The longest running transfer saga of this summer is Bryan Mbeumo to Manchester United. Why are Man U negotiating? if they wanted him that much they would pay the asking price.
Meanwhile, Liverpool bid £120m for Aleksander Isak. This was swiftly rejected. Why don’t they go in with a serious offer like £200m and just pay Newcastle’s asking price.
At the same time, they have also had a bid for Hugo Ekitike rejected by Eintracht Frankfurt. Two strikers and twice they failed to pay the asking price. What are they playing at?
Finally, Tottenham triggered Morgan Gibbs-White release clause, but he remains a Nottingham Forest player. What are they playing at over in Middlesex? If they want the player, they should make a serious offer vastly above the minimum release clause. It’s Arsenal’s Luis Suarez £40m+£1 all over again.
Now imagine Arsenal were doing this business. Offers rejected for Mbeumo, Isak and Ekitike. Failing to secure Gibbs-White despite that release clause. We would be getting mercifully mocked by Sky Sports, TalkSport and fans of Man U, Liverpool and Spurs.
In this world, it is only The Arsenal that are not allowed to negotiate. Not allowed to go in at lower than the asking price. Not allowed to try and get a deal that might be beneficial.
So why are others not held to the same standard? Why are they allowed to negotiate like it is normal in football? Is it just that negativity around The Arsenal sells, and that is then the narrative pushed.
If you are a fan of an opposing club and got this far. Please realise this is satirical. Do not jump up and down in our comments about how negotiating is part of football. I get that.
Man U, Liverpool and Tottenham have a right to negotiate. and Forest are in the wrong around Gibbs-White, just like Liverpool were over Suarez.
Arsenal also have a right to negotiate. And we have done very well with it this summer.
It looks like Reiss Nelson is set to return to Fulham on loan. This will get a few scratching their heads as to why we are not selling him.
Nelson has never really kicked on from being a talented youngster. Once considered the gem of the academy, he was usurped by a 18-year-old Bukayo Saka who in the space of 6-months, caught up Nelson and overtook him, despite him being 2 years younger.
Following a successful loan deal to TSG Hoffenheim, 2019/20 should have been Nelson’s breakthrough season. He played 17 Premier League games having only made 3 previous appearances. But the issue for him as at the same time, Saka burst onto the scene.
That same season, Saka played 26 Premier League games are was already performing levels above Nelson. That dented the older mans playing time as Arsenal turned their focus onto developing young Saka.
In the years since, Nelson has struggled to get playing time. Mainly due to the form and fitness of Saka, but also because of his own form and fitness. A loan deal in Holland failed to ignite, and last season a move to Fulham was hamstrung with injury.
2019/20 remains the most Premier League games he has played in his career, and he is now 25.
Some will say “he never got his chance”. But to have given him his chance would have meant pushing Saka down the pecking order, and Bukayo not getting as much of a chance. I think we made the right decision as to what youngster we backed.
The issue now is that Nelson is no longer seen as a raw young talent. He turns 26 in December and has just 61 Premier League appearances to his name. He made his debut back in 2017 under Arsene Wenger!
Last year the plan would have been to get Nelson some playing time with Fulham, which then would have boosted his transfer value.
When you look at Brentford having a £35m offer for Omari Hutchinson rejected, Arsenal paying Chelsea £48m for Nono Madueke, who then paid £48.5m for Jamie Gittens. Never has the winger market been so expensive!
For me, Nelson is probably the level below Madueke and Gittens, but the same level as Hutchinson – although the former Arsenal youngster is still only 21 so teams will pay a little more for his potential. The only thing these guys have above Nelson is they have have at least one full season of top flight football under their belt.
With his checkered injury record, lack of of a full season and heading towards 26-years-old, Nelson will be a player many clubs will pass up on. And that crashes his transfer value.
I expect Arsenal would have hoped to get an offer in excess of £20m had he shone for Fulham last summer. Instead he spent most of the season in the medical room and we would probably struggle to get £10m for him this.
But with 2-years left on his contract, it is not all a disaster.
If he joins Fulham on loan and puts in a decent season, playing 30+ Premier League games and maybe hitting double figures for goals and assists, his transfer value will quickly rise.
Clubs will take notice and suddenly we will be back talking about £20m+. Maybe even £25m+.
So Arsenal’s position is we either take a low transfer fee now and he is gone, or we take a gamble.
The gamble is that if he has a good season, we could see that £25m. If he has another injury his season, we might end up getting nothing.
It reminds me a little bit of the conundrum: Would you rather £1m now or flip a coin for £50m. I have always gone for a coin flip.
For me, £8-10m for Nelson does not really do much to our finances. I would rather lose him for £5m in a years time if it also meant we might get £25m.
Whilst I appreciate some fans will see this as a gamble not worth taking, and others will also complain that he is a victim of “Arteta hating young players”, just remember that we have Bukayo Saka.
I hope Nelson has a great season if he joins Fulham on loan. then they might look to splash some real cash on him.
Having already spent close to £200m (once the Noni Madueke, Viktor Gyorekes and Cristhian Mosquera deals are announced), it is very obvious that Arsenal will need to sell to help balance the books.
Obvious candidates to be sold this summer are Olexsandr Zinchenko, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Fabio Vieira and Reiss Nelson. These four fall into the “no longer needed, they will depart the club” category. Now it is about selling them.
