The deadline day acquisitions of Kieran Tierney and David Luiz took Arsenal’s total number of new recruits for the summer to six.
Granted, Dani Ceballos is only at the Emirates on a temporary basis and William Saliba will spend another year with Saint-Etienne, but having broken our transfer record for one of Europe’s most coveted players and brought in a couple of defenders, it feels as though Raul Sanllehi and Edu have done a decent job given our Europa League status.
The books were balanced late in the day with the sale of Alex Iwobi to Everton and the exit of a number of youngsters.
Meanwhile, we think the wage bill will have come down following the exit of high-earning squad members like Aaron Ramsey, Petr Cech and Laurent Koscielny. It’s probable that savings on that front will have been earmarked for new deals for existing players.
The below graphic provides a top-line overview of all the main deals so far.
Remember, the transfer window remains open for a lot of leagues across the world, so Arsenal could yet bolster the coffers with more sales. Emery has said he expects more departures.
Known unknowns
- The payment structure of the deals (both incoming and outgoing), including how much is paid upfront and what gets paid in instalments.
- The loan fees and whether clubs are covering the full wage packet of those they borrowed from us. It’s also unclear how much we’ve paid Real Madrid for Dani Ceballos although reports of a £15 million fee seem wildly excessive.
- What add-ons will see prices rise. For example, Transfermarkt value the Iwobi deal at just over £27 million, but it’s widely expected it could hit £40 million if the Nigerian achieves certain milestones at Goodison Park.
- We don’t know if we’ve inserted sell-on clauses in deals that have seen players leave the Emirates. Ismael Bennacer’s recent move from Empoli to AC Milan earned us 30% of the total transfer and it’s said we have a 10% stake in any future move made by Jeff Reine-Adelaide. Have we done the same with others?
Be interesting to see who else – if anyone ? – now leaves. And how much further this offsets our spend.
Clearly Mkhitaryan would not generate much of a fee but would be a big chunk off the wage bill. Elneny the reverse. We will see.
Considering the deals Don Raul has pulled off so far, maybe we could even see Mustafi shipped out for a fee? One can pray…
If he manages to pull that off as well he will be worshipped around here for a long time
I’d expect to see one of Kolasinac or Monreal leave, probably kola as he’s more valuable, though it could wait until January depending how willing the club are to risk injuries before the newbie is ready.
I think hopes of Ozil, mkhi and Mustafi being cleared off the wage bill look unlikely though if the latter two can be shifted that would be seen as decent work for now.
Elneny will surely go
Beyond that maybe Calum chambers if Emery doesn’t like him otherwise it’s just going to be loaned
Could any of the downvoters elaborate on what they disagree with from my comment?
I’m just naturally attracted to red things…
I’m guessing that a lot of people would rather chambers stock around given the centre back situation
Selling Chambers, Monreal, Kolasinac and Ozil. Does that answer your question?
Selling Kolasinac, Monreal and Chambers doesn’t seem wise at all (even Ozil, as we’ve sold Iwobi might leave us a bit short on offensive midfielders)!
Selling Kolasinac just because he is more valuable doesn’t really make sense to me. He is more valuable because he will probably be able to give much more to the team in the coming years (he is 26 Nacho is 33).
I think that should urge us to keep him (not to sell).
Kola has a substanstial weekly wage, don’t see him leaving
Monreal will play cb a lot this season like last n kolas will stay as he can play various positions too. Cb dm lb lwb. We always get injuries so need to keep our good players just chop the shite
I think Mkhitaryan would generate a decent fee. Maligned far more than he should be
if his wages were £100k a week less then I would agree there would be a lot of clubs in for him
If we sell Ozil we’ll save a ton and be able to get that world class CB.
Stop taking rubbish..
It seems fairly of the mark, as those are expected gross prices. If we pay Pepe in around 4 settlements, cash impact for this year is rather 20m than 70m. Also Saliba is max around 10M£ this year. Probably our net spend was that 40M£.
We prob pulled in about 50m which isn’t shabby and thats before likely one or two more departures. I think Saliba prob 8-10m like you said, Pepe from 14-18m. But they are now back loaded and since there are two it will have impact on future summers we have to be wary of. What it does mean is bc we manage to cobble 50m sales as of now, there is less pressure on selling price for remaining players on the block, Chambers, mustafi, Ozil or Mhkitaryan and we can let go for less. BUT this has been achieved by selling… Read more »
BUT you have said all this before.
You are spot on we have spent wisely and I wonder if amount would even touch 45 million!! Good clear out and huge savings all around. Well done Don Raul and Don Edu!!
