Arsenal’s transfer chase of Moises Caicedo in January which followed the attempts to secure Mykhailo Mudryk brought the club into a world of the transfer market they’d only ever entered once before. The record deal for Nicolas Pepe has been looked back on as a failure by the previous recruitment regime with Raul Sanllehi leading the group at that time.
With Edu stepping out of the Spaniard’s shadow to head up the transfer business with manager Mikel Arteta, now club co-chairman Josh Kroenke and the wider recruitment team, the club has built a side competently and smartly that sits five points clear. The most expensive player in the squad tackling a title challenge is Ben White who cost £50million from Brighton.
Not only that but the bid to win the league has been boosted by two deals for Leandro Trossard at £27million and Jorginho at £12million; both with guaranteed fees which add up to just ~£30million. The Brighton chief executive Steve Barber in an interview with The Beautiful Game podcast said jokingly that the £70million Arsenal bid would only get ‘half’ of the Ecuadorian.
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Whilst some supporters might have wanted to see the Gunners go into triple figures of millions despite the strong position from the Seagulls that he was not for sale, they have already proven they do not need to. Martin Odegaard is in a position to potentially be the league’s player of the year despite only costing the club an initial £30million.
The same upfront fee that the club paid Manchester City for Oleksandr Zinchenko. Which was £3million more than what Gabriel Magalhaes cost from Lille; the Brazilian was Arteta’s first major summer investment since taking over at the club in December 2019.
Aaron Ramsdale was signed after numerous bids from Sheffield United for a figure that could rise to, guess what, £30million. The business done in this region demonstrates the smart identification of talent that has a direct impact on the success of the club.
No matter how the season ends, this cannot stop. Certainly, Arsenal will pay well over the £30million figure for players and quite rightly. But suggestions that a player like Caicedo should see the Gunners sink their hands deep into their pockets for £100million-plus deals like some of the clubs in the game have done which in reflection look to be errors.
Every decision needs to be well thought through and not done through panic or forced to pay significantly over the odds, which nearly happened with Caicedo and Mudryk, due to a club’s stance or the presence of rival bidders. The Pepe deals of this world need to be a thing of the past.
Odegaard and company stand as a strong reminder of what can be achieved through investing at contextually lower levels and watching talent grow. Fabio Vieira and Jakub Kiwior might prove to be the next two; patience will be needed again but there’s been more than enough reminders of not making judgements too quickly with this group and their manager.
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