Arsenal: Sorry Gremio, we can only spend that much on Wilfried Zaha

Arsenal are nipping at the heels of Gremio starlet Everton Soares, but unfortunately, his price is something we apparently only offer for Wilfried Zaha.

It’s gotten to the point where literally everything I write turns back into another complaint about Arsenal‘s undying pursuit of Wilfried Zaha. Maybe that’s borderline obsessive, but it’s all for the good of the club… at least from my point of view.

Everton Soares emerged as a serious target following his performance in the Copa America for Brazil. It was quite similar to Lucas Torreira‘s standout performance at the 2018 World Cup, where even those that hadn’t been familiar with him suddenly got a prime time viewing of what makes him so special.

Soares is currently on the books at Gremio, and they had to be licking their chops watching him dominate in the South American competition, because it allowed them to jack up that transfer fee, which is now said to be around £36m.

That’s a completely reasonable fee. Maybe a bit steep for someone who has only just hit the world footballing stage due to one standout performance in a top-tier competition, but reasonable nonetheless.

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The problem is, it’s probably where the Gunners interest ends, because apparently we can only spend that kind of money on Wilfried Zaha.

Zaha, who is still hanging out in the scope of the Gunners’ transfer window, is valued by Crystal Palace at £100m, which is stupid. So naturally, we had to lodge a £40m bid, which incensed Palace, FIFA style.

But that bid completely blew the cover off this supposed transfer budget. Because we have seen players like Hakim Ziyech, Ryan Fraser and more fly in under that £40m and just keep on flying by as the Gunners couldn’t stump up the funds to make a realistic bid. Even though they had just stumped up even more to bid for Zaha, who that bid was never going to work for.

Maybe that was the point, to show that we are trying, but it’s not exactly a good strategy if so, because when guys like Everton Soares pop up as potential signings, fans know that we bid that kind of money once, so why aren’t we bidding it again?

Soares is another options that stands above the probability of Zaha, yet I can bet that Soares will taper away into nothing while the Gunners continue to haplessly pick away at Zaha.