Arsenal: If he’s good enough, he’s worth it

According to the Guardian, Arsenal are hoping that £18 million will be enough to sign Kieran Tierney, despite Celtic valuing him at £25 million. Such frugality could cost the Gunners. If he is good enough, he is worth it.

Arsenal are not known for their lavish spending. They are a self-professed self-sustainable club. They spend what they earn, one of the only few clubs in the world who are managed in such a manner.

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The strategy is admirable. But in the transfer window, it can cause problems, especially in more recent seasons when the prices around the globe have exploded to astronomical levels. And this summer, it seems as though the Gunners’ frugality could yet come to back to bite them once more, this time with young Celtic left-back, Kieran Tierney.

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Tierney has been the subject of Arsenal interest for some time. It is believed that Unai Emery is a huge fan of his qualities, his opinion that Tierney’s athleticism and power would be ideal to play full-back in his 4-3-3 system. And Emery has sanctioned the club’s approach for Tierney as a result, left-back viewed as one of the major needs of the team thanks to Nacho Monreal’s age and Sead Kolasinac’s lack of defensive security.

Celtic valued Tierney at £25 million. Arsenal, predictably, made their initial offer at 60% of that value, a £15 million bid swiftly submitted and rejected. At the weekend, they then returned with a second offer, an improvement of only £3 million. The £18 million bid was sent the way it came as immediately as the first offer. This is how negotiations tend to go with the cheapest club in sports.

But now, the Guardian are reporting that Raul Sanllehi and Huss Fahmy, who are leading the negotiations, believe that £18 million will be enough to prise Tierney away from Celtic Park and are not initially planning to up their offer from that second bid, although negotiations are ongoing on a daily basis.

Now, I am not a football negotiations expect, and I would never claim to be. But if a club values a player at a price and you do not come to within 75% of that price, I would not be especially confident of that being enough to convince the club to sell. That seems like a fairly foolish belief to me.

A more accurate and positive stance to take would be ‘if he’s good enough, he is worth it’. It is not as if we are talking about huge disparities in valuations here. £7 million, for these clubs, is not all that much. Even with Arsenal’s pitiful £40-45 million budget, it is less than 20%. That is a palatable surcharge if the player is good enough.

So the question becomes ‘Is Tierney good enough?’ If he is a special talent, as many argue he is, Arsenal should not hesitate to pay an extra £7 million. If he isn’t, questions should be asked about their targetting of him in the first place. Either way, this frugality, while admirable, could cost them.