Less than 3 months to the beginning of the summer window and transfer stories are all over the place.
Arsenal, are apparently interested in Alexis Sanchez, Stevan Jovetic, Victor Valdes, Asmir Begović, Michel Vorm, Diego Costa, Andreas Cornelius, Angelo Ogbonna, Fernando Amorebieta, Loïc Rémy, Christopher Samba, Petr Cech, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mario Götze and it goes on. And this list of names is only from the last week.
I don’t know what’s real and what’s not but I have only one suggestion for a club that has been bullied in the transfer market in the last 10 years or so – this is a tip straight from jail movies: “Look for the baddest man in the transfer market and punch him right in the face. Nobody will f**k with you after that”.
The transfer market is not just about buying the right players, it’s also about making statements. Players and agents learn you and judge you and your ambition. If you allow every “number one target” to join another club, you will find it hard to convince number one targets to join your team.
It has already happened a few times to Arsenal and if they are not going to change their attitude it will happen again.
When Fiorentina defender Stefan Savic tells his teammate Stevan Jovetic to make the move to Manchester City and not Arsenal, because “City’s a rising team, one of the best clubs in Europe. They will win trophies and be in the Champions League every year.” – Arsenal need to be upset by it. It is as if he said: “Arsenal do not want to win trophies”.
Arsenal need to change the way players see the club in the transfer market. Beating a team like Manchester City in the race for Jovetic is exactly the way Arsenal can change that perception.
Published in permission with Soccerissue.com