Patters wrote:

agree. Suarez has this incredible ability to get stuck into all games. He's hardly ever anonymous. He's always scurrying about, twisting and turning and making things happen on his own. If we're looking specifically at solving our problems of starting games too slowly, lack of tempo etc. I genuinely cannot think of a more guaranteed option to take us to the next level. He's right up there with Van Persie as the best player in the league. And for us, I think he's more suited than even Van Persie was.

I hope you are not being sarcastic because I agree totally with you. I have always rate Suarez type of player more than RVP kind.

It's not far-fetched at all. In Norway, at least at the largest football forum, the general opinion was that Suarez was PotY - before the bite, of course.

What exactly is it that Suarez supposedly is better at than van Persie?

Trickery, ability to beat a man, biting, speed.

Burnwinter wrote:

Just read today's Arseblog. Admittedly it's all his usual obvious, safe, conservatively minded fence-sitting stuff

Really? He seemed pretty straight talking to me.

His straight talk's very safe. He usually embeds so much qualification in any sentiment that it's in question whether he has an opinion at all. Anyway. Pet peeve.

dreamlord wrote:

People think Suarez is overrated? And overpriced? He was close to being the best player in the PL last season.

Yeah and the eventual best player was bought for 24 million, so it is fair to say that he is over priced.

Just makes the VP sale more rediculous. We could have kept him for another season and then spent like we are trying to do now, surely he couldn't ha e argued about our ambition then.

Henry 14th wrote:

Yeah and the eventual best player was bought for 24 million, so it is fair to say that he is over priced.

Completely different situation, he joined them aged 29, has a terrible injury record (only completed 1.5 injury free seasons) and was in the last year of his contract.

Cesc is probably more comparable. We got robbed there.

Henry 14th wrote:

Just makes the VP sale more rediculous. We could have kept him for another season and then spent like we are trying to do now, surely he couldn't ha e argued about our ambition then.

Occam's Razor.

Personally think Van Persie had had his head turned and decided firmly to leave before negotiations opened, played his hand and started abusing and destabilising the club, and got sold for what he was worth with a year on his deal, and a crappy injury record.

All that stuff about ambition may well have been true but that doesn't mean we could've changed his mind by that stage.

Looking at what we're doing now I feel highly sceptical that we couldn't have offered him good money last summer. He just had £200k/w+ coming at United, wanted a change, and that was that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23428419

We have permission to speak to Suarez but they are holding out for over £50mill. Now that Higuain is pretty much gone I think these talks will hinge on whether R.Madrid come in for him now or turn their attention to Bale. Even though they have spent a lot this summer they have recouped most of it so unlike what I thought they might have finances to go in for Bale now.

otfgoon wrote:

Cesc is probably more comparable. We got robbed there.

If anything that was Cesc screwing us over by insisting he only joins Barca and considering how we took him from Barca, they were adamant they were not gonna pay full whack for him.

Burnwinter wrote:

Personally think Van Persie had had his head turned and decided firmly to leave before negotiations opened

Mancini hinted they had a verbal agreement with RvP during the season, I think around Christmas time he had already decided he wanted out as he had big offers at better clubs on the table. When Man Utd came in and matched that offer it made more sense for him to join them as it is a more stable environment. He is smarter than most players, joining City makes him look like a money grabber but he gets the same deal at Man Utd and he looks like a player who wants trophies. Also doesn't need to contend with as many strikers at City.

Agree with his motivation and agree that he'd decided firmly that he was gone well before the window.

That open letter bullshit was a warning shot, just making sure Wenger and Gazidis knew if they held onto him he'd be an unruly piece of shit (which we know full well he can be).

otfgoon wrote:

Trickery, ability to beat a man, biting, speed.

Aka magic.

This might blow up in our face but we criticise the club for not showing enough ambition and for once we are trying to sign a better player. He comes with baggage but a lot of footballers and have done bad things in their life.

Burnwinter wrote:

Just read today's Arseblog. Admittedly it's all his usual obvious, safe, conservatively minded fence-sitting stuff, but I can't help but feel he's been reading this thread slash forum. :o

You sound a bit tentative, Lagos. Would've expected a more "penny wise, pound foolish" argument.

To me, six games' absence at the start of the season aside, Suarez's behavioural problems are more an ethical or reputational, than a logistical risk. He has been at Liverpool in a time of turmoil and his recidivism has been very badly managed, especially by Dalglish.

At Arsenal there's stability, and structure. A bigger risk is probably that he'll become unsettled if we continue to disappoint results-wise.

However, on the upside, we urgently need a top striker and if we do add one, our "three half-cocked musketeers" forward line of Podolski, Giroud, Walcott suddenly looks like a star and three genuinely useful supporting acts. We have players coming through in midfield, and we have some sort of defence.

We need aggression and energy up front as well, and Suarez would also add those qualities.

On the whole both financially and on the field we could see improvements from signing him that would offset some of a fairly large fee even in his first season—eg if we go further in the Champions League. We have the money, we need the missing puzzle piece to exploit a solid squad.

He'd be an investment with big variation on return, but it's not all downside.

there are no penny decisions in 40+million 😆

on a serious note though, my problem is 40m is about as much as I'd pay for him, don't mind going a tad higher (42/43) but above 45m and I'd start thinking it's pound wise to pull out, I certainly wouldn't go to 50M for Suarez. I do agree with most if not all of what you say, I could easily be putting forward those arguments myself, I want his goals, I can live with the aggro (or I have readied myself for possible aggro) but I just can't get my head round spending north of 45m and it's Suarez we get!

he's worth 40-45 mill. just look at some of the other transfer fees this window. suarez is world class and there is a shortage of class strikers atm.

think wenger will convince him to join us and then we'll eventually agree a fee with liverpool in the region of 45 mill.

Paying 40m for Suarez is crazy and a brave bet but paying more than that would be absolutely batshit kRaZeE considering his borderline lunacy. I think and hope that we've pulled out of the deal and that Liverpool will come to regret rejecting our exorbitant 40m offer.

I criticise Wenger and the board a lot in relation to timid transfers....."Penny wise pound foolish" as Burnsy pointed out. I know it's easy now that we are awash with cash and one may argue they had no choice, nonetheless and however this plays out I should pause to commend them for finally showing some balls and ambition. I'm surprised they even went as high as 40m for such a player (by that I mean his baggage) so even if we fail with Suarez ( I can't fault them for refusing to pay a price I would not pay) this will go a long way to redeem our image as a club without ambition.

Once you are going over £40m we should definitely be looking at other big name targets.