There's nothing like a patch of bad form to bring out the transfer rumours. And as this season sometimes has shown Arsenal in spectacularly bad form, all the more reason to expect spectacular rumours as well. The latest is a rumoured change of direction on board level.
The sustainable model of recent years is ridiculed by some fans, jealous of oil-rich rivals and weekly player salaries exceeding £200k. At the same time, it's applauded by UEFA and their Financial Fair Play project, about to be incorporated in European tournament rules.
After meek performances - bordering on capitulations - in the UEFA Champions Cup and the FA Cup last week, the board and majority owner Stan Kroenke are reported to allow higher salaries and a larger transfer budget than before. These rumours appear after the Arsenal's Supporters' Trust (all 850 of them, if reports are to be believed. Or are they 3,000?) have calculated that the club have £50m to spend, asking why they haven't. Their maths have been reported widely, i.e. in the Sun and the Daily Mirror.
The same numbers are used by the London Evening Standard, where it is claimed that a failure to qualify for next season's UEFA Champions League income will leave manager Arsène Wenger with a meagre £10m to "rebuild Arsenal".
The response seems to have been sources close to the board telling the Daily Mail that Wenger will have £55m to spend in the summer. Or perhaps as much as £100m, the so-called "senior sources" tell the Daily Telegraph.
Not a penny too much, it would seem. Rumoured bids for long-time targets Mario Götze and Lukas Podolski will cost Arsenal £55m in all, the Daily Mail translates from German tabloid Bild.
It all smacks of:
1) sports reporters trumpeting someone else's Excel sheets,
2) sports reporters puppeteered by a club's damage limitation exercise, and
3) sports reporters doing what they do best; translating someone else's fabrications.
Summer and Silly Season is early this year.
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