Arsenal’s much-hoped-for profitable evolution: Mastering the Art of Player Sales
Arsenal seem to have learned from the mistakes they made in the past.
Buying players reaching the twilight of their career, holding onto players for too long, were several commonplace occurrences that became the norm.
But this summer they are showing colours that have not been seen by anyone recently. They seem to be selling players for a good amount.
Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari are two players that have departed the club. Arsenal have raised a total of almost £30 million from those two sales which is a pretty decent figure.
If the Gunners offload the likes of Thomas Partey, Kieran Tierney, Folarin Balogun and Rob Holding, who are players in demand, they can raise an estimated figure of £140-160 million.
That would certainly maintain a healthy financial situation. And this is the ideal course of action. The club should avoid terminating player contracts or parting ways with them through monetary settlements.
That’s how smart clubs operate. That’s how clubs remain sustainable, which is the goal of every outfit in the world.
If Arsenal want to continue on the trajectory of getting the top buck for the value of their talent, they will inevitably face tough decisions along the way.
For instance, selling Balogun for £50 million could greatly support their pursuit of strengthening the squad, despite the potential backlash from many fans, including myself.
However, such is the nature of football. Players who underperform for the club rarely command significant transfer fees, whereas those who display remarkable potential on the field tend to attract lucrative offers.
While certain sales decisions may be met with strong disapproval, this is precisely how the world’s leading clubs operate—the sustainable and astute approach.
Writer – Yash Bisht
No we haven’t learnt to be smart in the transfer market, we’ve learnt to spend a large amount of cash regularly. Some well spent, some completely wasted.
A lot of talk about sales but very little on paper. This window we are the worst EPL club on net spend by far, still time to change this though.
In the last 5 years guess where we are on net spend? No.1 as in the worst.
Let’s wait until the end of the window to judge but even if we sell a few more players we are still unlikely to be labelled as “smart in the transfer market”. Smart in the transfer market is Brighton
👆🤭🤣😂
PJ.SA, man united are faring worse! How did you conclude we are no one
I don’t disagree with you but it’s not only about the money, it’s also about improving the football team. The higher price does not automatically mean we improve the team or the squad, although it should. Viera, Sambi and Tavares didn’t cost vast amounts but still they have been underwhelming to say the least. While on the other hand, Trossard and Jorginho represent good value IMO. When you look at transfer performance as a business we sucked, but I think we are now edging in the right direction.
Pablo Mari was sold at a loss.
Only Xhaka seems a good sale.
Yet we keep seeing posts on how we have become smart in player sales because some other players might be sold. No facts to back it up, just hope. Next article please
I don’t think Arsenal are in a position to make money through selling yet. For that they need young potentials who can step into first team , perform well & then sold at a premium price while team balance is not impacted to challenge for the trophies.Good thing is they now have few players in the range of 21-24 years & doing well. So after 2-3 years they can sell 1-2 of them & make huge money which can be invested back
Arsenal have learnt. Arsenal wont sell Balogan for less than £60 million, which for a young international who has scored more than 20 goals is a bargain at £60 million. Thats just £10 million more than southampton want for the no goals Lavia who they astonishingly value at £50 million that all you journalist seem to think is reasonable! Arsenal have already turned down two bids of £55 million for Balogan as they would rather keep him if less than £60 million is the bid.
So if we sell tierney, is it u that will play when zinchenko is not feeling or out of form coz I can’t believe fans are evening thinking of this nonsense
We have got to start selling players for some good money more consistently and then we can start talking about being smart in the market.
A club selling a player can ask for whatever they like, but that player is only worth what a buying club is willing to pay.
To be able to sell at the “right price” you need a combination of several things:
1) Good contract management (not letting contracts run down)
2) Good development of players, so their value either increases or at least is maintained, while they are with us.
3)A salary policy that doesn’t prevent other clubs from taking them on.
We have been lacking in all 3 areas for many, many years, but there are signs of improvement.
There seems some confusion here on how contract negotiations work. The buying club can always walk away from a deal if they think the price is too high. There’s no way a selling club can force a buying club to pay a price they don’t want to pay. At the end of the day Arsenal can sell players at the best price they can get or hang on to them hoping their value will rise before their contracts run out.
Yes, but other clubs often seem to get more money for similar or worse players (Chelsea, for example). To me, it often appears that we just give up trying to get the most money and hand off players when we don’t want them (mavropanos, for example). It’s definitely possible to do much better – we’ll see how it goes this summer.
No
Arsenal has to be given a grade A, in the summer market thus far.
The selling of Granite Xhaka and Pablo Mari to Bryan Leverkusen and Monza respectively, we have recouped £27 mill in total across both deals.
This already is more than what we were able to make back last summer (£19mill) when Lacazette, Guendouzi, Bellerin, Leno, Torreia and Mavropanos were the high profile departures.
Arsenal consistently spending north of £200 mill in the future summer window is slim, but tying down key players to long term contracts and making significant strides to improving the players sales reputation this summer does set a new standard from which future windows can be judged against
Value of a player is decided by buyer but also on the evidence of how good that player is for current team. Except Xhaka all other Arsenal players were declared as not important almost a year before they were sold. So it was always Arsenal who were in a desperate situation to sell rather that a buyer
Are we naive to think that our negotiating team doesn’t get the best deal they possibly can. If we put a price on a player of £40 mill say and we eventually sell for £20 mill does that mean we are bad at negotiating. We can’t force clubs to buy at whatever price we put on a player so have to sell at the best price that is offered. Some people on here think that buying and selling players is like Championship Manager on the computer.
I reckon it’s closer to one hundred and twenty mil for that group of players. Tierney 30m Balogun 40m Partey 40m Holding 10m
The short answer is: no.
The long answer is…
Arsenal have spent a ton of money and a lot of the players bought with that money have been good. A lot have not. Limiting the conversation to players since Mikel Arteta was named manager…
Pablo Mari came in, and went out with hardly a kick of the ball. Cedric Soares was free and cost the Gunners wins if not cash.
Nuno Tavares bought, banished, and on his way out.
Fabio Vieira 35m – zero impact
Albert Sambi-Lokonga – in, a quick look, out. Zero positive impact
Takehiro Tomiyasu – in, now rotting with Ben White and Jurrien Timber ahead of him
Kieran Tierney – dynamic player, benched and moldering behind Arteta favorite Zinchenko
Meanwhile, the Kai Havertz deal looks a lot like Nicolas Pepe 2.0 – too much money for a player with little history of producing big numbers. Arsenal’s top earner – if he doesn’t work out, Arsenal will have another Ozil situation. Does Jurrien Timber really make the on-pitch 11 better with two good right backs already available? Does he replace Saliba or Gabriel at center back? Or White at right back?
Meanwhile, the same people who brought in success stories Ramsdale, White, Gabriel, Jesus, Odegaard and Trossard sent a parade of players out the door for little or no return.
Smith Rowe has value, he’s being wasted, but Arteta is hanging on to him for fear of looking silly if he shines elsewhere. Ditto for Tierney. Tomiyasu is wasting away, becoming worthless. Vieira cost Arsenal 35 m but they could not get half that now after a whole season moldering on the bench.
We are generally paying top dollar for players we buy and selling players for bottom dollar. We have made good buys with Rice and Timber but if Havertz is used as a squad player that could be considered as pricey. That said we need to improve the level of the squad not just the first 11. I will wait and see until the window closes if we have learnt our lessons.
I really dont see jow we are supposed to be “smarter” We can always spend fortunes but are poor at getting sales. How is that “smarter” ? It will be smart if we win the EPL or CL but until then, our record stinks.