Arsenal: Krystian Bielik sale the kind that big clubs make

Arsenal unfortunately sold off Krystian Bielik, but for a fee like we got, it’s hard to even call it unfortunate. This is a big boy sale.

We’ve been talking a lot about how Arsenal need to make smart sales this summer. That’s been mostly about Shkodran Mustafi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (and Mesut Ozil), but it isn’t exclusively for the Three Suckiteers (I literally just came up with that).

It’s for anyone that we don’t need that we can draw a good enough price for. And honestly, after our first sale (Xavier Amaechi, £2.5m), I wasn’t very optimistic that this underwhelming arena of Arsenal Football Club had changed.

And then we sold Krystian Bielik. Now, for the record, I have been staunchly in the Pole’s corner from the moment he said he wanted first team football. I have been high on him for years and I wanted to see him given a chance, especially in this porous defense.

The idea of selling him was a catastrophe to me. But then he actually was sold… for £9.5m… and I’m happier about Bielik now than I ever have been before.

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Because that is how a big club does business. They don’t just peddle off exquisite talent for minuscule fees and move on with life. They demand what a youngster is worth and they hold to that.

Obviously I have to invoke the name Serge Gnabry. How in the hell we only got £5m for him is beyond me. But something about that move felt like we were doing Gnabry a favor. We felt bad about the West Brom loan and he wanted to leave, so we just accepted a bid.

That’s not how the Bielik deal feels.

According to the reports, several clubs were interested in Bielik, but not all could meet the hefty valuation, but the Gunners didn’t bend. They held out and, eventually, got the price they were asking for when Derby County stumped up a transfer fee record and paid what we held as his worth.

This pays off the Gabriel Martinelli transfer with room to spare. It gives us a little more flexibility in the transfer market, and all for a guy who hadn’t even been a regular feature in the first team yet.

This is how you do business. And if this is what we have to look forward to in future markets, then count me among the masses that are beyond excited.