But alongside these, “over the next 12 months, there needs to be one significant outgoing to recalibrate after recalibrate after what has been a big summer of spending” according to the BBC’s Sami Mokbel, talking on The Latte Firm podcast.
Kai Havertz
A surprise one to open.
With Viktor Gyorekes incoming, Kai Havertz is no longer the undisputed number one striker for Arsenal. And many fans will be delighted with that.
Add into the fact that Declan Rice is making that left sided central role his own, Havertz is looking more and more like a utility player at Arsenal – covering up Gyorekes upfront, and offering a more attack minded option to Rice and Mikel Merino in the midfield position. Havertz would also be cover for Martin Odegaard.
Havertz is our highest paid player, earning in the region of £285,000 a week. That is a huge salary for someone to sit on the bench.
If Gyorekes hits the same heights as his Portugal form and Ethan Nwaneri continues his development over the next 12 months, Havertz might find himself surplus to requirements.
Whilst you would not see us return to a single striker option, you have to feel that his £15m a year wages could be better spent on two “2nd string” players rather than a single man covering 2 or 3 positions.
At the end of this season, Havertz will a book value of £24m, so any offer above £50m would get Arsenal interested, clearing £26m in profit and a huge salary saving.
Ben White
Still sticking with the “I would not have thought of him”.
I remember when we signed Ben White, many were critical. But what a signing he has been.
After a slow-ish start where he came under a lot of criticism, White quickly made the right back position his own. But he now finds himself as 2nd choice right back behind Jurrien Timber. And with Mosquera incoming, he will be 3rd choice as the right sided centre back.
Whilst I am sure Mikel Arteta would prefer not to sell White, the Englishman may wish to leave to reignite his career in 12 months. He will have a book value of just £10m.
Arsenal would expect to get around £40-50m for White, representing a book profit of £30-40m.
Gabriel Martinelli
I will always have a soft spot for Gabriel Martinelli in the way he went from completely unknown to one of the best left wingers in the world in a short space of time.
For me, Martinelli is still one of the best left wingers in the world. But he has also not stepped up to the next level since 2022/23. Whether this is due to his injury taking away a bit of spark, or his isolation due to Mikel Arteta’s attacking design.
Not all players suit all ways of playing. Arteta likes to overload the right, where we are strong with Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard. The left is more locked down defensively with Martinelli and Declan Rice. This means Martinelli’s attacking instincts and blunted and he gets less help from Rice than Odegaard does from Saka.
Any shift to try and provide Martinelli more assistance on the left will be at the detriment of the overload on the right.
Martinelli currently struggles playing the isolated position, and that is why we are looking at one v one merchants such as Nico Williams, Eberechi Eze and Rodrygo.
If Eze or Rodrygo come in, the likelihood is Martinelli will be relegated to the bench. And like with Havertz, his £180k a week salary is a huge financial burden for a player no longer first choice.
At such a low initial transfer fee, almost all of an incoming transfer fee for Martinelli would be profit. Arsenal could expect to see £70m+ in profit, and nearly £10m a year in salary savings.
Leandro Trossard
I was reluctant to add Leandro Trossard to this list initially, as I do not categorise him as significant outgoing.
Trossard has been a wonderful signing since joining in January 2023, and he has shown himself to be a brilliant impact sub. He has an ability to change games off the bench with his instinctive play that no one else in the squad has.
But Trossard has never been anything more than a backup dancer for Arsenal – providing cover on the wings, upfront and as an impact sub. He would not be a significant player to lose, and at £20-£30m would not represent a significant incoming transfer fee. This would only amount to around £10-20m profit were he to be sold this summer.
My feeling is Eze will be coming in to replace Trossard, with Martinelli dropping to the bench. As a result Trossard will be sold, but he will not be the man departing to help balance our books.
Gabriel Jesus
The headache with Gabriel Jesus is how he overcomes his injury.
We are unlikely to see him pull on an Arsenal shirt until December. And that is if all continues to go well with his recovery. That means Jesus will likely be sold in January, at the earliest. But will someone want to take risk on a player with his recent injury record.
Taking into account Jesus’ salary – he is our 2nd highest paid player on around £265k a week – Arsenal will struggle to get a significant transfer fee.
In 2026, Jesus will have a book value of £9m. I think the best we could hope for is £20m in transfer fee (a profit of £11m). But the big saving will be in wages – close to £14m a year.
Jakub Kiwior
Like with Ben White, Kiwior departing will be due to him wanting to leave and not because Mikel Arteta does not want him.
Once Mosquera joins, we will have 8 defenders for 4 positions. I do not remember the last time we were not reliant on full backs covering the centre, or centre backs covering the full backs.
Whilst I get that Riccardo Calafiori, Mosquera and Timber could all provide cover on the left side of defence, I like the idea that we have 4 specialist players providing cover for our 4 main defenders.
However, if Kiwior wants to leave for first team football, we should not stand in his way. And if that is this summer, I do not see the worth of us committing funds to a replacement when we have 3 players that could do the job.
Kiwior has a book value of around £8m, and Arsenal would look at asking for a fee in the region of £40m for the Pole. Whilst he would not be a significant departure in terms of importance to the first team, he would be significant in terms of profit.
Have we missed anyone else? Let us know in the comments.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 