Did you know that Thiago Igor was signed by Brentford from Club Brugge for around €33m and today people are talking about him being worth close to £90m?
Yet some Arsenal fans are losing their minds because the club might spend €40m on Christos Tzolis from the exact same club.
This is what I don't understand. When players come from Belgium and explode elsewhere, everyone suddenly admits the league has talent. But when Arsenal are linked to one of the best attacking players in that same league, people start shouting "Belgian tax", "farmer's league", and "inflated numbers".
Club Brugge aren't some random club selling lottery tickets. They consistently produce and develop players that move to top leagues and either maintain or increase their value.
If Brentford can pay €33m for a player from Brugge and potentially end up with a £90m asset, why is €40m for a 23-year-old winger coming off an outstanding season suddenly considered crazy?
Sometimes it feels like fans want Arsenal to sign players only after their value has already doubled. The whole point of recruitment is identifying talent before everyone else agrees.
Maybe Tzolis succeeds, maybe he doesn't. That's football. But acting as if signing one of the most productive attackers in Europe from Club Brugge is some reckless gamble makes no sense to me.
Funny how the same people who mock the Belgian league are usually the first ones asking why Arsenal didn't sign players before their prices hit €80m+.
Liverpool fell off last season because of injuries, City have struggled massively, Tottenham are in the bottom half, but for #Arsenal not to win a title in a year every single player has had an injury is unacceptable. Nice to see some common sense. #AFC
Arsenal looked like it ran out of ideas, its like we are hitting a wall knowing it will not move but still trying to go that way. Need some easy solutions.#afc