It was not until the early hours of Saturday morning that Arsenal finally wrapped up their transfer business for this summer.
By that point, the cleaners were already in at the offices of the club’s training ground at London Colney.
Coffee cups and pizza boxes were on several of the desks, as staff worked through Friday night to get a loan deal for Raheem Sterling over the line.
Arsenal left it late, but overall they come away from this transfer window happy with the business they have done.
“It’s the last day, the last minutes, so (it’s been) a long day, a long transfer window but in the end I think we as a club have to be proud once again,” said sporting director Edu.
“You see the signings we have like Riccardo [Calafiori] and like [Mikel] Merino, so the players that we planned to sign, our targets, they are here. Also the players that we decided to sell, I think we sold them for the right price, to the right clubs, in the right way also which is important.”
Arsenal’s aim before the window was to raise the floor of the squad, with the club conscious of the need to add more depth so manager Mikel Arteta can rotate during a busy season.
The signing of Sterling feels vital in that regard as, before his arrival, Arsenal looked short in attack going into the season.
The 29-year-old is perhaps not the marquee forward supporters wanted, with Arsenal one of several clubs keen on Spain star Nico Williams, but he feels a sensible signing.
Sterling brings a wealth of experience when it comes to winning major trophies, he knows how Arteta works and also has a point to prove after being frozen out at Chelsea.
“People like to talk don’t they? Well, so do I,” said Sterling in his announcement video. “And I’ll say this, you’re about to the see the best of me.”
A move for Sterling was never in Arsenal’s original plans this summer, but when looking for a forward late on they will feel they have struck a great deal.
There is no loan fee involved and it is understood that the Gunners also negotiated a favourable split when it came to deciding with Chelsea how Sterling’s £300,000-a-week wages would be paid.
A concern could be that Arsenal let Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira and Reiss Nelson all go in attack, only to bring in Sterling, but between them the quartet played just 1,968 minutes in the Premier League last season.
To put that into context, it is less than Gabriel Martinelli managed on his own. Sterling can eat into those minutes and he feels an upgrade in terms of quality, too.
Depth has been added by Arsenal’s other signings, Calafiori and Merino. The defence, in particular, looks stacked with talent now.
The problem area of left-back has been solved and the greatest challenge for Arteta will be giving his defenders enough minutes to keep them all happy.
Merino, like Sterling, feels like another sensible signing, although long-term the Gunners must look to inject some youth when they next enter the market for a midfielder, given that Jorginho and Thomas Partey are both over 30.
Arsenal wanted to be prudent with their business this summer and they certainly have been, with the fact that Nuno Tavares’ loan move to Lazio will be made permanent at the end of the season for around £7million meaning they will turn a profit.
They spent just over £100m on new signings, with David Raya’s loan move made permanent for £27m and Tommy Setford joining for £1m from Ajax to add to the £42m spent on Calafiori and £31.6m on Merino. Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto, like Sterling, joined on loan on deadline day.
Arsenal wanted to be prudent with their business this summer and they certainly have been
Arsenal will be pleased to have banked nearly £90m by selling Aaron Ramsdale, Nketiah and Smith Rowe - especially as the latter two are academy graduates and count as pure profit in the accounts. The Gunners held firm with Nketiah all summer and did not not budge until they got the £30m they wanted.
Likewise with Ramsdale, they were determined all summer not to sanction a loan and rejected an offer from Ajax earlier this month. Eventually, Southampton paid £25m on deadline day.
Academy sales were also a highlight. Brooke Norton-Cuffy, Charlie Patino and Mika Biereth left for just under £10m, while the club banked around £6m from sell-on clauses relating to previous departures by Omari Hutchinson and Mark McGuinness.
During a window when Arsenal were sensible with their spending, which was expected after some extravagant summers, those sales were welcome bonuses to the coffers.
