however, it looked like a ridiculous act of cringeworthy cheapness, but Arsenal’s transfer guru at the time, Dick Law, has tried to explain his thinking behind the move.
Speaking to Goal, he said: “The offer was just a trigger. Liverpool wanted to make a big deal out of it and that’s fine. When they received our offer they immediately publicised it.
“I think John Henry wanted to know what we were smoking, which I thought was a bit disrespectful. It was him having a bit of a go because he was getting ready to lose his star player. It was a good way to deflect attention.”
The thing is, Law talks about disrespect here with a complete lack of self-awareness and a certain amount of pettiness.
That opening offer may well have only been an tester shot to get the conversation moving, but how else would you expect a club like Liverpool to act when you come snooping for their best player?
They are only ever going to do one thing and one thing only – laugh in your face.
In the end, Suarez was nowhere near joining Arsenal, but maybe Law should be more mindful of not coming across as hypocritical.
