Today on the Arsenal History Society site 25 years ago Arsenal sold a player and used the profit to build a new training centre.
- 5 players in, 4 players sold, 6 out on loan, 2 released, 4 out on a free. That’s the window
- Where do we normally get to after three games?
By Tony Attwood
Suddenly Arsenal have changed direction – they are buying older players which is not like them (or most other PL clubs at the upper end of the table) at all. True, Calafiori is 22, but Merino is 28, Raya (who moved from loanee to signing this summer) is also 28. This may of course be balanced by the fact that if Marquinhos returns at the end of the year he will still be only 21. Calafiori is 22. Tavares is 24.
So does age matter? Well, actually yes, more than ever before.
When Arteta took over the managerial role at Arsenal he very famously had a clear out, letting Ozil go for nothing, and as far as we can tell actually paying Aubameyang to leave, as well as making it quite clear to Pepe that if he didn’t agree to a transfer move (which would mean a lower salary) he would just be left not playing – not even on the pre-season tour matches. There were even suggestions that Arsenal gave Pepe a pay-off just to get him to go.
It seems this is the sort of thing that clubs have had to face more and more. They are being forced to get their finances under greater control, while also facing the consequences of past gambles that did not pay off.
Of course, the Pepe case was not unique, and in a transfer market like the one we are seeing now, with prices declining and clubs increasingly pressurised in terms of their profit and loss accounts, it is happening less. Clubs are simply forced to be much more careful about who they buy and how much they pay.
Not playing a player however remains quite a strong tactic for a club that wants a player to move on, because a player who is simply not going to be picked even for the bench knows that his profile is dropping, and with it the chance of a transfer that can revitalise his career. Who, after all. is going to take a player who hasn’t played for a year even though fully fit, even on a discounted salary?
Sorting this mess out is one of several areas, which although rarely written about, is where Arteta has scored particularly highly. He has shown with the players he moved on that he has no fear in turfing out those not wanted, and players know that the longer they stay without playing the less likely they will be to get a decent move.
Pepe was lucky – he went to Nice on loan and got 19 games with them in 2022/23, then went to Trabzonspor for a season, again getting 19 games and this season has turned up with Villareal, playing in their two opening matches.
But Pepe wasn’t the only person moved on, for Arteta also got rid of Mkhitaryan, Willian, Sokratis, Mustafi, Kolasinac and Bellerin and several of these are reported to have been given a big pay off to leave the club, with the club focussing on bringing in young players.
And although we have noted it before, it is worth repeating, last season Arsenal had the third youngest average-age starting XI in the league. Only Burnley and Chelsea (for two very different reasons) had younger squads through the year.
Indeed overall there is a growing tendency for clubs to want to buy younger players and let them grow into the team.
The problem is however the media and some fans demand success today, and so want the big superstar signing now, forgetting that somehow that player has to be eased out later – and if no one wants to take him on, that can mean that the last two years of a contract are costing the club a fortune for no return on investment.
Thus we see Tottenham signing teenagers and Villa signing players who are no older than 23 for the most part. As MSN point out in an article today, players over 25 are no longer attractive to clubs.
But the problem is that now, no one wants to buy players aged 27 or over and pay the players the salary their agents demand. As a result clubs like Chelsea are sitting on a 39 man squad with no other clubs wanting to take on their extra 14 men even with Chelsea paying some of the salary – which of course Chelsea are less and less able to do because of the new financial rules.
In fact what clubs are doing is gambling on teenagers (MSN reckon more than £300 million has been spent on teenagers in this window).
Thus clubs are signing teenagers both to get them as players and to get them as resources they can sell. It is a modern slave trade – except the slaves are paid salaries most of us would go down on our knees for.
But there is now a new problem. Fewer clubs are paying a fortune for the 27 year old looking for a five year deal, which means that clubs spend the money on teens and early 20s, but the option of getting some of it back is diminishing fast.
This is a shake-up in PL football that will have ramifications for years to come.
Just an observation buying a couple of older players could always be the managers final bits of the jig saw , experience is what you don’t get with younger players , there’s always a mix , young with enthusiasm older with experience .
I’m sure teams have to sign young players, including teenagers, just to balance out the big earners. You can’t have 25 players all on hundreds of thousands a week. Maybe City can but I wouldn’t think any other could afford it.
What would the repercussions be in the long term? Would it mean established players be cheaper?
It is always going to be a balance between the value now to the club of the player, the anticipated value over years to come, and how much if anything can be retrieved by selling the player on. Plus of course the player’s wage demands.
My guess, and it is only a guess, is that older players will face not haviing a club with horror and so will lower their wage demands, and the price of these players will drop significantly as more and more players aged 27+ come onto the market. I suspect they will be signed on ever shorter contracts.