Arsenal still owed £8m for midfielder sold in 2019

One of the gripes of the summer transfer window just passed for Arsenal was their failure to secure meaningful finance for the host of players they sought to move on.

Spending £150m on new arrivals but only seeing one permanent deal sanctioned with Joe Willock’s £25m move to Newcastle, while other loan deals are likely to end in obligatory purchases, it was nonetheless a downside on the window.

Well, how about this?

Supporters of the club, or indeed anyone who follows football, can be forgiven for forgetting the name Krystian Bielik. The Polish international joined the Gunners for £2.4m in 2015 from Legia Warsaw, never featuring in the Premier League and only making two League Cup appearances in five seasons. He had loan spells away at Birmingham, Walsall and Charlton Athletic during that time.

Arsenal still owed £8m from Derby County for midfielder Krystian Bielik sold in 2019/20 window after only £2m of full fee has been paid

His impressive displays for the latter saw him garner interest, although nobody in north London expected Derby County to break their transfer record in the process.

Forking out a remarkable £10m in 2019, Bielik has since gone on to make 34 appearances for the club, none of which have come this term as he recovers from a second serious knee injury.

The deal only included a small upfront fee of £2m with the rest to be paid in instalments, the sticking point being that said payments have yet to arrive. As per The Times, Derby still owe £8m of that fee to Arsenal.

Currently searching for new buyers after falling into administration, any new buyers will have to take tens of millions of pounds worth of liabilities, with Arsenal one of the main creditors.

It’s stated that Arsenal have been assured that they will receive the money they are owed, with the administrators at Derby including this payment in discussions with possible buyers, who will have to foot this bill upon their arrival.

Around a dozen members of staff at the club lost their jobs in a perilous time for Derby County, with the Bielik money added to with other debt including £26m owed to HM Revenue and Customs.

One of the more bizarre transfer sales in Arsenal’s recent history, after Alex Iwobi’s move to Everton the Polish midfielder was the second highest grossing departure in the 2019/20 window.

A name many didn’t expect to hear crop up this season.