Arsenal Transfer Rumors: Massive Bid For Andrea Belotti Layered With Questions

Arsenal has turned a striker drought into surplus, which makes their reported bid for Andrea Belotti rather questionable. So let’s dig into all the questions.

Toino Sporting Director Gianluca Petrachi has claimed that the Italian club has turned down a £56m Arsenal bid for their star striker Andrea Belotti. Which is equal parts out-of-the-blue and bizarre.

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We have been fed rumors that Arsenal has been tracking the Italian striker, which makes sense, seeing as how Wenger tracks have of the known world but rarely ever pulls the trigger. What doesn’t make the most sense is all of the questions that such a monumental bid raises. So I thought it would be helpful to highlight all the questions, or at least all the ones I have thought of (please comment with more questions if you have them) and try to answer them.

The first question, without trying to get too broad and just say “why?” is “why now?” Danny Welbeck is back, Lucas Perez is healthy, Alexis is firing and Olivier Giroud is more fired up then ever.

So why now? You would say we are looking to the future, but that is a lot of money to toss at nothing more than a future solution. He would be buried at Arsenal, as I don’t see Wenger as the kind of guy who is going to put everything aside to throw this Italian striker into the line of fire.

The second big question is why would Arsenal deny it if it did happen? Torino’s claimed bid was quickly refuted by the Gunner’s, which doesn’t make much sense for a club that is often accused of not spending enough. Even the intent is enough to prove a point and this would be one such case. If the bid did happen, the Gunner’s would gain more from owning up to it then denying it.

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Another question is why was it rejected. That much money for a player on a team eighth in Serie A should be an automatic acceptance. I get that he is having a great year, but the resources that Torino could acquire with £56m would far outweigh whatever they are holding out for with this one guy.

Lastly, we have to look at what Torino stand to gain from claiming a bid. For one, they show Belotti how much he means to the club and how much they value him. That has to make him feel warm and fuzzy and powerful.

Secondly, it shows other teams that they need to step up their bids and offer even more money.

When you break it down and dissect the questions, it appears far more likely that Torino have conjured up a bid in their heads. Maybe Arsenal asked how much he was and they said £56m and stretched the truth to call it a bid.

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Who knows. It just doesn’t sound like a likely scenario that Wenger would dish that much money out when there are other, more pressing needs.

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