by Tony Attwood
So by and large, and give and take a few that I have probably missed and the odd one or two I have got wrong, this is by and large what happened…
First, the buying and selling for the current top six clubs in the league…
| Club | Player in | Cost | Player out | Cost | Net expenditure |
| Arsenal | Mavropanos | £1.9m | Coquelin | £12m | -£7.9m |
| Aubameyang | £56m | Walcott | £20m | ||
| Mkhitaryan | Swap | McGuane | ?? | ||
| Giroud | £18m | ||||
| Chelsea | Barkley | £15m | -£50m | ||
| Palmieri | £17m | ||||
| Giroud | £18m | ||||
| Liverpool | van Dijk | £75m | Coutinho | £106m | +£31m |
| Gallagher | ??? | Brannagan | ?? | ||
| Jones | ?? | ||||
| Man City | Laporte | £57.2m | Facey | ?? | -£61.2m |
| Harrison | £4m | ||||
| Man Utd | |||||
| Tottenham | Moura | £25m | -£25m |
8 Arsenal players out on loan
- Stephy Mavididi to Charlton Athletic
- Tafari Moore to Wycombe Wanderers
- Ben Sheaf to Stevenage
- Mathieu Debuchy, Free agent, released
- Jeff Reine-Adélaïde to Angers
- Chuba Akpom to Sint-Truidense
- Krystian Bielik to Walsall
- Julio Pleguezuelo to Gimnàstic de Tarragona
Other clubs loan totals:
- Chelsea: 9 loans and one loan extended
- Liverpool: 9 loans
- Manchester City: 8 loans
- Manchester United: 5 loans
- Tottenham: 5 loans
So what do we make of all this? As anticipated Manchester City continued to look for total dominance for years to come by spending the most when already streets ahead at the top of the league. Second were Chelsea who I guess expected to be closer to the chase, and I think need some success ahead of the three or four year exodus while Stamford Bridge is rebuilt.
Tottenham were third, Arsenal fourth, Man U did nothing and Liverpool made a profit.
It is quite interesting to see the loan system coming back under control and no more signs of huge numbers of players going out on loan from, for example Chelsea. I wonder if they have taken the League action against Liverpool and Manchester City, and the Fifa enquiry into Chelsea’s affairs, seriously. We shall have to wait and see how they all behave in the summer.
The biggest deal of the window was made by Barcelona, paying Liverpool £106m for Coutinho.
The next 13 largest deals all involved a PL club buying a player. So the very next transfer on the list – and the first involving a non-English club buying a player (other than the Barcelona transfer noted above) was… actually I don’t think you will guess.
It was Bakambu being bought by Beijing Guoan from Villareal for £35.3m. The third was Iñigo Martínez from Real Sociedad to Athletic Bilbao
In terms of teams buying PL players to play in other leagues, after the Barcelona purchase the next biggest transfer of this type was perhaps another surprise… Francis Coquelin being bought by Valencia for £12m. That was the second largest purchase of the window by any club other than the clubs in England of a player from the PL. The third was Sakho bought by Rennes.
Theo’s transfer to Everton was the ninth biggest deal of the window, and of the top ten deals only three were purchases by clubs outside the PL.
Of the notorious spenders, PSG made £25m profit, not buying anyone (although they did release Lassana Diarra). Real Madrid bought and sold no one despite being fourth in the league and 19 points behind the leaders.
The top Italian deal was Pietro Pellegri from Genoa to Monaco for £17.5m. The top German league deal other than Aubameyang was Manuel Akanji from FC Basel to Borussia Dortmund for £18.7m.
The figures I have quoted throughout come from the pages of the Guardian, although as you may know if you are a regular reader, I am notorious for letting fingers slip on the wrong keys. I have checked them, but if you spot a slip, please do let me know in moderate, calm and polite terms.
I thank you.
Tony
Are you sure the Liverpool sale of Coutinho figure of £106 million is correct. This is from the Guardian as well….
‘The Liverpool manager confirmed he had the final say on accepting Barcelona’s £142m offer’
That equates to 160 million euros which was the figure commonly bandied about.
We have done good this window. Given the complexity and difficulty of Mkhitaryan/Sanchez and Auba deals, I think most of transfer time got used in it.
We bought we within our limits given the availability of some quality players. The club has cleared up a large proportion of the wage bill. Moved on some youth (surplus to academy/first-team Eg. Chuba, Jeff…). Large room has been made for future incomings (Central midfield, CB, wingers.)
3 top prospects are now part of the first team, (AMN, Nelson, Nketiah).
