A worrying trend for Arsenal’s bad asset management by dgr8xt
Hello all. I’ve been thinking for some time of what I consider to be poor asset management by The Arsenal football club. I feel there is no better time to do so than now, seeing that a particularly dangerous, alarming and sinister trend is beginning to take shape around our would-be outgoing transfers. Please consider carefully that:
1. Torreira had a fruitful season with Fiorentina but the club are unwilling to take up their €15m buyout option even though they are clearly aware that he’s worth more than, that going by his age, ability and form this past season. This is despite selling Dusan Vlahovic for €85m only four months ago. As at the time of writing, they are yet to take up the option which I believe they would find any means to do before the deadline if they were really serious
2. Bellerin had a very fruitful campaign with Real Betis but the club has also been adamant to even say anything along the usual lines of “wanting the player to remain with them and doing what they can” for the player to remain even though Bellerin publicly said he wants to stay there. His asking price is said to be about €10m maximum.
3. Benfica has been reported to be keen on Bernd Leno, who is also keen to join them. But is £8m too much fo them to pay? Apparently, they think so
4. Mourinho’s AS Roma refused to up their bid from £12m to £17m (difference of just £5m) for Granit Xhaka but agreed to sign Tammy Abraham for £34m. Is that too much for them too?
I’m not one given to much statistics. But if we consider the amounts for which Arsenal sold players over the years, the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Robin Van Persie, Alex Iwobi, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, etc, versus what it cost us to bring or develop them, it’s in stark contrast to how we’ve conducted our business since our technical director arrived. When clubs can see that:
1. The gift from heaven (how Aubameyang is regarded in the Camp Nou) left us for free with 18 months on his deal. We’re still paying most of his wages.
2. Mavropanos left us for next to nothing even when his talents and consistency were obvious.
3. Guendouzi left us for about one-sixth of his value.
4. Willian was handsomely rewarded with a £15m pay off.
5. Pepe has been left to completely lose his value despite being our most expensive signing.
6. £20m was rejected from Wolverhampton Wonderers for Ainsley Maitland Niles only for him to be subsequently left to rot and his value nosedive.
7. Mustafi and Kolasinac were paid off (we weren’t getting any pounds on these, were we?)
8. Özil was being paid over £300k p/w to play for Fenabahçe
9. Leno has obviously been devalued due to being perpetually benched.
10. Real Madrid just won the Champions League (there has to be a tenth point. It looks better than having only nine, hence this one)
Seeing the above points, I can deduce that clubs do not want to pay anything of substance for any of our players because they see the probability of us cancelling such players’ contracts or selling for ridiculously low fees. I fear this might be a theme for our already terrible player sales department in this window.
It was reported that Lampard had some issues with the Chelsea board when he was coach due to the perpetual benching of Kepa Arrizabalaga. The board argued that Arrizabalaga at least had some value which should be protected in case of a future transfer.
Where is our technical director in all this? Who gives away players for these diabolic and atrocious amounts. This is not the Manager’s doing and I do not blame him one bit because “someone” was supposed to complain about how Saliba’s treatment might impact his value and about the devaluation of other assets.
If someone had inserted a buyout option in Joe Willock’s loan to the barcodes last season, I’m very sure it would not have been any more than £5m. Someone was willing to loan Arthur Melo for two seasons with an obligation to buy for €40m, a transaction who’s termination has given Josh Kroenke about the only genuine praise he’s ever received from Arsenal fans.
If my inference above is correct, then we’re in a whole lot of trouble as regarding player sales this transfer window. Many have said that we could make as up to £90m or more from sales of players like Maitland Niles, Torreira, Guendouzi, Mari, Leno, Bellerin, Cedric, Pepe, Nelson and probably Xhaka. I honestly do not see us getting more than £35m for all those players combined, going by what we’re currently experiencing. Someone hasn’t been doing the club any justice in this department.
Someone has seen it as okay to have purchases far higher than sales. Liverpool spends but also sell well. It’s indeed a transfer window to look forward to, and I’m hoping for the best window we’ve had in ages.
But transfer window activities are basically divided into two – outgoings and incomings, and someone is making one of those two not to look particularly attractive.
dgr8xt
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