Arsenal has just released the likes of Mesut Ozil, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi from their big-money contracts at the Emirates.
Getting these players off their wage bill is a major positive for the Gunners, but it also shows a worrying trend that sees them sign players for huge transfer fees and lose them for nothing.
Over the years, the Gunners have lost the likes of Aaron Ramsey to free transfers when he was still a valuable player in the European market.
Arsenal has had to let some of these players leave the club to save money on wages, while the likes of Ramsey have ran down their deals to leave the club for nothing.
Sun Sports has just revealed that in the last three years, the Gunners have allowed a combined £163.5m worth of signings to leave the club for nothing.
The report reveals that at the time they left the club, those players were worth a combined £167m, meaning the Gunners would have made a profit if they sold them at their market value.
Among the players to have left the club in that time is Alexis Sanchez, who was reportedly worth £63m when he joined Manchester United.
Jack Wilshere also left for nothing after an injury-ravaged last few years, but the report says he was worth £18m when he left for West Ham.
Ramsey, it says, was worth £36m when he joined Juventus for free.
Their salaries made them virtually unsellable. We seem to pay excessive wages IMHO, and some players were vastly overpaid.
Add to that many of those mentioned were into the last year of their contract, and why would a club pay a fee when they can possibly avoid a transfer fee altogether in a few months.
Easy to criticize now, but how many would have offered that fee and wages for Mustafi years ago? Or Sokratis when we signed him?
I’m no expert, but there are other CB’s I would have chased long before Mustafi or Sokratis names came up in discussion.
Both bought by the worst ever manager in judging CB talent in all my decades as a fan. The list of AW’s stumers at CB is notorious.
He got it right with Campbell and Koscielny,even though I’d say there’s a disparity in quality between those two. Might be wrong, but I think he was sort of lucky with Kolo Toure as he played a few games in midfield (playing pretty well everywhere if I recall) and all over until they settled him at CB. He was just a brilliant athlete and well rounded footballer AW took a chance on I think.
Can’t think of another CB AW signed that I really rated. Maybe Senderos was one that had the talent but ultimately not the mentality. Overall I can’t disagree, AW didn’t do well with defensive signings – almost didn’t seem to interest him!
Davi, The ONLY word of your generally fine post(apart from your rating of Senderos, who I saw as total rubbish) with which I would quibble is in your last sentence; “almost” , which should read, “never”! AW’s rotten judgement of in particular, CB ;s was infamous in its incompetence. I seriously belive thst his constant weaknes was in not caring about a proper defence at all. No even adeqate DM afrer Gilberto, years befor he was aasacked.
Great man was Wenger, but as a manager he was found out by the more pragmatic managers who DID understand the vital need for a proper defence. What other top manager would have left the puerile Almunia as our number one keeper for three seasons ! NONE OF THEM, IS THE TRUTHFUL ANSWER.
Thanks Wenger and Gazidis! This why we wanted change over a decade ago!
Also, a big thank you to Arteta for spotting the dross extremely early on, and getting them out. It’s great we have a manager who wants what’s best for Arsenal and not the players for once.
And of course a very big thank you to Arteta for upholding those values ingrained into the Clubs history, and continuing the tradition by paying another Chav “usetobe” £200k a week.
Or have you conveniently forgotten this ?
Auba was actually doing something that got him his big contract, whereas Ozil had been badly on the decline at the time he signed. Use your eyes!
Could not agree more! MA has that steel that AW always lacked to put the club first and players afterwards. LOOK HOW OUR DEFENCE LOOKS LIKE A PROPER DEFENCE AFTER ALL the Wenger years of neglect with joke CBs, mostly now gone and Luiz to leave this summer. MA would never have let dreadful Almunia be our first choice keeper all that time and brought in a PROPER DM as soon as he took over.
Wenger did notproperly replace Gilberto ever, though he left around a decade after Gilberto. Such a difference for the better now with MA, even though he has made some mistakes too. Just far fewer though!
It is for constantly repeating same mistakes and never learning that AW got rightly slaughtered.