Earlier this summer, Arsenal contacted Norwich about Emiliano Buendia. They said they were going to bid £25million for him.
It was explained that Norwich had already got an offer for Buendia, from Aston Villa, for £30m. The board were going to consider it. Yes, Arsenal’s representative continued, but his club’s recruitment department had a fine statistical analytics team that helped set player values, and they regarded Buendia to be worth no more than £25m.
So Norwich patiently explained once more that, while the analysts no doubt perform a very valuable guideline service, the fact that Arsenal had already been outbid by £5m meant that their offer would not be placed before Norwich’s board.