As an Arsenal fan, you have to also remember that you’re a football fan too, so you can’t just turn a blind eye to the transfer dealings, especially the big ones, happening in some of football biggest leagues. More focus is obviously on the Premier League with the new managers on display, as well as the new signings that could turn out to be legends or major flops.
The news dominating the back pages is that Juventus has rejected an initial £85 million offer for Paul Pogba from Manchester United. These guys are lucky I’m not the president of Juventus. Imagine me being in my lil’ office in Turin and my chief financial officer tells me that a bid has been made for Pogba. I’d spill my coffee on my best dress, and do everything in my power to hold a meeting with all the crime bosses in Sicily to give me their best guys. Then we will go to Pogba’s house at night, use some chloroform on form, tie him up and send him with the best courier service to Manchester. Don’t worry, the delivery fee will be on me.
It’s not as if he has the stats to prove that he deserves such an amount. Since I want to work with facts, let’s look at the two footballers that have been bought with close to the £80m+ mark. When Real Madrid signed Cristiano Ronaldo for a world record fee in 2009, he had smashed in 118 goals in 292 games for the Red Devils. In seven seasons with Real Madrid, he has scored 364 goals in 348 games. Has he been worth the punt? Hell yeah! Gareth Bale is another guy that was acquired for an exorbitant fee but he had notched 55 goals for Tottenham with 26 goals in his final campaign. Pogba has proved himself to be a ‘complete midfielder’, but many wonder whether he’s worth £100m as demanded by Juventus.
Well, that’s Manchester United’s problem. Last time I checked, the £100m will be deducted from their coffers, not Arsenal’s. But the question is, what can Arsenal do with £100m if they were chanced to splurge with such a crazy amount?
Mauro Icardi
Mauro Icardi has been on the spotlight for the bad reasons, following his wife’s comments about Inter doing everything in their power to sell him. But errr, it that meant to be a bad thing? It’s not like Icardi has the likes of Alvaro Recoba, Juan Sebastien Veron, Christian Vieri, Adriano Leite, Sinisa Mihajlovic, Esteban Cambiasso, Marco Materazzi, Javier Zanetti or Francesco Toldo around him. Internazionale is a mere shadow of the force they used to be.
The papers say that Icardi is valued at £42m. I say we should take the punt on the lad. His record at Inter is 52 goals in 102 games. He’s young, intelligent, quick and would provide stiff competition for Olivier Giroud.
Riyad Mahrez
Riyad Mahrez is the current Premier League Player of the Season. With 17 goals and 11 assists last season, Mahrez was the hottest kid in the block and with the Algerian rejecting a new deal from the Foxes, teams have been put on high alert. The transfer fee is expected to be huge, but that’s something £100m can cover right?
Time to focus on the rest of my day.
Please don’t go out there spending £100m like it’s nothing. It’s not as if there’s a Pogba at every corner.
Sayonara.
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