By Tony Attwood
By no stretch of the imagination has this been a transfer window that could be called “one hell of a rush to spend money” – at least not so far as the top six from last season are concerned.
At the moment of writing the table of all the players in and out for actual money runs like this…
| Buying club | Player in | Cost | Player out | Buying club | Income |
| Arsenal | Martinelli | £6m | Ospina | Napoli | £3.5m |
| Ceballos | Loan | ||||
| Saliba | £27m | ||||
| Chelsea | Kovacic | £40.2m | Aina | Torino | £8.8m |
| Hazard | Real Mad | £88.5m | |||
| Kalas | Bristol City | £8m | |||
| Redan | Hertha Berlin | £2.3m | |||
| Liverpool | van den Berg | £1.3m | Camacho | Sporting CP | £5m |
| Ings | Southampton | £18m | |||
| Man City | Angeliño | £5.3m | Ambrose | Metz | £2.3m |
| Rodri | £62.6m | Pablo Marí | Flamengo | £1.5m | |
| Fabian Delph | Everton | £8.5m | |||
| Richards | Brighton | £2.5m | |||
| Manu García | Sporting Gijón | £3.6m | |||
| Luiz | Aston Villa | £15m | |||
| Man Utd | James | £15m | |||
| Wan Bissaka | £45m | ||||
| Tottenham H | Etete | £200k | Trippier | At Madrid | £20m |
| Clarke | £10m | Janssen | Monterry | £6.3m | |
| Ndombele | £55.5m |
Of course there are lots of players who appear to have been on the edge of signing for days and days, but as yet, we have no confirmation from the club.
But there has been the feeling throughout that Arsenal, alone among the clubs in the list above, was hampered by a £40m limit on spending.
However at the annual meeting between directors of the clubs and fans at the stadium last night it was made absolutely clear that the £40m, sometimes quoted as £45m, was an absolute myth. The exact phrase used from the platform was “I don’t know where that figure came from.”
Of course the trouble was that because we have had two months of the rumour that Arsenal only had £40m to spend while everyone has had much, much more, it seems some of the people at the meeting still did not believe the word from the directors. The attitude seemed to me to be, “well if you have got more money why haven’t you spent it?”
I think there was also a feeling of “Why didn’t you tell us before?” although to be fair on this one, the level of rumours is now so totally insane, that Arsenal would need a director for denying rumours to keep up with everything, if they were to answer the stories.
There is also the problem that at the same time as having the £40m rumour, Arsenal have been linked with Zaha at double that cost. Then suddenly Palace open discussions with Everton, and there is more anger from Arsenal fans who allege that Arsenal only have half the budget of Everton.
The fact is that over 80 players have been tipped to be coming to Arsenal this year. These stories, and all the stories around it are just nonsense. And the only criticism we can make of Arsenal until we window closes and we can see exactly who has come to the club and who has left, is that by never speaking about such matters until we have a fans meeting as we had last night, the rumours are not denied.
Arsenal are thus caught in a trap. They don’t want to give away details of possible deals until they are done, for fear of other clubs trying come in and hijack a deal, but maybe when it is simply a statement like the £40m issue, they could have let us know a bit earlier, before the myth of £40m becomes accepted as fact by so many supporters.
- Danny Welbeck
- Julio Pleguezuelo
- Stephan Lichtsteiner
- Cohen Bramall
- David Ospina
- Jordi Osei-Totu (on loan to Bochum)
- Aaron Ramsey
- Bayli Spencer-Adams (free to Watford)
- Daniel Ballard (on loan to Swindon)
- Ben Sheaf (loan to Doncaster)
- Charlie Gilmor (loan to Norwich)
- Vontae Daley-Campbell (sold to Leicester for an undisclosed fee)
- William Saliba (on loan to St Etienne)
In terms of the team lists, the Arsenal official site is going through one of its regular bizarre modes by not including any of the players from the under 23s list in the first team squad, despite announcements that they have been promoted. Chambers and Jenkinson are however still there. It is these sorts of details that don’t really help the club.
