Arsenal foolishly put all their eggs in the Luis Suarez basket

Luis Suarez

Last night’s revelations that Arsenal had bid £40,000,001 for Luis Suarez, designed to open talks with the Uruguayan, was very worrying as an Arsenal fan. Surely a show of such intent shouldn’t be, should it?

Contrary to the feelings of many Arsenal fans, the moral objection to Suarez isn’t a problem for me, he is a brilliant player and would win Arsenal games, end of.

The problem is, Liverpool flat out rejected the bid. There were murmurings from Suarez’s camp that such a bid would enable his exit from Anfield.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Whilst we now appear to be entering talks with Suarez, that, in reality, means nothing. There is no point in agreeing a contract with him unless Liverpool agree to sell, and that doesn’t look like happening anytime soon.

Unfortunately, all the power lies with Liverpool, Suarez agreed a long-term deal only last summer and they have, publicly at least, stated that any club would have to offer more than the £50m they received for Fernando Torres in 2011.

Ignoring the fact that Liverpool appear to have no grasp whatsoever of true market value, it doesn’t look like Suarez will be going anywhere for any less than around £55m. Now, personally, I can’t see Arsenal stretching that far. Whilst the willingness to bid £40m, plus that all important pound, indicates an increased desire to spend, it is quite a stretch to up that offer another £15m, in the process almost quadrupling their previous record transfer fee. I just can’t see it.

So, now that Gonzalo Higuain has agreed a move to Napoli, who else could Arsenal target up front?

Looking at the bare statistics from Europe’s top five leagues, the options are depressingly bare. Of the top ten scorers last season, perhaps only two are realistic targets. One of those two, Roberto Soldado, is already in advanced talks with none other than Tottenham over a proposed transfer.

The other, Stefan Kiesling, is 29, and would probably not be available as Leverkusen would be resistant to the sale having already lost Andre Schurrle to Chelsea.

The possibility of Zlatan Ibrahimovic being available is not absurd following the arrival of Edinson Cavani at PSG, but it is likely new coach Laurent Blanc will want to use them to form potentially the most potent strike force in Europe.

So, looking at the next ten, who is there? Well, there’s an eclectic mix of the not available, the not good enough, the too old and the completely unknown. Dario Cvitanich, whoever the hell he is, scored 19 goals for Nice last year, so he’s an option. There’s Michu, and, erm, Rubén Castro of Real Betis. So, yeah… plenty of options.

Going further down the list, there are a couple of other options, AC Milan‘s Stephan El Sharaawy, who Arsenal reportedly had a failed bid for earlier in the summer.

There’s also Mario Mandzukic, who may be available under the new management of Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich. But, are they really the signings that are going to strike fear into opposition sides and turn Arsenal into genuine title contenders? No, they aren’t.

Of potentially available strikers in Europe, who are of the required quality, there appears to be only one, Wayne Rooney. Whilst Rooney wants out of United, his preferred destination appears to be Chelsea. So, there appears to be the very realistic proposition that Arsenal will, after all their bluster about spending big, end up empty handed in the much needed striker department.

Oh joy.