Fans of both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur may well be asking questions over their team’s summer transfer activities.
One point out of a possible six for North London’s bitter rivals after the first weekend of the season indicates the summer’s transfer activities have taken their toll.
Both sides have been beset by star players wanting to quit the club, Robin van Persie and Luka Modric.
The Dutchman has got his move, but it is to where that has rubbed salt in the wound for most Arsenal fans, and he will make his debut for last season’s runners-up Manchester United tonight.
Did they really have to sell to them?
It is the question many Gooners are pontificating, and it is a decision which could come back to bite them. Especially if Van Persie scores a crucial goal for United against Arsenal to deny them a Champions League spot.
Commentators have criticised Arsenal from being run ‘as a business’ while others defending the club have praised their ‘excellent deal’ in getting United to pay £24 million for the striker.
But what is more important? An extra £10 million or not selling him to a rival?
When it became clear Van Persie wanted out, Arsenal should have insisted on selling him abroad and nowhere else. Juventus were interested, and Arsenal should have pushed to secure £15 million and be done with the situation.
Instead Arsenal, who should have been – and still could be – title challengers, have made their own task more difficult by strengthening a rival club.
By stringing the situation out and leaving it so late it is hard to argue the saga has not cast a shadow over them heading into the season, as evidenced in their limp 0-0 draw at home to Sunderland.
But if you think the Van Persie situation has been mishandled and badly prioritised, then it is nothing in comparison to what is going on over at White Hart Lane.
Daniel Levy is insistent on getting the price he wants for Luka Modric, even if his haggling is to the detriment of the team.
It is all well and good to get the best financial deal possible for the club’s accounts, but the situation is becoming farcical.
The team desperately needs strengthening, but new boss Andre Villas-Boas cannot buy the players he needs until Luka Modric is sold.
All for the sake of holding out for an extra £5 million? The sale should have been completed months ago, and Spurs should be heading into the games ahead full of confidence.
Instead they looked short against Newcastle and predictably fell to an opening day defeat. If any club should know about the dangers of over-negotiating during the transfer window it is Spurs – after how the Berbatov sale and Modric saga affected the team in 2008 and 2011. Selling Berbatov was all well and good for £30 million, but the deal going through so late on deadline day meant the club had no time to spend it.
Football is a business, but clubs should not lose sight of the fact that success on the pitch is the bread and butter, what matters most – and ultimately what brings in the cash.
Both Arsenal and Tottenham can rightly be accused of handling their sales in a less than satisfactory way this summer, time and results will tell whether it is costly or not.
Should Van Persie have been sold abroad? Have Spurs let the Modric saga go on too long? Let us know your views.
image: © Doha Stadium Plus
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