Arsene Wenger long worried that the transfer market was inflated and would only get worse in the future.
With a degree in economics, our former manager was often accused of being naive, trying to spend Arsenal’s money as though it were his own. It was frequently argued that the difference between him and Sir Alex Ferguson was that one adapted more readily to where modern football was heading in terms of transfer fees and wages.
I will always argue that the Frenchman spent many years restricted by the need to help pay off the debt from building the Emirates Stadium.
Was it noble of the 76-year-old to insist on finding value for money, or was it naive to think you could compete at the highest level of the sport without occasionally paying over the odds?
That could become the defining theme of the Gunners’ current recruitment strategy, one that will inevitably come under greater scrutiny now that the World Cup is over.
Have Arsenal’s valuations already cost them this summer?
A lot depends on how seriously you take certain rumours and how much credibility you give to the various sources reporting them.
Several outlets have suggested this summer that Andrea Berta has already missed out on two players from his shortlist because he was either indecisive or unwilling to meet the asking price.
Why Arsenal allow Sandro Tonali to join rivals Tottenham.
How Arsenal lost Morgan Rogers to Chelsea this summer.
That number could rise to three, with reports claiming Newcastle were ‘insulted’ by Arsenal’s valuation of Bruno Guimaraes. Arsenal open direct talks over move for Guimaraes.
The Magpies’ stance appears to be influenced by the current market, where players who have not even been called up by their national teams have reportedly been sold for around £85 million this summer.
Is Andrea Berta right to refuse inflated fees?
There will be Gooners who simply don’t want to see the club stand still and believe Arsenal must strengthen from a position of success. Yet, as Premier League champions, we are not in a position where we need to act out of desperation.
Tottenham, for example, knew the only way they were going to sign Sandro Tonali was by making an offer few others would even consider.
Our sporting director has already shown he is not afraid to walk away from negotiations if he believes the asking price is unrealistic.
Which again begs the question: is Berta being idealistic?
Or does he simply have to accept that £100 million is now the going rate for even an average-age player in today’s transfer market?
Dan Smith
What do you think, Gooners? Should Arsenal continue to stick firmly to their valuations, or is paying inflated fees simply the reality of competing for the very best players in today’s market?
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Arsene Wenger was spot on when he called the inflated Transfer Fees ‘Financial Doping’
We all know that he had both Chelsea under Abramovich and Man City under the Arab in mind when he said that.
Abramovich is now long gone (Not long enough some might say) and the Arab is still there.
Financial Doping is still with us in the Transfer Market.
It’s no surprise that Chelsea took a hit for their Transfer dealings and excesses a couple of seasons ago – and Man City are under an eternal investigation over the 115 charges – and at some point will very likely be sanctioned in some way by UEFA – which will tarnish their ‘successful 12 years they keep crowing about.
Arsenal have always spent, and should always continue to spend within their financial means – and should continue to set a solid financial example.
For Trophy / Silverware success to be genuine and real it shouldn’t be based on which club has the biggest cheque book.
The Kroenke’s are supporting the Club Financially – we’re Premier League Champions, and were
a whisker away from winning the European Cup.
We don’t need to ‘break the bank’ to achieve success – the 2025 – 2026 season that’s just finished proved that.
Completely agree.
And it’s neither naive nor noble. Just pure common sense not to pay these ridiculous fees.
Chelsea have some insane business model but guess what they don’t have a proper team.
Alonso is a great guy but let’s see if he can get them to be a team
For me some sensible transfers…. eg Joh. Stones as back up…other defenders are fit and Saliba will come back in Oct / Nov.. let yhe academy guys come through .. Spain won with 2 x 19 year old!
Also the Greek winger Tosalis looks decent
Not sure re Guimares for 80mn !?
Who else do we need as we bought a lot last year so only 2 – 3 needed
Perhaps Barcola or Alvarez as high quality additions
I think Arsenal are just being very careful in this transfer window, after having signed several inconsistent pricey players last summer
They might’ve identified better targets in terms of talent potential and financial investment
I would not say that they are noble or naive. I think they have a plan and strategy, and are sticking to it. They clearly know where they have to strengthen and have identified a few players who would address a specific need. They have their opinion of how much a player is worth and how much they are prepared to pay.
Is there a certain amount of deception included in their strategy; absolutely, in my opinion.
