Quote Originally Posted by selassie View Post
This is the bit that disappoints me which makes me question we played a big part in this deal not progressing.

I understand that we don’t have a bottomless pit of money, but I don’t understand how we couldn’t close this deal when essentially we were the only club in talks to sign him and Mudryk appeared almost desperate to join us. If it really was to do with the valuation of a player then we move on and approach our next target. If Mudryk was our number 1 target and we have nobody else lined up then it begs the question to why we didn’t do more to close the deal.
I'm frustrated too - but the reports were clear. Shaktar was basing Mudryk's valuation on the Anthony deal - which saw an EPL club in turmoil and desperate bidding way over the odds for a player worth half of what they paid for him. Shaktar are well known to be hardballers, and they were never going to close the deal with us while there was the possibility of a bidding war with the likes of Chelsea who are indeed desperate and don't care how much they spend - which is what came to pass. The fact that this has all played out very publicly tells us all we need to know about Shaktar's intentions.

We have all criticised the way Arsenal have made some huge signings only for them to fail and the players involved to become unsellable at their proper value. We have lamented getting a reputation for being low-balled when it comes to transfers out of the club. Well for me the same applies to incoming signings. As soon as we get a reputation for paying well over the odds for players, this will affect our ability to find value in the market. It could also affect the squad building and unity with the players that we have already. So I can understand that the long term stability of the club (which has been hard won over the last cople of seasons) comes before signing an exciting yet EPL unproven player for the kind of money Chelsea are paying for him.

I think the 'criticism' should be of the fact that we are in league competing against clubs with bottomless resources rather than the club not getting this transfer over the line.

That said, if we don't have a Plan B to strengthen what must now be regarded as a title push, then that is the worry here. There are never any guarantees, but if we bring in noone then we are starting to look at a similar situation to last year when we could narrowly lose out (on the title rather than CL places) for the sake of decisivenes in January. I don't know who is available for us in the positions we need to strenghten, but logic says that there must be someone available who fits our plans...