Suarez, Fabregas and Rooney – Are They Worth It?

Welcome
to another week of “What’s the score?!”
– Following an interesting week to say the least, despite unrest and anger on Twitter,
things do now ‘appear’ to be hotting up on the transfer front for Arsenal
supporters.

With that in mind, I thought it
was worth a look at player values, how they are achieved, if they are truly
worth the obscene values now being placed upon them… and the hard cold facts
and ramifications involved in actually concluding a deal – Easy it is not!

The
Valuation…

As with
every commodity, it is always about supply and demand. Football players are no
different. That is simple business protocol. However, creating the demand does have a part to play in the whole process
too. Add in the ‘financial means’
available of the purchasing club, release clauses and provisions in contract(s)
and values begin to spiral very quickly.

A classic
example in recent times was the whole Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll saga.
Chelsea wanted Fernando Torres, Liverpool set the price ridiculously high at
£50M and Chelsea paid it. I accept that Fernando Torres at Liverpool was a
decent striker, but as is well documented, he has not had the greatest of times
since he moved to Chelsea… Is he worth £50M? Personally I don’t think so.
Actually, you could probably buy him today for circa £20M.

Liverpool
had to replace Fernando Torres, so turned their attention to a young England
Newcastle United striker called Andy Carroll. Newcastle knew how much Liverpool
received for Torres and wanted £35M for Carroll. Liverpool paid it. Who is the
fool? – I do have to say however, I like Carroll and would have considered him
at Arsenal, as was loosely muted towards the end of last season. He is
certainly a lump, but I digress.

As
mentioned in last
week’s blog, Paris Saint-Germain paid Napoli circa £55M for Edinson Cavani.
That left Napoli needing to replace him quickly… The choice wasn’t huge, so
they decided to go for Arsenal target Gonzalo Higuain. Ultimately they paid
around £30M plus add-on’s. Real Madrid was able to ‘up’ the price, as they knew
of Napoli’s cash rich resources, following the sale of Cavani. As I understand
it, although Gonzalo Higuaín reportedly wanted a few days to think about
things, and consider if he still preferred Arsenal, it was actually Arsenal who
pulled the plug on their interest in the player, and not Gonzalo Higuaín’s
decision.

Luis Suarez…

So
an audacious bid was made this week by Arsenal of £40,000,001.00 to be precise,
for the services of Luis Suarez. There was outrage from Liverpool owner John W Henry
who tweeted the following that received over 43,000 Retweets and was favourite
over 15,000 times. What are they smoking John W Henry? – Clearly nothing
anywhere nearly as strong as when you paid £35M for Andy Carroll – The words
pot and kettle do come to mind!

In
any event, I wouldn’t place too much importance on what John W Henry has to say
as he has publically now decided in recent days that he wants to sell Liverpool
for circa £350m, as he is somewhat disheartened with them. What a loyal chap he
is!

Following
the above tweet, I came across a comment apparently made by Arsene Wenger,
which was simply brilliant, I believe it originated on @wengerknowsbest, however, I
have not been able to verify if it is an actual factual retort or not, but it
is still very funny, so I decided to tweet it. Notice the minimal Retweets
though compared to John W Henry! Ha.

CLASSIC Arsene Wenger: "What do I make of comments by John W Henry? I don't know John W Henry. I only know Thierry Henry!" Brilliant!

— Jeremy Lebor (@jeremylebor) July 24, 2013

There have
been many suggestions as to why the additional £1 was added on to the bid, with
rumours of release clauses and the like. I have had the opportunity over the
last few days of looking into this whole situation in greater depth and have
discovered from sight of documents the following:

There is NO
release clause as such; however, there is a clause that states: “If Liverpool receives a bid in excess of £40,000,000.00,
then they have to notify the player of such a bid.” The bid of the extra £1
ensured that the £40M was exceeded so that Luis Suarez was personally informed.
Clever move Arsenal.

Secondly,
there is also a clause that states: (and
I am para phrasing here…this is NOT verbatim) “If the club making the bid are in the Champions League and Liverpool
are not, then the player has the right to leave to join the purchasing club if
a bid in excess of £40,000,000.00 is made.” Again, the extra £1 ensures that
this clause is met as it exceeds the £40M figure.

