Arsenal: 5 mistakes of the summer transfer window

Arsenal have ended their summer with six new arrivals and a net spend of around £125m. Mikel Arteta insisted it would be an ‘unprecedented’ period of activity and breaking the club’s record transfer spend for a single window certainly confirms that.

For the first time in a long while, there also appears to be a strategy. Well, at least a strategy that supporters can get behind and one not centred on immediate gratification via the the acquisitions of players who failed to do so.

"“[They all have] different experiences, some had experience in the league, some abroad, and some have been coached in other ways, but they are players we have followed for a long time that we knew could fit in the model we are trying to implement at the club. So we are pleased,” Arteta said of this summer’s dealings. “You have to blend them all together, some of them haven’t even trained with us yet because they have still to come in the next week or so. We have a good group, they will help them to adapt as quick as possible and get them to work with us and see when we can integrate all together.”"

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5 big mistakes of the summer transfer window as Arsenal conclude their spending with £150m on six new arrivals

Nuno Tavares got the ball rolling with his £8m arrival from Benfica, followed by Albert Sambi Lokonga and Ben White.

Martin Odegaard was next up having been tracked by the club all summer, with his parent side Real Madrid finally sanctioning his departure late in the window to the tune of £34 after add-ons.

Aaron Ramsdale, it felt, was completing the window’s transactions on a deal that could rise to £30m, only for that elusive right-back to make his way to north London with Arteta landing Takehiro Tomiyasu from Bologna for £16m on deadline day.

That’s what went right, but what did the club fail to pull off that they perhaps should have? Granted, everything that wasn’t concluded does come with a degree of mitigation amid the wealth of work undertaken, but there were areas of the squad that were not appropriately dealt with.

1. Alexandre Lacazette & Eddie Nketiah Futures

The striker situation was one that would only be seen to if there were outgoings to balance the department. It became well-known that Arsenal were tracking Tammy Abraham in the window with the Chelsea striker even holding out for a bid from his boyhood club, only for no offer to arrive.

Because, of course, Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah stayed put.

In regards to Lacazette, the failure to move him on is a byproduct of the decision not to in the previous window. There was a ‘substantial‘ offer for him last summer and instead of taking the money with two years left to go on his deal and nearing his 30’s, Arsenal bizarrely said no. He now walks away for free after another season of £180k-per-week wages.

As for Nketiah, it’s a mess.

Deciding to foolishly keep hold of him in January with 18 months left on his deal instead of entertaining loan offers, Arteta proceeded to barely play him at all for the rest of the campaign. His value was shot as a result thus selling him this summer then proved even more difficult.

Crystal Palace had offered over £10m for him only for the deal to break down over personal terms (agents being greedy) but the decision not to involve him in the Ben White deal was also puzzling. Brighton wanted to include Nketiah in the £50m deal which would have lowered the outlay, only for Arsenal to favour tying the striker down to a new contract. One the duly rejected.

That left him still on the books and into the final year of his deal.

Arsenal can get a tribunal fee for Nketiah if a compensation fee was agreed, but he’d crucially have to join an English club.