Despite everything we read, can we say for certain that Arsenal were really serious about Morgan Rogers? Chelsea have once again gazumped Arsenal by paying paid an obscene amount of money. Apparently, they now have to sell to “cover” the outlay. At the end of this, will Chelsea have really improved?
Likewise, Sandro Tonali is a good player but is he worth £100m? I am not certain.
There are a few players I would love to see in an Arsenal shirt. However, I am not the one having make that decision or pay the money. Will Spurs miss out on another important player because they do not have the money?
Its not naive or noble.
You either pay and you compete or you don’t.
Arsenal are in a situation that they have a great squad and perhaps need two key signings and one squad signing.
The thing I see is the media doing more work in the transfer market for Arsenal than our Sporting Director who is paid a HUGE sum of money to do this.
If saving money and being sensible with it is Arsenal’s priority then perhaps removing Andrea Berta would be a good first step…
I don’t know I think if it’s Mbappe or V Junioir then pay silly money but I can’t disagree with Arsenal when they say 117 million for Rodgers isn’t worth it
to me for that amount of money I want a game changer
We may need his profile, but even 80m for 29-year-old Guimares doesn’t make sense.
The academy is doing a decent job and could keep improving in supporting our policy and economic discretion.
Just that it’s uncertain how productive our scouting is, really? Moreso when most of the descent players we eventually buy are generally the ones often out in the media with less of the Mosquera-type signings. Could there be a lot more talent than Morgan Rogers at significantly low fees that we are meant to have discover? May be there’s none …..
The problem is that Arteta viewed Rogers as THE key signing for the Summer. The player that he wanted.
Is £117 million too much?
Of course it is but people who say we dodged a bullet miss the point entirely. Rogers was Arteta’s MAIN target. The key in his plans for next season and to be denied it and to lose out to a team that finshed tenth would be a tough pill to swallow.
If I were Arteta I would be looking and thinking that I only have one year left on my contract and I’m young and ambitious so why stick around a club that doesn’t support me?
Whoever (assuming they bring in anyone at all) will always be a Plan B player….
I have made it clear that I don’t rate Berta much at all. He is not the negotiating specialist that people think he is…
my main target is to go to Paris for my birthday
doesn’t mean I will pay 3-000 pound for my flight ?
got to be a cut off point
Sorry, but Leon is right, Arsenal will never win a single Premier League title while Berta is the sporting director.
So who was our Sporting Director in last season’s Premier League win?
Who signed the likes of Zubimendi, Gyokeres and Eze who all played significant roles in our title win?
We’ve just won a PL title, and also reached a CL final🤣
How do you know Rogers was Artetas main target, did he call you and tell you that. Don’t believe all that you read in papers that need headlines to generate sales.
It’s crazy.. we have fans saying on here last season before we on that ARTETA spent so many hundreds of millions and couldn’t win
Wel he won
And now we have proof that whilst he may ask for certain players it’s down to he club to decide what to pay and if that is good value
And for some to say Arteta will all because he hasn’t been supported is laughable
And one says Berta should go despite his signings helping us win the title in his first seas9n
.
I cans ee silly season comments are back!
It is possible that my comment was a sarcastic response to Leon’s comments denigrating Berta.
It’s not always obvious🤣 An emoji helps😏
Your comments were clear..my response was to Leon mate !
And you can tell what he’s having for dinner I suppose.
Pal, without this Morgan Rodgers, Arteta finished second thrice and winner once , UCL semis and then a losing finalist. The man has a system and needs a player to fit into his system, not the other way around. Rodgers is good, but not good enough for 117M + agent fees. Surely Berta might have walked away after discussing with Arteta.
Arteta will never getting this working relationship and respect at any other club like he gets over here. Ask Alonso or Nigelsman or De Zerbi
Arsenal didn’t seem too concerned about inflation when we bought Rice at a fee which probably set a benchmark for “elite” players.
That’s because we believed Rice was worth the fee given his quality, leadership and consistency over several years.
We didn’t think Rogers was worth that amount. He could prove us wrong but for now, I’m sticking with the club’s decision
👍
And I’m sure that he’s been worth every penny, but we still set the bar higher than previously between UK clubs for UK-born players.
And yes, Rogers isn’t worth the amount that Chelsea has paid, but they have now pushed the bar yet higher.
