Arsenal were getting to a stage in the transfer market where they were effectively giving their players away. A combination of poor recruitment and the impacts of the pandemic made selling players immensely difficult.
Players were leaving Arsenal for significantly less than the club paid for them and others were stuck with little in regard to interest that tempted them away from giving up their Arsenal wage. Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos cost the club a combined figure exceeding £80m, but they left for nothing.
Things are changing, however. Arsenal’s recruitment has experienced an overhaul and in 2021 and to a lesser extent 2020, the club made some serious signings of younger players. Six players came in last summer aged 23 and under.