Here is the
problem. There has been talk of Arbitration if an agreement cannot be reached,
as there is varying interpretation of the clause(s) and what they mean. Working
in the legal profession I can tell you, depending which side you are upon,
there is always a way to interpret a contract and its terminology. That is how
lawyers make their money… Just saying!

Now to the
curve ball – Liverpool have the audacity to suggest that Arsenal are NOT in the
Champions League (because they are only
in the qualification stage) – WOW, and there the problem seems to lie!

While
writing this blog in the early hours of this morning, I called upon the
assistance of an ally in the form of @PoznanInMyPants who confirmed
to me that the two qualification legs for the Champions League take place
firstly on 20th August 2014, and then a week later on, 27th
August 2013. Thanks Paul! – So, with this current transfer window closing on 2nd
September 2013, there is still ample time to do the deal should Arsenal not be
able to conclude or resolve the problem immediately!

Is Luis Suarez worth 1) £40M plus and… 2) Is he worth the hassle? – I am not going to go into the merits,
morals or pitfalls of Luis Suarez and his antics, as this was covered superbly
by @Invinciblog a few weeks ago here
on Gunners Town, but I will say
this:-

Firstly, in
this current market, Luis Suarez probably is worth around the £40M mark bearing
in mind the cost of ‘world class’ players. Despite his issues, Luis Suarez is
certainly a great player, I would say bordering upon, if not world class in my
view. Is he nuts? Probably, but most gifted individuals normally are slightly
lah lah!

Secondly,
taking into account that Liverpool paid £35M for Andy Carroll (not worth
anywhere near that) and Chelsea paid £50M for Fernando Torres (certainly not
worth £50M) then yes Luis Suárez
is worth the £40M mark. Ultimately, I do not believe that Arsenal would have
made such an audacious
bid in the sizable sum of £40M plus, certainly not so publically, if they were
not serious…That is NOT the Arsenal way. 

I do think
that in order to get Luis Suarez, Arsenal will have to go up to as much as £45M
plus add-on’s, but ultimately, Liverpool will not be able to resist. In essence
as supporters at Arsenal can testify, unfortunately on numerous occasions, if a
player wants to leave, ultimately you can’t prevent them from leaving (hated
saying that!)

Cesc
Fabregas…

Now this is
a very interesting, convoluted and complicated situation to say the least. Cesc
Fabregas despite reports has not actually made any formal statement.

It has been
reported that he has made comments to friends that if he was to return to
England, he would like to go to Manchester United or Arsenal, depending which
report you read. He has said he wants to remain at Barcelona to fight for his
place (what do you expect him to say) and reports yesterday have stated that
Barcelona have said he is not for sale to Manchester United at any price.
Interesting if you read the statement properly: is says Manchester United, NOT
Arsenal.

Yesterday,
reports on Sky Sports revealed a ‘release clause’ of £34M. Arsenal have ‘first
refusal’ for £25M. That doesn’t mean however that Barcelona will sell him for
£25M.

Again,
yesterday afternoon, the Daily Mail published an article
that stated Arsenal will fight Manchester United all the way for Cesc Fabregas’
signature. As many will know, the lure of London will surely for personal
reasons attract him to…well Arsenal. I say no more!

There has
been complete and utter madness on Twitter this week with every possible
scenario being played out as to Cesc Fabregas, but know this:

Regardless
of any bid from any club, Arsenal has and will always remain in the
driving seat… Barcelona want at least £35M for Fabregas, but still owe Arsenal
anything between £15M to £17M for both the purchase of Fabregas and Alex Song.
So, it is not a difficult scenario to work out.

John Cross,
of the Daily Mirror Tweeted back in August 2011 (two years ago!) that Arsenal
had a buy back option for a fixed price of £40M plus various add-ons. Although
John Cross is fairly reliable and knows his Arsenal stuff, I am not sure he is
100% correct, however, if you consider £25M plus what Barcelona currently owes
Arsenal, it could be construed that the £40m figure referred to may be
ultimately what the final fee may be.

