So, that happened.
Jamie Vardy re-signing with Leicester City has, quite comprehensively, put paid to Arsenal’s hopes of buying him. It means that our hunt to replace Robin van Persie since 2012 continues, because there hasn’t been more consensus that Olivier Giroud isn’t that man.
Now that we’re on the other side of the whole Vardy thing, opinions can become more objective. Personally, I must admit that despite being excited by his potential arrival, never did I think Vardy was truly elite. I even openly wondered if he’d score more goals than Giroud if he joined Arsenal. That’s no criticism of Giroud – who’s a player I like a great deal, and it’s getting tiresome to reiterate that – but it’s more of an insight on how much of an upgrade Vardy would be on our striking options. Truth is, he would always have been a bit of a punt.
Why did he reject Arsenal? It could be because he really loves it at Leicester, but I’d be staggered if that were true. Arsenal fans of all should know that there’s no honour among footballers. Cesc Fabregas and van Persie were huge Arsenal men heavily invested in the ethos of the club, but didn’t hesitate to jump ship when they saw fit. Add to that Giroud’s own comments on Vardy being excited for Arsenal, and you’d find this argument invalid.
My gut says Vardy didn’t think Arsenal was enough of a step up. If it were Barcelona or even Manchester City, I feel Vardy would have been a runner, but the fact that it’s Arsenal doesn’t entirely convince him. Look at it this way – if he wants to be witnessed as a gold digger or a glory hunter, he’d want to do it with the right club. He’d want to be sure, like RVP was with United. On the other hand, Vardy strikes to me as a slightly narrow-minded thinker. He may be naive enough to believe he can achieve something special with Leicester again. It’s admirable; whether it’s mistaken remains to be seen.
Regardless of whatever happened behind the scenes, that’s irrelevant now. Vardy is not an Arsenal subject anymore, and now that the deal is dead, we must look at other targets. And therein lies the problem, doesn’t it? The very point of going gung-ho after Jamie Vardy was because all the other baskets were too expensive, leaving us to put all our eggs in one. It failed, leaving us to lick our own wounds.
So, what do we do now? Do we look for internal solutions? Playing Theo Walcott up front achieved moderate success, and its something that might have worked again if Theo’s position at the club wasn’t so untenable. Alexis Sanchez may just explode as a striker in a Sergio Aguero way, but it’s obvious Arsene Wenger just doesn’t see him that way. If internal solutions aren’t an option, scouring the market is the only vote left.
“But how can we do that, if all the top strikers are unavailable”?
The argument is valid. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alvaro Morata seem bound to Manchester and Chelsea, while players like Daniel Sturridge or Edinson Cavani aren’t going anywhere. Come to think of it, apart from Romelu Lukaku, there doesn’t seem to be any top striker up for grabs on the market.
No reputable source has heavily backed Lukaku for a move away from Everton. Indeed, the Belgian is ruffling his peacock feathers and trying to attract interest from the big guns. When asked about his future, it sounded to me like he left it very open-ended.
“It’s my agent who is dealing with that aspect. I’m just focused on Belgium.”
Granted, Lukaku may be too expensive. Transfermarkt rates him at €40m, significantly larger than the money we were looking to fork out on Vardy. However, wasn’t the whole point of this ten-year transition to finally be cash rich enough to compete for such players?
It strikes me that despite all the money we have spent on Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech, they’ve felt more like opportunistic signings than ambitious ones. The very fact that we chased Vardy for £20m before approaching a more proven, younger and better fit like Lukaku tells its own story.
I understand if Arsenal laugh at Paul Pogba’s €140m valuation, but in this inflationary world of football (where the valuations of pounds and euros are in limbo, lest we forget), isn’t €40m on Lukaku reasonable? Official channels revealed we had £220m in excess, and that’s not including the insane revenue every Premier League team got from those television deals.
Even if we subtract £30m from Granit Xhaka, €25m on Ricardo Rodriguez and £50m on a center back/winger (or both), Arsene will still have around £100m in his transfer kitty. That’s staggering. Arsenal essentially have a bottomless pit, and if we don’t make the most of it by taking gambles on players like Lukaku, what’s the point of all the money?
If Arsenal make an audacious bid of – say – £50m and manage to sign Lukaku, it would be better than doing nothing. If the transfer will backfire and Lukaku becomes the next Torres it’d surely be an awful shame, but at least we could credit ourselves for trying. When Liverpool sold Fernando Torres, they didn’t stop before replacing him with Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. One of them failed, but one of them became the greatest strikers of this generation.
And let’s not kid ourselves – if Lukaku joins Arsenal, there’s certainly more chances of him succeeding at Arsenal than there was for Vardy. Lukaku’s exemplary quickness, finishing and (crucially) his youth and Premier League experience make for very impressive reading. It’d take something ridiculously Arsenal to happen for Lukaku to fail at North London.
We’re desperate. It’s not a very healthy position to be in, but that’s just the state of affairs we find ourselves in at the moment. Everton would know that and would hold out for a higher fee, but that’s life. If not £50m for Lukaku today, it might be £80m for Karim Benzema next year. The more we wait, the more our options dwindle, the higher inflation rises, the quicker the value of money falls.
It’s time to stop waiting and start buying.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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