Why doesn’t Wenger Sign Fernando Torres?

Wouldn’t you want the chance to be jumped at if he became available? Well, if rumours are true that Liverpool are burdened with £174 million pounds worth of debt and the owners are at each others throats, over the spiralling costs of the play thing they bought but are now getting bored with, then the idea of them selling their most prized asset may not be completely out of the question.

I always find it interesting to read how much people value him at, Lewyd24 suggested 30 million and W.A.H.T went further by suggesting that it would be the best forty million we ever spent; I certainly agree with the sentiment, the only problem is that the plan is flawed.

If Liverpool’s owners agreed among themselves to sell Torres, then common sense dictates that they would want to get the highest price possible and no one, bar, no one on the planet can out bid Man City, so would there really be any point in even making a bid when the certain outcome would be that we lose the bidding war and have to suffer the embarrassment of being made to look inferior by financial comparison?

The answer to me is no, we can bid 40 million until we are blue in the face and we won’t get Torres; but, as they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat: we have a weapon in the armoury that should always be exploited to the max before we give up all hope of ever seeing Torres play along side Fabrégas at the Emirates – the weapon is, off course, the Wenger factor.

When it was fully realised that Van Persie was out for what is going to be the best part of the season Wenger made a statement the following day saying that he would be in the market for a new striker when the window opened. This seemed a reasonable statement to make; he later added the proviso that any potential signing would have to be better than what we already had. Personally, I didn’t think this addition necessary as it seems obvious that that would and always should be the criteria.

So how is this going to get Torres? There is only one way that this is going to happen and that is if he decides that he wants to leave Liverpool to come and play at the Emirates. Arsenal can afford forty million and I am convinced that they would pay it but it would need a statement of this nature which would make City back off as the last thing they need is another expensive star on their books who doesn’t really want to be there, ala Robiniho.

Wenger’s statement about entering into the transfer market sends a clear message to any top class striker who might be disgruntled with his present club that Arsenal are ready and willing to welcome them to the home of football.

I suggested, not too long ago, that the worst thing that could happen would be for David Villa to sign to another club only to later tell us that he would have liked to have come to Arsenal if only he had known that we were interested in him. Wenger’s early announcement makes sure that this scenario does not happen. So if you are reading this Señor Villa or Señor Torres, get in touch.

A regular blogger who I have a lot of respect for said that he found the idea that Arsenal need to advertise as being sad. It took me a while to work out what he meant before remembering that there was, of course, a time when the name Arsenal was powerful enough to attract the crème de la crème of British strikers, considering it as a privilege and an honour to play at the home of football: just listen to Malcolm Macdonald and Charlie Nicholas, if you need proof, when they talk about how highly they regarded the opportunity to play for Arsenal.

I suppose it is sad that things have changed but changed they have and not all for the worse. We were big fish in a small pond back then and able to attract the UK’s finest. The biggest change is that we are no longer just competing with Man U, as we always have, we are now also competing with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona for the signatures of Europe’s, if not the worlds, finest players which clearly indicates to me just how far we have come. We may not have the financial clout of Man City but if by advertising Wenger can increase the possibility of attracting players of Torres or Villa’s calibre then I say — do it.