Arsenal: 3 biggest transfer mistakes in recent years

2. Mishandling contracts

While Arsenal’s transfer recruitment has been wayward, to say the least, their mishandling of contracts has been even more detrimental to the team building process.

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

In recent years, three key players have all left the club or remained with the club for an extortionate fee because their contracts entered the final years. Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are the two most famous cases. Their contracts expired at the same time and both were allowed to enter their final year.

In the end, Arsenal swapped Sanchez for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, after turning down £60 million six months prior, and were crowbarred into extending Ozil on £350,000 per week, which has been an equally disastrous decision. The final decisions were the wrong ones, of course, but the initial mistake came in allowing their contracts to run down.

Then there was Aaron Ramsey. The club believed they could afford a new contract. The summer window came and went, their final chance to sell. They then couldn’t afford a new contract and he walked out the door for nothing. Equally disastrous. Throw in cut-price exits for Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Robin van Persie and plenty of others and you can see the extent of the damage done.