Arsenal: Are they pricing themselves out?

Bar David Ospina, Arsenal are yet to complete an official sale this summer. Are the Gunners pricing themselves out of deals, overly keen to recoup as much value as possible?

The summer transfer window is two months old. There is not less than a month remaining. Preseason training is back underway, Arsenal’s U.S. tour will commence next week, and the collective footballing gaze turns towards next season. Time is running out.

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For some of the transfer decisions that must be made this summer, the delay is understandable. Ngeotiations take time, there are different arguments on either side, and plenty of outcomes, lengthening the decision-making process as all of the possibilities are considered. But for other, simpler cases, it is difficult to understand why, two months into the window, more movement has not occurred.

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This is especially true of the swathes of players that Arsenal were reportedly intending to sell this summer. With Unai Emery handed a measley £40-45 million budget, there was always going to be a greater dependence on player sales, the funds raised via the process put towards new recruits. And there are certain players who were on the front shelf of the car boot sale that could — and perhaps should — have been sold by now.

Take Shkodran Mustafi and Mesut Ozil as two prime examples. Emery was clearly not happy with either during the close of the season, Mustafi dropped from the first team when Emery shifted to a back three with Nacho Monreal taking his place at centre-half and Ozil being hauled off in a humiliating fashion in the final stages of the Europa League final. These are two expensive, unwanted players who Emery wants to sell. So why are they still at the club?

Well, it is difficult to say with any certainty, of course, but I wonder if the infamously penny-pinching Arsenal are pricing themselves out of potential sales. Everyone is quite aware of their low-ball offers to sign players. Perhaps they are taking the same but opposite approach when it comes to selling them, overvaluing their own assets to the point that there is no interest.

David Ornstein reported earlier this summer that Arsenal have tried to offload Shkodran Mustafi in almost every transfer window since he signed for £35 million in 2016. Similarly, Emery has clearly had enough of Ozil and his £350,000-a-week wages and would sell him at the drop of a hat. But neither is reportedly close to a sale at this stage.

It is pure speculation on my part, of course, but it would not surprise me to learn that Raul Sanllehi, the Kroenkes and Emery are driving such a hard sale on Mustafi, Ozil and others that potential buyers aren’t even interested in negotiating. Ozil and Mustafi, remember, cost a total of £72 million. They might not fetch a third of that this summer.

If the Gunners want to sell overpaid and underproducing stars, they must accept major losses. And with the way the club is run, I am just not sure they are willing to do so, thus pricing themselves out of potential sales. If true, it is very problematic indeed.