Arsenal: Hypothesising on delay of sales

Arsenal haven’t sold anyone yet this summer. In contrast, they are closing in on their fourth signing. So, why the delay? Well, here are some possible reasons.

Arsenal have widely been praised for the efficiency and speed of their transfer work this summer. It’s only just July and they have completed three acquisitions and have another ready in making in the pipeline. It flies in the face of the hesitancy and tentativeness of Arsene Wenger at this time of year.

Catch the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal podcast right here

But one area where they have not been so quick to act is in player sales, however. In fact, as of writing on Thursday afternoon, the Gunners are yet to sell one this player this summer.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

They have had departures. Santi Cazorla was not offered a new contract, Per Mertesacker retired, Jack Wilshere rejected the new contract on offer amid concerns regarding his playing time. But in terms of a sale for actual money, we are still waiting.

But why? Why have they been so quick to sign players and so slow to sell them? Surely an efficient organisation should be efficient at both sides of the transaction, right? Well, I don’t know why. But I do have some theories as to what may have impacted the lack of player sales so far this summer.

Firstly, buying good players is more difficult. When selling players, you are selling to hundreds of potential targets — any professional club with the budget to afford the price and wage and pedigree, opportunity, and competitiveness to attract the player; when buying players, you are searching for a much smaller pool, sometimes a pool of one. Acting quickly, therefore, is vital.

But more than just the process of buying and selling, because of the change in structure at Arsenal, they now have more than just one person, the manager, making decisions about who to buy. It would be within Sven Mislintat’s remit to push for a signing even without a manager present. Indeed, Arsenal were having discussions regarding Sokratis prior to any manager being hired.

When it comes to selling players at the club, however, the manager’s go-ahead is absolutely essential. If Emery wants to use players that already in his squad, then he has every right to. So no decisions of possible players to sell can be made until Emery has arrived and has evaluated each and every player.

That brings me to another reason. We are in the first week of the preseason. It’s likely that Emery is still formulating his ideas for next season. He may not know who he wants to sell yet and is wanting to use the preseason as a litmus test for some of the players that he is unsure about.

Finally, I have two other possible factors for the delay: the World Cup, which I am sure has delayed all transfers this summer; and the probable desire of Arsenal to sign players before they sold them so that they did not see the price of potential targets rise just because their budget had increased, like with Thomas Lemar and Alexis Sanchez last summer.

Next: Arsenal: Player ratings from 2017/18 season

Ultimately, I do not know why player sales are moving slowly this summer. And, I don’t really think it matters, as long as they are all done by the close of the window and that Emery is happy with the squad that remains. But they are some of the factors that I believe are playing out currently.