Reports: Arsenal to bid £40m+£1 for Luis Suarez

There have been more developments with the Luis Suarez transfer, with various media outlets--some reliable, some not as much--reporting that Arsenal are set to bid somewhere in the region of £40m for Luis Suarez. Not coincidentally, there is some sort of clause that Suarez has in his contract set at £40m. The Daily Mail, Mirror and Liverpool Echo have all reported over the past two days that Arsenal are set to bid £40m for Suarez, a story that has been corroborated by a few somewhat reliable people on Twitter. Less encouragingly, goal.com also ran the story, and Tony Barrett of The Times denied that Arsenal were set to bid £42m, which was the story in the Mail and goal.com.

As with most transfers, there's quite a few unknowns with Suarez to Arsenal. Arsenal prefer it this way, and while Barrett is well-connected, he is also reporting from the Liverpool end; Arsenal might not have sent their £40m bid in yet. At the very least, it seems Arsenal are fairly serious about capturing Suarez, which does make sense given the type of player he is: an extremely talented forward who's movement is both excellent and fitting of Arsenal's style of play, in the way he drops deep to link with midfielders and create goalscoring chances, dribbles and makes runs beyond defenders. Leaving aside the behavioral issues, and Suarez would be the perfect fit; leaving aside the behavioral issues, and Suarez is probably silly money, and well out of the reach of Arsenal. However, simply put, he is the closest striker available who's quality matches that of the level Arsenal aspire to, and for that reason, one can understand why Arsenal are probably bidding £40m for Luis Suarez.

UPDATE:

Right after I posted, this came up:

GUARDIAN SPORT: Arsenal's £40m bid opens Suarez exit door #TomorrowsPapersToday #BBCPapers pic.twitter.com/4zVy44aryT

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) July 23, 2013

It reports Arsenal have activated Suarez's clause by offering £40,000,001 for Suarez (seriously, never change Arsenal). Arsenal's interest looks very, very real.