WHY SAY ANYTHING?

We have always said that the “London” thing is overrated and used as an excuse far too often, usually by the press when they haven’t got the true answer as to why a player, such as Eden Hazard for example, chooses Chelsea over United or City.

The fact is that he didn’t.

At the time Hazard moved to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea were competing on all levels and were in the process of rebuilding having just won the Champions League. Manchester City had been favourites to sign him but grew frustrated at the protracted negotiations and ended up walking away.

This, basically, left Chelsea as the only real alternative as United had never been involved in any serious talks with him or his agent. It was never about preferring London, it was about going to a club who would meet his exorbitant wage demands.

Bear in mind that when this deal was done, back in 2012, the fee was massive and, when you factored in his salary for five years and the agent’s fee, amounted to around £78 million.

Since then Manchester United and Manchester City have spent more money on players than Chelsea and Arsenal and the fact that they are not based in London has not prevented anyone from joining. It is a little like saying that a player will only join Real Madrid because he doesn’t want to live in Barcelona or a player turning down Bayern Münich because he wants to live in Berlin! That’s how ludicrous the suggestion is.

More proof is the fact that, during the summer transfer window, United and City managed to get most of their targets whilst failing with a couple of players only  because their clubs would not allow them to leave, (Ivan Perišić and Alexis Sánchez).

Arsenal and Chelsea, on the other hand, were both rejected by players. To add insult to injury, these were not top, world class players either. The likes of Oxlade-Chamberlain, Barkley, Walker and Llorente all turned down moves to Chelsea while Thomas Lemar decided that The Emirates wasn’t for him.

In the case of Arsenal, it is relatively easy to see why players don’t wish to go there. Firstly, they have no Champions League football to offer and, as they are not a big enough club, the name alone is not enough to attract the best players.

Secondly, they have a manager who is viewed, by the majority of players, as being over-the-hill. They only see negatives while Arséne Wenger is in charge and he, as yet, has done nothing to prove them wrong. The return of Champions League football next season may change the minds of one or two players but, in truth, competing with Europe’s elite is not something we expect to happen while Wenger is still at the helm.

So the fact that Arsenal is a London club is certainly not an advantage when trying to sign players and their current plight proves that players will choose success over geographical location virtually every time.

Chelsea’s failure to attract players is also quite easy to fathom out. They are the current Premier League champions, they are competing in the Champion’s League and, if it has even the tiniest influence, they are based in London. What more could a player want?

Well, maybe not a manager who, basically, sacks his players by text message.

The only plausible reason for players turning down a move to Chelsea is the manager. Everything else seems almost perfect and should really be like a magnet to the top talent.

The players union is well aware of how Diego Costa has been treated and, whether you agree with it or not maybe, just maybe, has advised English-based players to turn down approaches from Chelsea until the situation has been resolved.

This would explain why Antonio Rüdiger and Davide Zappacosta joined whilst Danny Drinkwater and Willy Caballero were hardly big name stars who would, by rejecting Chelsea, have made any difference. Also, the union would leave the final  decision up to the players as they are certainly in no position to order them to turn down a move and, as far as we are aware, no other top English clubs were in the market for either Caballero or Drinkwater.

So the bottom line appears to be that it is the managers at Arsenal and Chelsea who are, unintentionally, preventing new players from joining their clubs and, until some positive steps are taken to resolve these problems, particularly at Arsenal, then the Manchester clubs will continue to have their pick of the best players.

All we can say is, long may it continue.