There are those who believe that Arsenal aren’t really interested in signing Luis Suarez, and are making bids they know will get rejected. However, they’re still publicly on the hunt for the player, and might raise their offers in order to convince Liverpool to release their hold over the Uruguayan.
The first bid of £30 million has been rejected. Meanwhile, Suarez has joined the club in Australia for their preseason training camp and tour. Part of his arrival will have to do with a serious talk involving Brendan Rodgers, which might determine Suarez’ future at the club, as the manager attempts to convince him to give up on his hopes, for now, of playing somewhere else.
In any case, Suarez hasn’t handed in a transfer request. Arsenal are now expected to make the next move, with the Mirror reporting that there’s a chance they’ll be making a £40 million offer quite soon. Rumors about Bernard don’t seem to be true, according to Arsene Wenger, but maybe he’s just trying to calm everyone down and avoid disappointment like this summer has proven to be for Arsenal fans, waiting for that £70 million to be spent.
It seems every player linked with Arsenal ends up going somewhere else – Mario Gotze, Stevan Jovetic, Gonzalo Higuain (probably going to Napoli) and Lucas Digne. Now Bernard is being mentioned, but that seems like more wishful thinking. Luis Suarez, Wayne Rooney; all seems like big names that are there to either serve as a decoy while Arsenal work on the deals they actually want, or to calm their supporters by lulling them into a feeling of confidence that a big name is going to arrive.
Wenger’s test this offseason and next season isn’t just if he’ll be able to provide results that have been better than the last few seasons. Showing that Arsenal is a big club that is willing to spend money on the best players in the world is something he finally needs to stop refraining from doing.