Arsenal: Henrikh Mkhitaryan continues depressing trend

Arsenal are now linked with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, which used to be exciting, but now it’s just damned depressing in its context.

Arsenal’s ongoing Alexis Sanchez transfer saga has now pulled Manchester United into the mix. Apparently Jose Mourinho is willing to send over Henrikh Mkhitaryan and cash in order to land the Chilean in a shock deal.

There are numerous angles to cover regarding this transfer. Wages, the likelihood of a swap, the likelihood of Wenger actually selling to Mourinho, among others. It’s already not a likely scenario. But assuming that Mkhitaryan would take a pay cut and a swap deal actually did happen and Wenger actually did sell to Mourinho, this is still a massively depressing deal.

Mostly because it continues an incredibly unflattering trend. It’s this trend of Arsenal giving up a player that has been massively successful and who they’d like to have stay and in return, they get someone that a rival doesn’t want and hasn’t had success.

It’s already hard enough to sell to a rival, or to buy from one, for that matter, but thinking about it like that, it shows a weak mindset from Arsenal and a strong one from United. They offload Mkhitaryan who has fallen massively out of favor and they get Alexis, who is our best player of the past decade.

Almost like how we sold them Robin van Persie, one of our best ever strikers, and three years later we get Danny Welbeck, who was never able to put it all together.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

Why is it that we are trading our successes for their failures? The Gunners are just as big as Manchester United and I’d wager still bigger than Manchester City, yet we lose far more important players to them then come the other way.

Now granted, there are positives to this potential move. The angle I’ve been approaching it with is incredibly one-dimensional. There is the obvious fact that Alexis wants to, and will, leave one way or another and the fact that Mkhitaryan is still a massively talented lad with creation ability out the wazoo.

But when you get down to it, to the fabric of this reported deal, it’s the same thing as giving up van Persie and getting Welbeck. Ruthless teams pluck the best players away from the toughest opponents while Wenger, well, he sees a failed player and thinks he can put the pieces back together.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Chelsea

There are worse ideas in the world, but it’s such a small-minded move. We are acting like a feeder club when money supposedly isn’t an issue.

Home/Arsenal Transfer Rumours