Sturm Graz have completed the signing of Mika Biereth from Arsenal for a club-record fee of £4 million.
The Denmark under-21 international returns to the Merkur Arena following a successful six-month loan spell during which he scored nine goals to help Sturm to a league and cup double.
When Biereth arrived in January, Sporting Director Andreas Schicker revealed he’d been tracking the striker’s progress for quite some time.
It appears that dedication to the cause has paid long-term dividends, the Austrian club faced stiff competition to sign the striker – Club Brugge were rumoured to be interested along with a host of Championship clubs – but they got their man in the end, stretching their budget to do so.
In his first interview, Biereth said: “I think everyone has seen how comfortable I felt during my loan here in the club and in the team.
“In addition, there was the great sporting success with the double and the qualification for the Champions League, which I am extremely looking forward to.
”I would like to thank Andreas Schicker for making such an effort for me and am extremely looking forward to hopefully repaying this trust and achieving our goals together with the team. Let’s go Schwoaze, I’m really happy to be back in Graz!”
As has become a trend in recent years, Arsenal have also negotiated a sell-on clause in the deal meaning they stand to gain a few more quid should Biereth earn a future move.
After selling Folarin Balogun to Monaco following his loan spell last summer, it’s good to see the club repeating the process. Even if academy prospects can’t see a clear pathway into Mikel Arteta’s first team, it’s important they know other attractive options are available.
Who’s writing the headlines at this rag and why were they not fired for that title when ‘Mika Merkur Move’ (and better) was on offer…?
On an unrelated note. Is there any free agents that would be good additions to our squad?
Who are you thinking? Maybe Flamini can be player/owner.
Richard Fridge is out of contract.
Barnaby stingwing remains available, he’s 37 now.
Memphis Depay. He won’t make a run, and is isn’t as skillful as Jesus… but you asked for good, not great.
Depay is the spiritual heir of guys like Hatem BenArfa, superlative talent who just doesn’t try hard enough. The opposite of an Arteta player.
The sell-on clause better be 90% because, before I even get to that, what was the interest of Brugge and those other many Championship teams like, monopoly money?
Who am I kidding? I am an Arsenal fan so I fully expect us to pay the full release clause of every incoming player but watch clubs convince us to loan them Kiwior and Ramsdale till the end of their contracts because
a) Transfers are very hard and complicated and
b) We have lots of class and wouldn’t like an unhappy player on our books.
Sell on clauses are all very well but it probably wouldn’t be the next move that will be for big money. It’s not like a club like Sturm Graz sells a player for £40m.
They’ll likely sell for £15m if he’s a huge success to a Leipzig or a Dortmund and they will then sell him to a premier league club for £50m.
So even though a sell on fee is a nice little earner, it’s never going to be an unmitigated jackpot.
It’s a club record fee for them. That tells you something about what clubs in “lower” European leagues can pay.
Better be a 50% sell-on fee. Considering Arsenal have first-hand knowledge of another deal with that size of a sell-on fee (Calafiori) and how Bayern could include that in the sale of Zirkzee, it would be a dereliction of duty if they included another pitiful sell-on fee like they usually do (the Mavropanos one was embarrassingly bad negotiating, when the fee was so low).
The fee from Austria won’t be an issue. He will be sold to Germany for 8M if he shines and then Dortmund or Leipzig will sell him on for 70M a season later.
And SG will include a 50% sell-on fee themselves.
Unlike most of the commenters the sum didn’t seem all that low to me for a player who hasn’t even been close to getting a sniff in our team and is being sold to Austria. But it is interesting the Transfermarkt values him at 7 million euros.
My eyes haven’t stopped rolling with all this hand wringing about this player. Cozier Duberry was a bigger loss.
Yeah to me this seems very well-managed. He’s a 21 year old with a year left on his deal and his “breakout season” has consisted of 6 goals in Scotland and 9 in Austria. Prior to that he scored 2 goals in 13 games in Holland in his only only loan. £4m + sell on is good business.
I hope this one doesn’t Mika fool out of us…
Impossible. We treat our players more like human beings and less like commodities, and when a player and other club find the perfect fit for one another, and they are incredibly happy, then do the deal. We make money, Mika is happy, and SG is happy. If he turns into a killer striker in the Austrian league then that is amazing, but it wouldn’t happen with the Arsenal this season. So we move on and wish him the best.
I see you’re Biereth of humour again today?
No, I usually presume the puns are there in addition to the point, not the only point being made. 😉
I’m only here for the puns
Well, hopefully he’ll Mika good showing, some bigger club will buy him for a load more and we’ll Mika tidy profit.
We never gave this guy a chance. He leaves for peanuts. Poor move by Arsenal.
Ooo. Can I have your peanuts if you don’t want them?
I can’t remember this much consternation over a player sale in the Arteta era. That’s says something in its own right. But the source of the consternation is essentially that his level is judged to be higher than what it is, I presume because he scored lots of goals. Yes, goals are great and if you stuck him up front in this Arsenal team, he would bag some. It would also become immediately obvious that his game overall is not ready for that level, and may never be. Selling players is a gamble, but so is keeping them (they don’t… Read more »
Balogun is also a very good example. Plenty of people this time last year wanted to give him a new contract and either loan him to the prem or give him Nketiah’s minutes. People were complaining when we got £35m + sell on, but he’s since scored 7 goals all year and hasn’t looked close to being an Arsenal-level player, showing he wasn’t magically going to become a 20-goal-a-season striker in any league (as some assumed he would if we loaned him to the Prem) and he would have absolutely stagnated if he was stuck on the bench.
At £4m they’re taking the Mika.
£4m doesn’t seem like much given the fees exchanging hands between clubs in PSR trouble for youth players, however it feels like a good deal for all involved. We get a fee and (probably) a decent sell on for a player we have really only had minimal development of, the player gets to play regularly in a set up that suits him, and Sturm Graz get they player they want for a decent price. Graz seem to have a good relationship with us too, so I don’t expect them to screw us over sell on clause wise (i.e. like the… Read more »