Apparently Puma threw Arsenal £30milion last season when they signed with the North London team and, as far as Gooner.com can tell, that's going to be a yearly sponsorship payment. You see, Puma are smart. Yes, they want their brand on the big teams' shirts, but they're doing everything they can to get the big name players into those shirts as well.
The Ozil signing was thought to have been largely funded by the Puma deal, and now we're looking at another sneaky, yet potentially genius publicity stunt from the German sportswear giants.
There have been reports over the last 48 hours that the deal to sign Chilean star, Alexis Sanchez is 'imminent' and that Mathieu Debuchy has 'signed for Arsenal'. Only thing is, nothing official has confirmed any of this. How about Arsenal just blow us all away and announce everything at once?
New kit, with two new World class players in them? Fantastic. The timing (I'm assuming it can't have been completely orchestrated this way) is impeccable and will not only put Arsenal Football Club in a fantastic financial position through selling merchandise worldwide, but will give us Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy! Both will be significant improvements to our squad.
There are rumours (and have been all year) about a third being added to that bundle of joy - Loic Remy. Some don't see Sanchez as the answer to our Striker needs, although he scored 21 goals for Barcelona last season. You have to wonder though, whether these Remy rumours are legit or just people wanting a tagged striker so much that they're willing to settle for anyone.
I'm a Remy fan, just not a huge one. I don't see him as an improvement on Giroud, but perhaps a back up. Which is fine, but that's a lateral move, not a move up for Arsenal. Sanchez... now that's a sexy transfer.
Without calling for dark clouds where there are none, I am slightly (very slightly, just a wee bit) concerned with the lack of talk about us signing a central defender. It's early July, I can wait, but it's definitely something Wenger should already have his ear to the ground about.
Let's not think about that right now. Right now, if these two transfers materialize, we are the richest fans in the world! Perhaps not, but it's still bloody exciting!
I'm starting to like having these Puma lads around...