We are gradually progressing in the squad building process, before the start of next season. For summer my prediction is that we will sign (2 CBs (1-Youth), 1 CM, 1 Winger, and 1 GK).
Per-Retiring, Kos-Recurring Injuries… so plenty of room of new CB.
Coq-Gone, Ramsey/Wilshere-difficult injury assessment for the club… room for 1 new CM
Alexis,Theo,Ox-Gone… so 1 Winger should be next.
Cech-Possibly Retiring (underperforming), Ospina-wants game time (may leave)… Room for 1 new GK
Overall things are looking good for Arsenal.
I’d say the PL is a league with a top 1 club which has bought the rights to the position, and no more top whatever.
Any team can beat any team.
Before the TV rights explosion, teams with goods revenue (from ground intake and marketing) where at an advantage that could be massive.
Now that billions have poured in for each team, the differential is not as big anymore as TV rights outdwarfs other revenue and ‘smaller’ teams get revenue they are investing in players they could not dream of getting before – the overall quality has improved and the gap on the field has closed.
The all the blabla about Sanchez saying he wanted to join a winning team…makes me smile – nice performance last night right ?!?!. I’d respect him a lot more if he just plain flatly said the money was not refusable… same applies for Aubameyang by the way. They are mercenaries.
4th place is going to be a recognised trophy now and will be hard to get.
Mick – you could be right – it could be euros not pounds
Why not go for butland in the summer?
In truth, Arsenal should have addressed the signiing of a holding mid-fielder, I mean a midfield destroyer during the last winter window. For, had it been they had one, he would have destroyed the Swansea City in their masquerading into the Arsenal area last Tuesday night. Which wouldn’t have cost us points collection in the match. And the signings of a right and a left winger specialists should equally have been addresded too by Arsenal during the window. I know Arsenal use wing backs to get width during games but these wing backs of: Bellerin, Kolasinac and Maitland-Niles are not right or left natural wingers but are right full back and left full back specialists. .In a situation where Arsenal will need to switch from back three to back four playing formation, the lacking of width becomes noticeable in the team as there are no natural wingers in the team to successfully play the back four playing formation due to the lack of natural winger specialists to execute the switch back but to use wing backs as specialist wingers is not sppropriate as it produces limited result for us in games.
Regarding a new gk, is Martinez still an Arsenal player. I was quite impressed with him.
Chris ” same applies for Aubameyang by the way. They are mercenaries.” That’s a nice way to welcome a new player. How about you actually give the guy a chance before writing him off as a mercenary?
And can the same be said about literally any player that moves from a smaller club to a bigger one? Sanchez is a completely different matter, as his move was purely about money. Reliable sources say that he was asking for £400,000 a week to stay at Arsenal (not the usual fake rumours), least not the fact that he chose Man U over Man City. How is this is anyway comparable to Aubameyang?
I’m also hoping that Martinez becomes our no.1 goalkeeper at some point. Next season may be slightly too quick for that, but fingers crossed that he will at least be promoted to our no.2 for then. Would love to hear how he is getting on whilst out on loan, have always rated him quite highly.
The most interesting thing for me is that we have got the two top transfers in of the window, in my opinion. This totally contradicts all the recent talk in the media about Arsenal being a ‘selling’ club, Arsenal no longer being attractive to top players, and all that guff.
Elneny confirmed that Ozil signed a new contract with Arsenal. Glad Ozil decided to stay and Arsenal paid the necessary wage to keep him.
I think give Xhaka a few weeks in detention and get Gilberto in to train him on defensive positioning.
Jammy,
I had no ‘negative’ slant on the term mercenary. Some players will use their unique set of skills to go to the highest bidder (RVP, Fabregas), others will feel confortable in their childhood club (Gerrard ? Wilshere?). My use of mercenary was ‘as a fact’. I have no issue understanding the money part of their equation.
However, one cannot criticize Sanchez for wanting a move so bad that his results probably were affected and the hoopla that was raised and not do the same for Aubameyang who acted the exact same way. I happen to be fluent in german and liked BVB since a kid, so my reading may be more precise. So their moves are comparable even if the salary component is not the same.
Giroud, Walcott, Coquelin, Debuchy, they wanted playing time they were not getting, so I would not use that description for them. And they did not start some form of psy-war with the club.
Ok first read this propoganda piece it’s wonderful, then ask yourself am I to blame?
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/pierreemerick-aubameyang-arsenal-transfer-shows-arsene-wenger-s-influence-is-dwindling-a3755441.html%3Famp
Then read the next piece and ask, with friends like these, do we need enemies? Baring in mind, the first article suggests Wenger was solely responsible for every mega signing, and a fair few flops. Where he made small wagers in order to facilitate growth on and off the field.
