February 4th.
On the last day of the Premier League winter transfer window, Arsenal suddenly dropped a bombshell—
[Arsenal Official: Ajax striker Luis Suarez has transferred to Arsenal for a transfer fee of up to 26 million euros.]
[Arsenal Official: Manchester City defender Jerome Boateng has transferred to Arsenal for a transfer fee of up to 18 million euros.]
[Arsenal Official: Schalke 04 goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has transferred to Arsenal for a transfer fee of up to 24 million euros. He is currently on loan at Schalke 04 and will officially transfer to Arsenal this summer.]
When these three transfer deals were announced, a storm swept through the entire European football world!
Arsenal, who had always been very stingy with transfers, actually spent a whopping 68 million euros in the winter transfer window, completely stunning the European media...
Not only the media was stunned, but also fans around the world who follow the European top 5 leagues.
They never expected Arsenal to become so generous now.
Since signing Varane, Hazard, Blaise Matuidi, and Griezmann at the end of last summer's transfer window.
This winter, they once again announced the signings of three key players: Suarez, Jerome Boateng, and Neuer.
Although Neuer will only officially transfer this summer.
His contract has already been bought by Arsenal, the deal has been reached, and there's no way to stop it now...
As for Jerome Boateng and Suarez, both players are ready-made forces, especially the latter.
You know, Suarez scored a total of 49 goals for Ajax last season, the 2009-2010 season. This number of goals was even more than Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the same time!
Of course, this does not mean that Suarez is stronger than Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, because he plays in the Dutch League, and the competitive level of the Dutch League is completely incomparable to La Liga and the Premier League.
To put it bluntly, the goal data is more inflated...
But even so, a striker who can score nearly 50 goals in a season for a Dutch League team is enough to be famous throughout European football.
If it weren't for Suarez being suspended by the Dutch Football Association due to the biting incident, Arsenal would never have been able to poach him from Ajax for less than 30 million euros.
As for Jerome Boateng, the German defender is not happy at Manchester City now...
Mancini forced him to play as a right-back, which made the Dutchman uncomfortable.
In addition, having Richards rotate with him and not being the team's first choice made Jerome Boateng very frustrated, so the Dutchman actually did not want to stay at Manchester City.
If Arsenal hadn't intervened, Jerome Boateng would have transferred to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2011 and officially started his great career.
During his time at Bayern, Jerome Boateng was once considered the "world's best center-back", and his ability is beyond doubt.
However, because he is struggling at Manchester City now, no one thinks Jerome Boateng has outstanding defensive ability yet.
Fly, who had god's perspective, naturally knew Jerome Boateng's strength, so after hearing the news that he was not happy at Manchester City, he immediately suggested that Arsène Wenger sign the German defender.
Finally, after Arsène Wenger sent someone to observe him several times, he felt that Jerome Boateng indeed had the potential to become a top center-back, so he added him to the transfer list.
Manchester City was actually not very willing to face Arsenal's offer...
Because one reason was that Arsenal were their League competitors, and Manchester City did not want to strengthen their rivals.
Another reason was that Manchester City's current position in the top four of the League was not stable, and Tottenham behind them had been chasing closely.
In this case, Manchester City did not want to sell players.
Fortunately, except for being heavily used by Mancini at the beginning of this season, Jerome Boateng's playing time decreased as the season progressed...
In the latter half of the League season, it was even difficult for Jerome Boateng to come on as a substitute.
In the second match between Manchester City and Arsenal, Jerome Boateng sat on the bench and didn't even come on as a substitute.
For such a dispensable player in the current Manchester City team, selling him would not affect Manchester City's strength.
So after comprehensive consideration, and with the relatively high price offered by Arsenal.
Manchester City finally agreed to sell Jerome Boateng to Arsenal.
Jerome Boateng himself originally wanted to go back to Germany to play, but when Arsène Wenger advised him, he only used one sentence to dispel Jerome Boateng's idea of returning to Germany...
"Jerome (Jerome Boateng), do you want to play with Fly? To be honest, it was Fly who recommended you to me. In other words, Fly thinks you are qualified to be his teammate. Do you still want to go back to Germany now?"
God knows how incredible Jerome Boateng felt when he learned that Fly, who was dominating the Premier League now, had personally requested to sign him!
