Rex wrote:
We bid for Suarez, not once but twice, and he certainly wasn't 'made available'.
Correct. It is quite silly to say that we don't proactively seek to buy players whose agents/clubs haven't spread the word that they are available.
The issue here is that: whenever you go and purchase players who don't proactively seek to leave, are valued by their clubs and have long contracts, you have to pay a premium. We have the resources to pay this premium for a certain level of players - Koscielny, Chambers, Gabriel, Ox, Theo etc etc. However, we can not do so for a real top draw player. That's why we could get Sanchez and Ozil who were "available", but, not Suarez.
This premium you pay for "pro-activity" with top-draw players is to the north of 20-25 Million. That is why you see the likes of James Rodriguez, Suarez, Bale, Di Maria etc go for 60-70 million in the last two to three years. Not all of them are successful at their destinations, mind you, and I don't feel that we have the resources to risk a signing like this.
The concern for us is that Wenger never pays the premium for a certain level of players (current value: 20-30 Million pounds; 4-5 years ago, this was 15-20 million range) who are not top of the shelf, but, not young/unknowns/old (Cech) as well. He feels that most players in this range are a waste of money and he'd rather give someone in the club the chance to improve and occupy this space. I am not sure if he's right at doing this, because, without a rigorous analysis, I have the feeling that Liverpool, Tottenham, United and even Chelsea have failed with a of of signings at this range. But, we do miss out on a set of good players (Schneiderlin, this summer - more in the past) by not being in the market at this range.