Oh sorry the article from fool Til Payton of the Arsenal supporters trust isn’t available online it seems.
But the title is: New hope gor Gunmers but we need new manager.
I’ve not read this Michael crap since the Cameron remain campaigns on behalf of the brexit Cpnservatives.
The simple fact is Arsene does everything, because nobody else does it properly and that in itself causes problem. The Moreno balls you juggle, the more likely you are to drop one.
He isn’t transitioning his own departure and I wouldn’t be surprised if he took the Director role, knowing he would treat I to as advisor you as it should be.
Wait, so Aubameyang isn’t good enough, saving the Alexis deal purposely scuppered. Y the hierarchy isn’t good enough for you. Offloading 31yr old to a rival for £18m isn’t good enough for you.
We got rid of Debouchy and Theo, plus Couquelin took one for the team and went to a coastal sunshine state.
Yes we need a CB, we need full backs and a GK and at long last a DM and now wingers.
But we have two transfers windows to spend, do the math and a WC to scout and that as a distraction for player targets not going.
But we can solve the full backs internally, CB even internally. Wingers somewhat internally, possibly GK internally.
So the key areas are DM CM, and what we need is, well they don’t exist, show me a Ceac, or Vieria?
We have to find someone who is going to that level, Mcguane presumably got a buy back or at least sell on as well as a performance add on, but he just wen they to Barca B.
I mean we couldn’t have had a better window and are now only a window away from everything you want, and we don’t play a type of game. It’s total football, you coach then they improvise and interpret. You earn and advise, then they interpret.
Alexis I would have warned, but
I said how it would go, he could come back.
Everything went exactly as o described it, except Alexis was offered more money than he wasn’t worth and did the sensible thing.
And the income Ian conservative, we made more, we are hiding how
much and they, how robbed they got.
We made it through the storm, now we make port. Top four. Aubameyang needs to have a ridiculous strike rate, but he’s tall, powerful, fast and finishes improvised like Kane. If the ball isn’t perfect, he’ll go meet it.
He’s more complete than Henry, ignorant he adds that tech upgrade, oh my!
I don’t hype myself or anyone. I just know how perfect this union is.
Resale value. We send them to MLS or China as Superstars, on an ever inflating market. Hahaha, we could maleness a profit on any of our older players.
Plus more rights money and its renegotiated for next season, which increases or projected forecast, plus the stadium is full for another 5 years. Which means we have, oh, endless disposable income.
We will make top four, Chelsea won’t, especially off they sack conte. Wait for the Liverpool slide.
A that matters is top 4. Real are going on a £500m spending spree, go for it. See you at the mall!
If is done, he did it already. It’s over.
I have a thing in court, I tell them they have lost before we start.
On behalf of Arsene, to all the corrupt FIFA, journalists, media corps, PGMO and fake fans.
You l’ve lost already. Say hi
To the new kid on the block, we just went Atlas!
Chris, wrong!
Ceac returned home to the club we took him from, believing he would stay for life, naively! In the premier league the pace off the game and tendency for that to cause it to become open at times. Maximised the use of his Killeen through balls. In La Liga it wasn’t the same, often other teams sitting compact and combination passing being key. The use of his main weapon was minimised. So the changes him, hoping to get an iniesta out the other end.
For a season it seemed they did, but then I think a similar wage issue crept up and they thought they could replace him more cheaply. Arsenal had a selling on clause, because of the way in which he moved. Remember the tapping up at the internationals.
Thus it wasn’t economically viable to move for him, plus we already had the problem of Aaron am deathly Jack and Ceac had also become lazy and a little overweight. Chelsea meant we’d get a slice of the pie. And Ceac refused to be humble and ask to return.
RVP, committed a crime, but Wenger alluded to it several times. Robin is a smart boy, very. Yes he made us suffer watching him win a league title. But then he stitched United, incredibly hard. Alexis probably thought he’d do likewise, but hasn’t misjudged the situation. He should sack his agent.
Aubameyang is much like Mahrez, he was being held captive essentially by his value, financially and on the pitch. Snapped and was like, I’m off. He explained a story much in English and apologised.
You are so wrong it is almost not worth Lyn effort. I like the fact Mahrez is copying Aubameyang, sends us the right signals. He was promised a move if they weren’t challenging the season after the win. A season later, still nothing, Vardy is getting on, he is in his prime.
City may move for him in the summer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the opt for S’American. The benefit of being multilingual, can be a lot cheaper. Jesus is an example of just this.