As an avid Arsenal supporter, I want the club to bring in some additional players during this transfer window. Of course I’m not alone in this.
Arsenal supporters are very active in the Twitterverse sharing their hopes and fears – and venting their frustrations – about the club’s reluctance to spend money on big-name transfers. But this time it isn’t just fans who are calling for the club to bring in some new players.
Over the past week or so several current Gunners, including Wojciech Szczesny, Bacary Sagna, Jack Wilshere, and Mikel Arteta, have expressed their desire for this as well.
If Arsenal is to move from fighting for 3rd or 4th at the end of the season to challenging for the Premier League title and going deeper into the Champions League, then adding talent and depth to the squad is required. The club has moved many players out this summer, but the only player coming in so far is Yaya Sanogo.
Sanogo is a quality long-term signing. Olivier Giroud had a good first season, and will likely be better during his second year in England, but he’s really the only experienced central striker the club has at present.
Arsenal have been linked with a number of strikers recently, including Wayne Rooney, Luis Suarez, and Gonzalo Higuain. I would welcome Higuain or Rooney, in that order, but as much as I want the play of the club to improve on the field, and as much as Suarez is a truly world-class talent, I do not want the Gunners to sign him.
Suarez’s antics are well-known, from issues with diving, to the more troubling ban for racial abuse and the almost too-strange-to-be-believed biting of opponents.
One of the reasons I love Arsenal is that the club does seem to take certain values seriously.
When incidents involving John Terry and Suarez were in the news last season, Arsène Wenger talked about how sport can play a leading role in the fight against racism. What would it say about the club if it then signs a player who received a ban for racial abuse?
In addition to this, Suarez has bitten opposing players not once, but twice in his career. He is in the middle of a 10-game ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislov Ivanovic, and was given a 7-game ban back in 2010 when he was with Ajax and bit PSV Eindhoven midfielder Otman Bakkal. Suarez has since apologized, and many seem to think that if anyone can help transform his behavior, it is Wenger. This may be true, and if we do sign him and he does improve his behavior, then as a fan I would be happy about this.
Nevertheless, if Arsenal are serious about not just winning, but winning in the right way, then perhaps the club should forget about trying to sign Luis Suarez and bring in someone else. I don’t think the world-class striker that Arsenal needs to add must be a saint, but it shouldn’t be Luis Suarez.