With Arsenal confirming that Sokratis Papastathopulous has had his contract terminated by mutual consent, Goal‘s Gunners correspondent Charles Watts tweeted a stunning stat in regards to the club’s dealings in the transfer market.
Adding up all the transfer fees involved, Watts says that by next summer Arsenal will have let go nine players for nothing, who cost over £190m:
By the summer Arsenal will have let go Sanchez, Ramsey, Ozil, Cazorla, Wilshere, Sokratis, Mustafi, Mkhitaryan and Welbeck in the past three years
Money spent on fees: £190m
Money received: £0 pic.twitter.com/7CzJsbw6ZR— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) January 20, 2021
It’s an astonishing statistic which shows you how poor the Gunners’ transfer record has been over the past few years, as well as their inability to negotiate new contracts with players. Fans on Twitter are decidedly unimpressed:
Lmfaooooo what a terribly run club
— TA (@Tan_TA22) January 20, 2021
If all these players contracts didn’t expire we would’ve at least recouped £160m for these guys
— Cody Bristow (@C99Cody1) January 20, 2021
not the smartest way to do business.
— Fabs (@FatolaFabs) January 20, 2021
Not exactly a great business model that ?
— James Fensham (@Hamez_2401) January 20, 2021
Absolutely ridiculous way to run a football club l?
— Arsenal98 (@04undefeatedAFC) January 20, 2021
Shocking innit; no wonder we are now a proper mid table team
— Cyril (@cyrilokolie) January 20, 2021
Same thing going to happen to Willian, Arsenal needs a good contact negotiator
— Jhamo (@Jhamopappy) January 20, 2021
Wow. Shocking.
— Niall (@nllwlsh) January 20, 2021
Mismanagement of the highest order.
— Alpha Savage (@realalphasavage) January 20, 2021
It’s hard to know whether Arsenal have begun to turn things around. The signing of players like Nicolas Pepe and Willian in the past two summers probably suggests otherwise. It must be pointed out, though, that technical director Edu and manager Mikel Arteta have only been in charge of transfers since the beginning of the season so only time will tell if they’ll do any better.
