- One way the Man C 114 games case could be resolved
- 5 new players tipped to join Arsenal: 43 transfers now in total
By Tony Attwood
Yes indeed, Arsenal are always the victims, falling for the same old trick, never learning from other people’s mistakes, always thinking they know best, always being ripped off, even when they win the league.
And yes, here we are again. “Hijacked deals and inflated prices: Arsenal’s transfer issues” shouts the headline on the Telegraph’s football page, as with glee they announce once again Arsenal are getting caught. How they ever managed to win those doubles, how they ever managed to go unbeaten in the season – it must have been pure absolute luck, because it certainly wasn’t planning. They can’t even avoid the oldest problem in the book.
It is known as the ‘Spinning plates’ approach in which the club lets it be known that it is looking at several players and will pick the best of them as the end of the window approaches. The selling club’s notion is that if they drop the price just a bit at the right moment, Arsenal will move in and go for the player at what is still a very good price and everyone will walk away happy.
So yes, where Arsenal have a good deal lined up, and they know the club currently in possession of the player they want is ready to sell, Arsenal will move in and buy. But if they think the price could be edged down a bit, they will wait.
And not only will that on occasion edge the price down, but it will also confuse other clubs who will never be quite sure which player Arsenal is thinking of buying. And that is very handy in itself for two reasons. On the one hand, the selling club can be worried that they will be left with a player on their books with very little time left on his contract, in .
And second, other clubs will look at that player and see that Arsenal have backed out, and will conclude that there must be something wrong with the player and so back off – thus once more reducing the player’s price.
Now the media don’t ever pick up on these points because the media is dominated by the notion that Arsenal are rubbish at undertaking transfer deals. (The journalists may individually know this is not right, but this is the standard media approach and one in which no journalist ever wants to be seen stepping out of line, for fear of looking out of touch.)
This, of course, is to Arsenal’s advantage since it allows Arsenal a free run at whatever players they really do want.
But this is in fact why we manage to build a list of over 100 players that Arsenal are allegedly bidding for each summer and whom, in the end, Arsenal don’t buy. It is because Arsenal have a team that spreads the rumours and misleads the journalists. It is the same every season, and every season the journalists fall for it, while closing off the transfer season commentaries hoping no one notices that over 100 players were tipped as coming to Arsenal and only three or four did – and they still came in the top two in the league four years running.
Two or three other clubs use the same tactics but most clubs don’t have such an approach and in fact when they don’t buy a player it is often because the deal has fallen flat, rather than their being no deal there in the first place
Of course some clubs have different tactics. ManC’s seemed to be that if a player from another club held back in his willingness to come to them, they’d still buy him, but remove the extra money they’ve had to pay, from the player’s salary. The message was simple: “say yes as soon as we assk”. Tottenham’s message to prospective players seems to be “look at our beautiful new stadium/” They know that doesn’t work, but they can’t really tell anyone to look at the league table. Chelsea’s approach is “look at the money we are spending – you are going to be playing in the best team ever,” except that raises the fear that the player might get dropped.
Arsenal really don’t seem to mind their image in the media, especially now they are doing well and ManC are slipping. So they are ok with the notion of them trying to save money and so missing out on a player, especially as the only team to beat them in the league of late has done so with a much, much higher expenditure than Arsenal. And the trick keeps working because Arsenal not only have a good scouting system, they also have an excellent recruitment operation for younger-aged players.
Persuading less sophisticated buyers into the market and persuading them to go for players who are really not worth the money at all has no risk – if it doesn’t work Arsenal lose nothing. If it works Arsenal are free to consider in depth the real target.
The only negative side is that the approach involves allowing the media to promote Arsenal’s stupidity and slowness, while getting people to think that winning the league last season and coming second three times running was pure luck.
Fortunately, some journalists find it hard to accept they have been tricked, or acknowledge that 97% of the transfers they announce Arsenal being involved in didn’t happen. And maybe there is another explanation for why 97% of possible transfers to Arsenal never happen: maybe it is down to Arsenal’s slowness and lack of willingness to pay. But if it keeps Arsenal at or near the very top of the league, long may it continue.
