Will Arsenal Really Launch a £24million Bid For Marouane Fellaini?

Today Arsenal Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis said that the club can afford to sign a £25million player who earns £200,000 a week, and said they could afford Wayne Rooney or someone making even more wages.

Gazidis added that Arsenal is ready to “compete with any club in the world.”

Also today, The Times is reporting that Arsenal are closing in on the signing of Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini. The Belgian international reportedly has a release clause in his contract where he could leave Goodison Park if an offer comes in from a Champions League side. The release clause amount? £24 million.

While I don’t doubt Gazidis’s ambition or the fact that the Gunners have a war chest of £70 million to spend on transfers this summer, I don’t believe Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is capable of spending large sums of money. It’s against his nature.

While Manchester City have been busy in the transfer market already, having signed Fernandinho and almost signing Jesus Navas, Arsenal risk being left behind in the dust. My concern about Wenger is not only will he be reluctant to spend big sums of money for individual players, but that he tends to dawdle in the transfer market and leaves things until they’re too late.

Personally, I think the Fellaini-to-Arsenal story is a non-story. While I’d love to see him move to the Emirates Stadium, it sounds too implausible to me. He doesn’t fit the mould of players that Wenger usually signs.

What do you think? Is the Fellaini transfer story real, or just transfer gossip? Will Arsene Wenger prove me, and others, wrong by spending big money on star players? Share your opinion in the comments section below.