Can anyone explain why Iwobi commanded such a fee?
Talented boy. Crazy prices these days.
Yes. Because he’s a fine player who was improving all the time.
Because he is good and homegrown. A great dribbler who could be missed on the left Sakha ,Nelson , Martinelli will have to step up.
He will be highly involved in everything Everton does (as he was with us).
I hope we have a good sell on clause. There are a few players I would have sold ahead of Iwobi..But there aren’t many takers for them.
Fee was tempting but I think we should have considered depth before the fee.
We look a bit thin out left now.
Iwobi would have balanced out our threat.
Right now we will have to either rely on a waning Mhkitaryan to fill Pepe’s shoes right side and shift Pepe left (if nelson got knocked) or use one of our strikers Auba (Shuld we have a striker injured that would compound issues)
Saka is a bright talent but still rough around the edges as is Martinelli.
Think we were foolish letting Iwobi go so soon
Id have sold him for 60m cos of his home grown ststus and young age.
Who cares – imo, Everton have way overpaid and we should be laughing all the way to the bank with this one…
He
No disrespect to Alex, great lad, but no way he is worth 40mil when the likes of cancelo joins city from Juventus for 27mil!!
Cancelo joined because Juventus wanted to get rid of him.
And Iwobi joined Everton because Arsenal wanted rid of him. Your point?
His point is that Cancelo joined City with Danilo heading in the other direction apart from the 27 millions.
You have any more points?
We didn’t want to get rid of him and tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if Iwobi was actually happy to leave taking into consideration what ignorant idiots some of our fans are.
Weve done very well but more work to be done.
We have also cut costs in the administrative side getting rid of especially one high earner and culling elsewhere. This fills me with confidence for the future.
If I were the Corporal reading this, and I bet he does being a Gooner and all, I’d be pretty pee’d to see in black and white that Hamburg and Brentford paid more for our youngsters than an established International for two countries if you don’t mind.
We were lucky to even receive a fee for him.
‘established international’?
As indicated by the Iwobi deal, Raul does not sell players for any fee offered. But also note the Jenkinson deal, where he has not started much for years, and they only received 2M. Players who are effective backups “just in case”, are generally not sold, unless they complain. I read an interview with Iwobi after he did so well in the African Cup, only to find two top players signed ahead of him in the #10 and winger positions (Ceballos and Pepe). He seemed sadly resigned to having more difficulty this season getting playing time. He probably expressed this… Read more »
Just curious as to what is being downvoted? Keeping Miki? Elneny? Raul’s policies? Too long?
Well, it’s just the internet, that’s all.
Oh and Monreal is not going anywhere. He is our starting left back until Tierney resumes playing football, which could be 2023 given the rate that Mavrapanos is progressing through a similar injury.
Kolasinac might be sold as a courtesy, as he might prefer to move his family out of the UK, given the threats last night.
That would be unfortunate.
He was run rings around by Barca.
We should be replacing the older player. Plus with iwobi out, we may need the added invention of Kolasinac further up field.
Unless you were blind, BOTH iwobi and Kolasinac were our more productive players last season and no surprise most of the threat enamated from left.
What threats?
The ones keeping him away from Newcastle on Sunday…
Amazing we even got money for Jenkinson. Certainly Raul without the incumbrance of Mslintat has been more bold this summer. That said, I find the summer mixed but positive bc of chiefly Pepe signing. 1) Pepe – As mentioned this was a good buy at 72m in installments although the back loading bc its compounded with Saliba as well carries some risk down the line in summers to come. We could have also gone for cheaper alternatives in Fekir or Ziyech perhaps worked harder with potential make weights like Mavropanos on loan to cut those prices down with eventually less… Read more »
Wow, I think you have given Arseblog a reason to consider to selectively block comments from certain users if needed.
These are longer than the articles on Arseblog news and they are usually a pile of rubbish. I didn’t bother to read but it is becoming a pain to even scroll through to read some relevant comments.
****EYE SORE****
It’s ok you only need to read it once as it never changes!
authors = Array.from(document.getElementsByClassName(‘wc-comment-author’))
boring_authors = authors.filter(o => o.textContent == ‘Santori’)
boring_authors.forEach(o => o.parentNode.parentElement.remove())
It’s soooo annoying to scroll his long crap
why always so contrary? your agenda seems to be to show how you are smarter than everybody else and perceived wisdom, and so you search for justifications of controversial opinions, and it just ends up being pretentious waffle. change the record
…exactly this.
