It is an open secret that Arsenal are helped by soccer economics experts at Harvard University, who use algorithms to assess future values of players.
As a statistical based, scientific manager, you can imagine the arch economist Arsene, aided by Harvard-connected Ivan, running the programs and coming up a fee and salary for a player that they will never go above.
Unfortunately a player is worth what the market says, not some internal algorithm that Arsenal say he is worth which would account for the U-turns and the black holes appearing when ‘done deals\’ are reported.
That could account for the reported volumes of spadework done on players like Jovetic and Higuain coming to nothing and to date, work on Felliani and Williams not materialising. Higuain and Williams were both said to have agreed personal terms.
Writing mid-July, Wayne Veysey in Goal said: “Higuain would now be an Arsenal player had Wenger not baulked at paying Real Madrid an extra £2m and decided that, if he was going to spend a £25m fee, he may as well do so on Suarez, who he regards as a player of even greater quality.
“Fellaini would also be an Arsenal player if Wenger sanctioned the £100,000-a-week contract that the player’s camp feel he is entitled to. Arsenal have so far offered to match his current £75,000-a-week after activating the £22m release clause in his Everton contract.†True or not, the principle is the same.
So is it the iron rule of algorithms – or just old plain tightness or a mix of both?
* Al-Khwarizmi was the Persian mathematician from whom the word algorithm was derived