Arsene
Wenger has both privately and publically stated he would not hesitate to have
Cesc Fabregas return to Arsenal, and the immense secrecy of various dealings
that the club are currently negotiating is no coincidence. Ultimately, this
week in my opinion will be the week when all is revealed.

Is Cesc Fabregas worth £35M or even
£40M? No doubt.
Would every Arsenal supporter welcome Cesc Fabregas back at the Emirates in an
Arsenal shirt, with open arms? Unquestionably, although I am sure there are one
or two deranged supporters out there who would say no…but even the deranged
would find it hard to say no to Cesc in my opinion.

Wayne
Rooney…

Oh dear Mr
Rooney. Toys being thrown out of your pram because you’re not flavour of the
month and now, the Judas, Robin van Persie is golden boy. What was it that
David Moyes said? “Wayne is good cover
for Robin if he gets injured” – OUCH! – I think Wayne Rooney has every right
to be pissed off. The ‘Alpha Male’ has been replaced by an even more arrogant
breed.

David Moyes
has said Wayne Rooney is not for sale. Yeah right! He is not happy any longer
at Manchester United, has history of an unsavoury nature with David Moyes which
is well documented and has told a number of people in many circles, both
football and socially that he wants a move.

Despite
huge interest from Chelsea, it is common knowledge, again in many circles that
Rooney would relish a move to Arsenal. Indeed it has even been suggested
although he is a huge admirer of Jose Mourinho; he would prefer to work under
Arsene Wenger.

I went into
great detail recently as to what Wayne Rooney brings to a team in my article here
on Gunners Town. No doubt Wayne
Rooney does have a point to prove and this is almost certainly his one and only
move. With a World Cup next year, it is commonly known he would relish playing
week in and week out with the likes of Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain and Kieran Gibbs, all England first team squad colleagues.
It is also common knowledge that Arsene Wenger is a huge admirer of Rooney’s
talents and he has said many times he would love to have him in his team.

Is Wayne Rooney worth £25M, the fee
suggested it would cost Arsenal? Yup, I certainly think so. Would I take him at
Arsenal together with Luis Suarez? Most certainly, although I have to say, and
many may disagree, given the choice of only one from Luis Suarez or Wayne
Rooney, I would have to choose Wayne Rooney all day long. He is the complete
player in my view that Arsenal need. His winning mentality would only enhance
the dressing room, and he is most certainly a grafter on the pitch… Just make
sure you lock up your Grannies!

As always,
I would be interested to know your views or thoughts on the whole transfer
scenario. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or send me a tweet @jeremylebor. I always reply!

If
it’s not worth knowing… Jeremy knows it!

So,
here is yet more useless trivia about our beloved club!

Did you
know?
– Sticking with the theme of obscure transfer fees, Striker Malcolm Macdonald
who played 108 games for Arsenal, scoring 57 goals during his time at Highbury
between 1976 and 1979, transfer fee was reportedly  £333,333.00. However, I am reliably informed
by my pal ‘H’ it was actually £334,000.00 so not to be disputed to be a third
of a Million!

Thanks once
more to my good mate, the
not so fat London Taxi Driver, for the above statistic.

If you have any ‘trivia’ about either the team or the club, then please let me know
and I will gladly post them in this section… The wackier the better! – Tweet me
@jeremylebor.

Last
Word…

This is
going to be an exciting week, of that I have no doubt. The Emirates Cup is next
weekend, so with the team on a plane back from Asia as this article is
published, I expect a quiet few days followed by lots of activity before next
weekend. Sticking my neck out? It would appear so!

Oh, the
final words should be reserved for all those Spurs supporters who have been
very quiet these last few weeks, and I can hear it now when Mr Bale is sold to
Real Madrid for some obscene amount of money… “But we’ve got £85/100M in the
bank” – Oh dear! – Yes, but you need a stadium (and a team once your one man team leaves you!) and are still at
least 10 years behind Arsenal. You will no doubt remain there, where you belong
for a very long time to come!

So, now you
know the score… until next week – Jeremy!

Jeremy Lebor

Follow @jeremylebor

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