Oh god... how could he, Jerome Boateng, be so blessed? To be personally recommended by the famous Fly Adams?
For Jerome Boateng, who was still a nobody at the time, Fly's optimism about him and desire to be his teammate was simply a myth!
He didn't think that with his current strength and resume, he could catch the eye of a super goal machine like Fly...
He still remembered when Manchester City played against Arsenal for the first time this season, Fly scored two goals and assisted one in front of him, single-handedly creating three goals, almost single-handedly destroying him.
Especially Fly's second goal, it was purely given to him.
Thinking of the helplessness he felt when facing Fly at that time, Jerome Boateng couldn't help but sigh that there could be such a perverted existence in this world, and the more than ten years he had played football were completely in vain...
At that time, he had fantasized about how comfortable it would be if he could be teammates with such a terrifying figure on the field...
Now, unexpectedly, he was directly recommended by Fly himself, which made Jerome Boateng feel flattered.
In the end, there was naturally no suspense. Jerome Boateng, in order to win the championship, chose to take a shortcut and hug a super thick thigh!
And Fly himself was also very happy about Jerome Boateng's joining.
Although he had played in the Europa League for Manchester City this season, according to the rules, he could not represent Arsenal in the Champions League in the second half of the season.
But that doesn't matter... as long as he can help Arsenal play in the Premier League, it's enough.
Fly discussed with Arsène Wenger and believed that the reason why Arsenal collapsed in the mid-to-late season every season was that the players played too many games and did not get enough rest.
So every year in March, there would be a large number of injuries.
In order to overcome this as much as possible, Arsenal's players, especially the defenders, must reduce their workload in the second half of the season.
Since the current League lead is relatively large, there is enough room for error.
So after discussion, Fly and Arsène Wenger decided that Arsenal's back four, including Clichy, Sagna, Varane, and Koscielny, would focus on the Champions League knockout stages in the upcoming matches.
They would only come on as substitutes or simply rotate in regular League games.
They would only start in strong matchups.
So in this way... Arsenal would need relatively reliable substitute players to step up.
After all, the Premier League is the most difficult football League in the world to play in, and some mediocre players simply cannot play.
So in order to ensure that the defense can withstand the impact of those Premier League mid-to-low table teams, Arsenal signed the key player Jerome Boateng.
Jerome Boateng himself didn't want to be a substitute, and it just so happened that he couldn't play in the Champions League for this half of the season, and he was a starter in the League, which also met his requirements...
As for what to do next season, that will be discussed later...
Let's get through this season first before talking about anything else.
The same applies to Suarez. Having played in the Champions League for Ajax this season, he also cannot play in the Champions League knockout stages.
However, it is enough for him to be able to provide support in the League.
After all, it is well known that Arsenal's current starting center forward Van Persie is injury-prone.
In order to avoid missing the Champions League knockout stages due to injury, Arsenal also needs an excellent center forward to help him reduce his workload, at least to play regularly in the League.
So Arsène Wenger chose the Uruguayan prolific striker Suarez, who was facing a suspension in the Dutch League.
Suarez was very willing to come to Arsenal, after all, people strive for higher positions, and water flows to lower places.
He didn't want to stay in the Dutch League if he could play for a Premier League giant.
Anyway, he was suspended in the Dutch League, so he might as well just leave.
Playing in the Premier League was a good choice.
Suarez currently has no right to ask for too much. Being Van Persie's substitute at Arsenal is already a good outcome for him.
After all, the Dutchman is about to reach the peak of his career, scoring 25+ goals in the Premier League for two consecutive seasons.
Looking at the entire European football world, only Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo can surpass him.
Of course, in this timeline, with the abnormal Fly as a foil, Van Persie's goal tally is insignificant...
Now the media and fans' attention is focused on Fly's data of 46 goals in 23 League games.
No one is paying attention to Van Persie's high efficiency of 15 goals in 13 League games so far this season.
You know, the only three players in the European top 5 leagues with a League goal efficiency of over 1 this season are Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid, and Fly and Van Persie of Arsenal.
Even Messi, the two-time Ballon dOr winner and Barcelona king, has a goal efficiency of only slightly over 0.7 this season.
But such high-efficiency data is not getting any attention because he is in the same team as Fly.
It can only be said that the Dutchman is too unlucky...
After all, when standing next to the sun, everything else will be overshadowed.