4 transfer decisions that cost Arsenal tens of millions

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Should Jack Grealish have taken a penalty in the Euro 2020 final? Should Arsenal have sacked Unai Emery sooner? Was it wise to turn down that particular club’s transfer bid?

It’s the latter that has proven to be Arsenal’s downfall in recent years.

During the most recent summer window, the sale of Joe Willock hinted towards a change of mindset. Two years prior to that Alex Iwobi moved to Everton for £35m in a deal, but that was dictated more by the farcical fee the Toffees foolishly parted with as opposed to clever strategy.

Over the years Arsenal have lost an upsetting number of their top players to clubs considered as their rivals. Everyone knows about the Robin van Persie’s, the Samir Nasri’s and the Emmanuel Adebayor’s. There are countless examples of deals such as those taking place within the league that have left lasting scars.

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4 transfer decisions that cost Arsenal millions of pounds as a result of poor strategy and fear of taking calculated risks

And maybe that has forced the club into an inferiority complex; one where such a degree of panic has seeped into the psyche that when offers do come in for players they opt instead to keep hold of them for fear of fan revolt.

There are a large amount of occasions where money has been offered that Arsenal have rejected which in hindsight were errors. Selling isn’t the sign of weakness they’ve felt it to be.

But not only in hindsight to the club, from the outside looking in some of these deals were also felt to be inadequate with supporters taking a leaf out of the club’s book. Sometimes we too are guilty of clinging on for too long. That is noticeable in the alarming amount of backlash to Willock’s sale, despite the £25m being a splendid deal.

However, there are four instances in recent memory where Arsenal have been offered fees they should have snapped at. Deals that would have brought in valuable finance that seen through today’s lenses are even more puzzling to turn down. Hindsight is, indeed, a wonderful thing.

1. Hector Bellerin – £30m

Hector Bellerin wanted to leave last summer. It’s been well documented. It’s also common knowledge now that Mikel Arteta convinced the defender to stay and shun the advances of European big hitters Paris Saint-Germain.

To the tune of £25m, that is, with an extra £5m in add-ons. Thirty million pounds.

Reported by the Guardian at the time, as well as elsewhere, 12 months on from that decision and Bellerin is over at Real Betis for the entire season for absolutely nothing. As far as the reports state Arsenal haven’t even got a loan fee.

Arteta clearly felt that Bellerin would be a valuable asset to his side for the 2020/21 season, but of all the clubs in the world it was surely Arsenal who knew best of all that the Spaniard’s pre-ACL form couldn’t be recaptured.

Granted, he started that season OK, but there is no finer example of internal misguidance to refuse such a sum of money when the player isn’t even strengthening a rival and is evidently on the decline.

It looks even worse now.

2. Calum Chambers – £20m

One of the longest serving players at the club currently, the opportunity was there for Arsenal to make a profit on a player three years on from his arrival who was not part of the first team plans.

As reported by the BBC, and elsewhere, in the summer of 2017 Leicester saw two offers of around £20m rejected by Arsene Wenger’s side, who had informed Crystal Palace earlier in the window that they wanted a whole £27m.

All this despite Calum Chambers spending the 2016/17 campaign on loan at Middlesbrough having been told he was far down the pecking order in the Gunners’ central defensive slots.

He subsequently made only ten Premier League starts in the following campaign as form and fitness alluded him and the opportunity to make some money in a window where £50m was spent on Lacazette was turned down.

The fear of losing a young Englishman to a fellow Premier League side got the better of Wenger. It shouldn’t have, and now we sit here with hindsight on our side seeing how the following four years panned out for Chambers in north London.

3. Ainsley Maitland-Niles – £15m

Another one to add to the scrapbook.

However, this one comes with mitigation as even supporters felt it was an offer not representative of the player at the time.

Indeed, Sky Sports reported that a £15m bid was rejected by Arsenal for Ainsley Maitland-Niles in August of 2020, with Wolves expected to up their bid to £20m.

There was no definitive answer on whether the second offer arrived but there was a general consensus that it was the right decision. After all, Maitland-Niles had broken into the England squad and just put in man of the match performances at Wembley playing in the left wing-back slot.

Why should Arsenal sell?

Well, this is where the excuses end. Shunning a sale would only make sense if he were kept in the starting lineup. A better wing-back than a full-back, if Arteta had always planned to revert to a back four and play Kieran Tierney at left-back (and keep Bellerin at right-back after turning down £30m) then why did he keep Maitland-Niles?

12 months on and the player was receiving derisory loan bids from Everton and taking to social media to express his anguish.

4. Alexandre Lacazette – Undisclosed

The famous ‘substantial bid’ from Roma. One that’s amount hasn’t been disclosed but can, with a healthy degree of confidence, be concluded is more than nothing.

‘Nothing’ being what Arsenal will get from Lacazette when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Reported by The Athletic’s David Ornstein last November, it was confirmed that Roma had submitted an undisclosed offer for the Frenchman in the closing stages the summer window. It was considered below the Gunners’ valuation.

While ‘substantial’ gives us some indication of the size, how much that was is open for interpretation. Yet at this stage Eddie Nketiah was making inroads in the side with Arteta even selecting him ahead of Lacazette at points in the previous season and Aubameyang was still the number one striker in the squad.

There might not have been much time to secure a replacement but the result of turning that deal down is not just whatever the transfer fee was but indeed two whole years of £180k-per-week wages being parted with.

Will Arsenal be ruing that decision now? Without doubt.