Let us do it the Arsenal way; Campbell on hold, others pending « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

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By Walter Broeckx

Okay my scouting work on this Young lad Campbell seems to end in tears and frustration.  The deal is off until the end of the U20 world cup in which he has to play for Costa Rica. So I will be keeping an eye on him if they broadcast it on TV.  I don’t know if it was the boy or the father who seemed to be a bit greedy at the last moment. Time will tell.

Meanwhile Gazidis has been saying that the transfer market is not over for Arsenal and that they are working on some things. But as usual Gazidis did not say who, where or what we are after. Much to the frustration of some fans but I really cannot think of any better way of doing our business.

Because the other clubs don’t have the world wide scouting like we have. With as a result that from the moment the news comes out that Arsenal is after player X, the other teams rush in and try to hi-jack the deal before we can finish it. And by other teams I mean teams that have so much money that we cannot compete with them. So we have to keep our mouth shut, the other team has to keep its mouth shut and the player has to keep his mouth shut.

If all and everyone is willing to do this we could be doing business. But if one of the involved parties (and in many cases this is the manager of the player) goes out to the press, the other teams come after the same player. Because they know that when Wenger wants someone he must be good. And then the bidding starts and teams pay ridiculous amounts of money for the player and we cannot compete with them.

Another thing in our transfer dealing is that Arsenal is having a price tag in its head and is not very easy to pay more than they had in mind.  Much to the frustration at times from some part of the fans. But then again I think it is a wise thing to do. It is not because Liverpool and Manchester United are paying ridiculous amounts of money for young players that we should do the same.  And if the selling team is asking too much we simply back off and look somewhere else. I admit this can be frustrating at times but it is something that I can understand.

Let us take a look at the Gervinho transfer. As you have seen it took rather more than  a couple of days before the deal was finalised. The reason for the delay was a dispute between Arsenal and Lille according to the French newspaper L’Equipe.  And the dispute was the fact that Lille as the selling club and as the receiver of the money should still give a part of that money to the club where Gervinho got his education. And Lille wanted that Arsenal would pay this money. Which is against the normal to way of doing things. Lille should pay that fee to the club as it is them that earns the money.

Now who is going pay the money is a well kept secret. But I wouldn’t be surprised that it will be Lille who will have to pass a part of the money to the youth team of Gervinho.  Some fans might call this ridiculous and say: just pay the money for god sake and bring him in. But this is more a question of principals than about money.  Why should Arsenal have to pay that money as it is Lille that should pay? Because if you give in once and it gets around (and such things will get around) then the next time a selling club will ask the same. And at the end of the day we are paying what other clubs should pay.

So we are prepared to play hard ball over such matters for a few days.  We have the money (and this is something the other teams know and want to exploit) but we are not going to spend it as we are Chelsea or Manchester City. Frustrating? No, this is something that I rather like of our board and the manager. We pay what a player is worth and nothing more. And we pay what we should pay and the others should pay what they should pay. A good principal and one that I agree with.  But at the end of the day Gervinho is our player and the hope is that he will be in the squad that travels to Germany.  Okay Wenger, just give me his debut will you.

And finally I would like to say that maybe we should try to look behind all the names that fly around in the press. We don’t comment on transfer dealings in the media. We ask the same of the other persons involved. So when they all keep their lips together during the negotiations it might turn out that we buy someone that has been kept under the radar.  Someone who’s name hasn’t been mentioned now or for a while. The less talk about a possible target could mean the nearer we are getting to a conclusion.

In fact this is totally contradictory compared to the other teams. In fact we could call it the Arsenal way.  Whether we like it or not is another question and depends on your personality. But well, I can’t help it but I don’t mind it at all.  Must say I don’t lie awake at night thinking about possible transfer targets. Not even at centre back where we have Bartley who would like to get his chance. Why not would be my answer.  Just give the boy a chance.  After all the Glasgow Rangers have been very happy with his performances on loan last season.

Oh what the hell, maybe we (the club) have the players we need already in the bag but we (the fans) don’t know it yet.  Let us just be a different club compared to the others.  And those who don’t like it (any more)…. well bad luck I would say.