We have a lot of English qualified players now ..and English players have a premium
Lets look at some f the great players at world cup who can be arranged a far cheaper price and same quality
Someday, his price tag will get to his head and will be a similar Pepe type scenario and surely the fan base will turn against him. It happens in football if the player cannot handle the pressure in bigger clubs.
As for Rice, the lad remained grounded and before joining us, he won the Conference Cup for the hammers. It is all in the player’s attitude and approach.
For the sake of English football, I wish Rodgers well. Rice and Zubi will take care of him when he meets them on the pitch, 6 points to the Arsenal
👍
How deep into the champions league do you have go to make 100mil? Chelsea made a record 330 million loss last season and have no champions league football where are they getting all this money from? The less said about Man City’s financial shenanigans the better. So now these two financial doping teams should just be allowed to disrupt the transfer market by creating hyper inflated prices and the rest of us are be labelled ‘naive’ for refusing to play along?
There has to be a middle ground. The likes of Bournemouth and Brighton have found players who don’t cost the earth so just because Rogers and the like have cost 2 arms and legs this transfer window doesn’t always make for the right move.
I’ve no idea if Rogers has the same personality as Rice who in terms of commitment to Arsenal and England has been exemplary.
Whilst I’m surprised that there hasn’t been much action so far, we were told by all and sundry at the start of last season that we had a massive squad with quality in each position twice over. Equally, Arsenal generally are quite secretive in the market
As for over paying, some of the figures are eye watering but have come from the likes of Spurs who had fallen so far. Arsenal can’t take their eye off the ball and I believe in refreshing the team. Hopefully some of the emerging youngsters have a part to play
Thanks for the Brighton ad Bournemouth examples on building their teams …..
They’ve been very consistent on this just wondering how long it’ll take us to learn from them develop something of our own from their strength.
With Lewis-Skelly coming back into contention with appearances in midfield at the end of last season and talented youngsters in the squad, along with the likes of Mosquera, Hincapie and other fringe players, we don’t need to pay inflated prices. Guimaraes at 29 for £80 million+, I don’t think so. I’m not really sure of Alvares either at £100, even if it’s £50 million plus Gyökeres as is rumoured. As usual though we don’t seem to be able to sell anyone for a decent price.
Why would we sell Gyoksres ? Integral to us winning the title and he has won the league last 3 seas9ns eith the team he pkayed for !!
If we get Alavarez I see him playing on the left wing and / or interchanging with Gyo
Remember Gyo was pur main signing last season! … we should be re informing the squad we have and only replacing eg zTrossard with Tosalis etc
I absolutely agree with you Neil, it’s just that a ‘swap’ type deal has been rumoured which I do not want to happen.
It would be a huge gamble to swap Victor for Julian.
Rumours abound
Tzolis has been announced today. And I think a great buy..
Lets Just stop reading anyone else other than Arsenal.com. so much click bait !
The geordies have just signed a midfielder… Bruno on his way?
Money is king in this day and age sadly. People used to laugh when it was said that a player in the future would earn upwards of £300,000 a week.
Well it’s happened, and it will continue to spiral. The same thing has happened regards transfer fees, something that will also continue.
Owners of clubs should have stood up stronger years ago, and been more sensible in their financial dealings with clubs and players. I’m afraid the horse has bolted on that score.
As for Arsenal paying inflated prices or not, I admire them walking away from certain deals. The only question is like it or not, if you’re set on getting a certain player you may have to pay over the odds to get him.
If you don’t you run the risk of falling behind, although all that said if you are clever in the transfer market, there are some gems out there. Brighton to name just one team, seem to have the knack of finding them. Maybe we should give it a try.
Does Berta have a choice? I think Josh has given him a budget an Arteta a shopping list. Berta himself has several targets for each position that Arteta wants to strenghten and he tries to navigate within the budget.
The Kroenkes have been putting in more money since they became majority owner, but they will never be big spenders like our rivals, they probably still see the club as self sufficient.
Hopefully Arteta really wants Bruno and they do what it takes to get him lol.
Arsene Wenger was definitely money conscious but he still was too money conscious sometimes
I remember when Liverpool wanted £18 million for Xabi Alonso but Wenger wouldn’t go over £15 million. I think that was a bad call
Stephanie, it was £16m. Fabregas, the 🐀, had been talking to Alonso for a while and Alonso wanted to come to us. When we refused to pay the extra £2m is when Fabregas had enough and went on strike to force his move to Barcelona.