“I spoke with him when we finished last season,” Emery said of Mustafi to Sky Sports today. “I spoke with him when we started pre-season and I spoke with him also two weeks ago saying maybe there was the possibility he can leave. “I think being more competitive we can respond better in the season. Some players maybe they can play less with that situation and can leave. “But it’s one decision taken with the player, with the club, with the team. At the moment he is here and really if we need, he plays with us. I have confidence… Read more »
One thing not many care to mention is Raul has at least got rid of the shackles of Mslintat and with a more pliable Edu in two, he’s got things done better rather then complete reliance on the German’s old contacts with little regard for what Unai actually needed (or Wenger)
Even for you, this is a completely shit post, and that’s saying a LOT.
Yes but can we talk little bit about net spend
All replies should be from a footballistic point of view.
It would be interesting to see how the summer’s transfer business affects the salary overview. Rough estimates, but off the books are Welbeck (125k), Ramsey (120k), Cech (110k), Koscielny (90k), Suarez (86k), Leitchsteiner (75k), Iwobi (70k), Jenkinson (45k), Ospina (40k), Pleguezuelo (20k). Then add in a few other low earners who were let go. That’s around 800k a week off the books. And with Mustafi’s 90k to possibly be gone soon too. Then incoming are Pepe (140k), Luiz (120k), Cabellos (60k), Tierney (75k), Chambers (50k, assume Fulham were paying his wages last season), Martinez (20k, assume Reading were paying his… Read more »
Or a saving of 12 million pounds a year. Not to be sniffed at.
Yes, true but it’s not enough to bring the overall bill down to the level that Spu*s have and which Kroenke Snr. apparently looks at as a “bang for the buck” comparison. To do that, we need to shift the real high earners who are surplus to requirements. Ozil, for example, is reportedly on over £15 million a season – greater than all the savings combined that are quoted by “Richie” and yourself. There’s a lot more to do and Emery has indicated there will be further departures. We’ll see how successful he is though – the steel grip of… Read more »
Spurs cant maintain their current level and that wage cap. Erikson and the two cbs already edging near the door… only a matter of time before Kane etc follow
mad though that you near double that saving by offloading miki and near triple it by offloading Ozil
Elneny has Xhaka, Guendouzi, Willock, Torreira, Maitland-Niles, Ceballos and maybe Chambers as auxiliary holding midfielder in front of him. He offers little and has to go. Take £10 million, but push for 15. Mustafi is behind Holding, Luiz, Sokratis, Chambers and perhaps Monreal (once Tierney is fit) who are all better options. But, given the lack of options from the academy, he might be useful on the bench in an injury crisis and as an experienced head in the League Cup and Europa League. But if we get an offer of £20 million for him we would be mad to… Read more »
Comprehensive overview. Most of the figures quoted are, give or take, what have been reported earlier. There appears to be some confusion about the maximum amount of add-ons that could be added to Iwobi’s fee. The article says these could bring the approx. £28 million “basic” fee up to £40 million. Other reports have indicated that the add-ons could bring it to approx. £34 million. Good business either way though! On wages, the wage bill was clearly too high before the likes of Cech, Ramsey, Welbeck and, recently, Kos departed, but savings seem to have been largely “replaced” by the… Read more »
Overall it’s been a great Summer (could be made even more greater with potential sales of Mustafi and Elneny to bring in some more funds. Certainly addressed more issues than any of us could have imagined and have set us up well for the future. Other than Luiz all of the purchases were young players with their prime still ahead of them. We had to see a young player in Iwobi leave and still retain high priced and sometimes underperforming players like Ozil and Miki, but when they are on they are key players. What I like is we now… Read more »
I see some want to keep ozil due to lack of depth if he goes. Personally I think the day finds a club better suited for him will be positive even if we end up a bit short, to rid the situation of your highest paid and supposedly most important player playing a bit part. That situation risks nurturing negative side effects beyond denting our weekly wage budget
I think its time Vinai received some praise too. Raul is no doubt the Don but some clever financial work done this window and our Financial Controller deserves some credit.
With more outgoings likely this month a very smart group have done some great work.
I can’t wait to see it play out this season.
Pepe + Tierney = great news, great potential.
Luiz for Kos = no brainer. Improvement.
Ceballos = We’ll see. This one’s on Emery.
Saliba / Martinelli = We’ll see, but down the road.
Auba + Laca + Pepe w/ Tierney + Bellerin on the pitch = CL Tier. Exciting.
Sokratis + Luiz + Torriera + Leno = Solid.
Xhaka + Guendo + Ozil + Ceballos + Mikhi = The names line up, but so do the question marks. Esp. wrt defending.
Bottom line: Arsenal rolling a few dice here, but if Pepe comes good, this front line could be devastating.