So of Willock, Nelson, Smith-Rowe, Nketiah there is no mention – they are still academy players, at least on the club’s own site.
We can’t expect Arsenal to respond to every single rumour, but we could do with a little bit more information all round. And if they gave us some, the directors might have an easier ride than they got last night.
Hello again Goodmorning,
I hope that Fans of Arsenal that despite the fact that it’s a sport, it is also business, it doesn’t really matter what you think in the end.
Arsenal directors dont deserve to be in football. They dont have any ambition whatsoever.They are stingy if not misers. How on earth do they think investing peanuts like 40m will reap rewards.
I thank the arsenal’s board who try to wrap up this new deals especially ceballos n saliba despite saliba going back on loan…pls we fans are asking n pleading to u board chairman and directors to fast and get us WILFRED ZAHA both TINEY..please we ñeed deals to be done before 18th of August.. Pleas..especially WILFRED ZAHA.
Everyone knows Arsenal are in “Intensive Care Unit” and in need of a thorough revamp. It cant be acceptable to be this desperate, for a club of this caliber. We cant sell because of our position, our players look average. Pliz list Mktharyan and bring in Ziyech or Everton. Elneny should just go and let Willock take up his position. Koscielny surely must be replaced by an experienced leader in defence Rugani can do if we are sure funds are available as they claim. Litchsteiner must be replaced by Tierney no brainer there. Welbeck to be replaced by Zaha again no-brainer there.
I guess as a fan we looked at how arsene wenger handled transfers, he spent less most of the time and we became accustomed to the fact that arsenal don’t usually spend big amounts, now not having having champions league makes it worse… this journalist orstein or something is the one starting rumors anyways. So he must be banned from arsenal and get a new reliable journalist
All we want as Arsenal fans is the arrival of quality and proven players ate the club. We are tied of greedy men at the helm of the club. I am Tojjolo John from Uganda
Of course they could have been content allowing the 40-45 million budget story continue as that allows them to negotiate from a better position lest say they had 120 million budget those players we have signed would have cost us more. Secondly the moment the bid for tierney and Saha went in on top of the saliba bid that 40-45 million budget rumour should have evaporated for people with any sense.
I agree naming targets puts prices up if we said we were interested in player a and couldn’t get him then went after another player players b club would be like hang on they bid x amount for player a they can afford to pay us another 10 million plus for our player.
I disagree Gooner Manyex. People only think about Arsenal in the way you say because that is what the media tells us all day long, but as with the revelation last night about the £40m what the papers and bloggers say is just fantasy stories they copy from each other.
How do you know that the Zaha rumour is true?
Is it not like the 80 or so other rumours nothing more them a rumour?
That 2 of the rumours eventually turned out to be true it does not mean that all or any of the others are.
How many of these rumours are intended to discredit us? I suspect a lot so let us not take any notice and wait till see what actually happens.
By the way I agree with your suggestion that the club allowed the 40/5 m rumour continue so that the clubs they are really dealing with do not up the price because we have a lot to spend.
We’ll just have to wait and see who we buy and for how much. There really isn’t any other option.
Off topic – Why do I get two totally different UI experiences when I access this site? It seems to do this completely at random when I access the site from my favourites. I’m using Google chrome on a Windows desktop PC.
Also mentioned in the meeting was that 85% of players transfer is untrue. I am pretty sure its higher than that going by Untold. 🙂
Also we sold Xavier Amaechi to HSV for around 2 Million euros.
So the owner seems greedy and indifferent to Arsenal’s plight ; the board are clueless and total misers ;and the only ones who seem to know how to remedy the immediate situation are the disgruntled (alleged ) Arsenal fans ?
How nice would it be if they could all band together , donate all their hard earned money towards a just cause , buy over the club , and take it in the direction the espouse ?
Go for it lads ! My best wishes to you all .