If we get Alvarez for Martinelli+60m euros, already replaced Trossard, get Bruno for 90m euros, then wait to get rid of Norgaard, Reiss, Jesus, Fábio Vieira, Setford and may be Nwaneri – we already spent on Hinchapie from this year’s budget. Before any sales it is 200m spend.
We can start the season with Zubi+Bruno+Miles+Odegaard+Eze+Merino in the middle. Then we wait for the opportunities in the back
Though 100m is becoming the new normal Arsenal need not indulge in such crazy calcio merkato. Imo team’s best elevens mostly will remain unchanged; for hiring subs Arsenal need not pay exorbitant prices. We saw it with Tzolis. Sky is saying Berta is preferring evolution to revolution. The best want to join a stable and predictable club like Arsenal and this factor helps to reduce the prices.
Arsenal traditionally is not good at selling. Shall we see the 35m record (maybe for Chamberlain) be broken if prices of players are surging?
To be honest, there is something deeply unsettling for anyone who loves this sport about the way this club now operates:
Players are no longer seen as athletes with a history, a jersey, or a community behind them, but as lines of code on a depreciation spreadsheet. A young player is signed to an 8‑year contract not for sporting reasons, but to stretch the transfer cost across the accounts. A homegrown talent is pushed out without a second thought because, in the cold jargon of finance directors, he represents “pure profit” – a 100% net gain on the FFP balance sheet.
Rather than trying to build a better team on the pitch, the management spends its time hunting for regulatory loopholes: stretching contracts to 9 years until UEFA and the Premier League banned it, selling property assets (like stadium hotels) to sister companies of the same fund to hide losses, and arranging multi‑leg swap deals (like the Rogers/Garnacho model) to book immediate profits while spreading costs over a decade.
This model sends a contemptuous message to the public and to coaches: the pitch is merely the secondary showcase for an investment fund. A “project” is promised, but a manager is sacked as soon as on‑field reality clashes with accounting logic. Fans are expected to cheer for a squad of which 50% will be sold or loaned out within 18 months just to rebalance the asset portfolio.
You mostly seem to be describing the likes of Chelsea but described being unsettled by ‘this’ club which is Arsenal
If I use the word progress it depends on how you define it being for good or worse. The genie is out of the bottle. My family lived within a gnat’s knacker of the Emirates and we never bought a ticket in advance. Instead, it was cash at the turnstile. Now, it’s a red membership and a ballot for a ticket in the vain hope of being lucky. What was largely a family or community affair is now followed by people across the globe. It is unrecognisable from what I grew up with and I don’t see your doomsday scenario changing
You are completely right: there is no going back.
The financial ecosystem of modern footbal, inflated transfer fees, massive wage bills, and hyper-commercialized operations, demands that clubs constantly maximize yield per seat.
Arsenal may execute this with a polished corporate smile while Chelsea operates with brute financial engineering, but both are fundamentally playing the same game. One just (Arsenal) hides the machinery better than the other (Chelsea).
I think it is going to be squad rebuild this year. Key players are exhausted or injured so let them rest/refresh and also bring in some new affordable talent. This year aim top 4 and next again win it when we have fully fit squad
It really feels good to be champion coz I’m sure with this rogers issue and our general approach to transfer , fans will be asking for berta n arteta headS by now, maybe me too.
But honestly to me and just like one footballondon article says , arsenal already has a hybrid no 10 in eze and that eze and rogers are similiar. This is a fact
So i never thought arsenal wanted him, they never spoke of him unlike the guimares situation. I Llike rogers but I think we should do better if a winger is what we want to sign and not another hybrid winger.
I wonder how @Leone and many others can be so sure rogers was arsenal/artetas priority signing. Its funny coz in football nobody knows anything behind the scene sometimes, really. I bet no one saw rogers moving to chelshit. Not even their shity fans
We need to be patient with d’club coz they’ve earned it, we are the champion and i’m sure the club will want to do even better considering our positive trajectory record for the past 4 years.
As for me my choice wingers are vini , kvara, doue, barcola and not diomande. I’m not sure of his technical ability, he didn’t impress me at the W’cup
COYG!
Am still celebrating our EPL trophy😅 🍾