Shame it didn't work out for him because he looked like he'd got a lot of talent. 100% the right option to sell him on though.
From what I'm reading, it's going to be a loan with an obligation to buy. Reportedly in the region of £10m... I've said this countless times, but our inability to maximise fees for our players will always hinder us. We need to get better at selling. Otherwise it gives us less flexibility in the market.
I get what you're saying here but always think back to SAF, when he was our manager he would never hold a players career back and so would let them go for crazy low fees if he knew they would get little or no game time with us. Great man who cared about all the staff.
I think there's a few differences though. First of all, SAF's success allowed him the room to do that because he had a track record of rebuilding successful teams. So, even if some fans were unhappy with the fees you recouped for some of the players you sold, you could still trust SAF to hit those heights again whether you reinvested significantly or not. Secondly, Man United as a global institution would always generate loads of money. Even in the years where you've underperformed, you still generate bucketloads of cash. Arsenal are a big club, but we don't have the pull of Man United, who are in a different league to us when it comes to popularity and commercialisation. You finished 8th last season, yet still have a net worth of $6.55bn, which is second highest in the world - only behind Real Madrid. And whilst Arteta and Arsenal have undoubtedly improved significantly over the last 2 years, we haven't tasted any tangible success yet. Which brings me onto my third point - the market and landscape of football has changed drastically now and, as we've seen especially this Summer, selling your assets for good fees is important to give yourself more financial freedom to sign the calibre of players you want. We're not run by petrostates with unlimited wealth or private equity firms that are spending fortunes and trying to reinvent the wheel. So, in order to compete with these clubs, it becomes incumbent on us to maximise value when selling and buying to avoid being left further behind. Arsenal's highest sale ever is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for £35m in 2017. We simply need to do better at generating revenue via player sales if we want to persist with this 'self-sustaining model'. Our goal needs to be winning trophies and competing at the top level, rather than looking out for any individual player's career.
Strange one as really he's a very similar profile to Timber, Tomiyasu and Kiwior. Don't get me wrong he's class - but thats a lot of money and does he start ahead of Gabriel or Timber? Calafiori--Gabriel---Saliba--White Weird that we spent 50m on White and 45m on Timber yet one of these will be benched.
I have a feeling we're going to sell Kiwior. Also, to be fair, we are playing in 4 competitions and I do think this signing massively boosts our quality and depth. But it is a large fee, and I hope we are still planning to sign some more players because we need to bolster midfield and attack.
Mika Biereth sold to FC Sturm Graz. £4m fee which is apparently a club record for them. And we've got a 20% sell on clause. Considering he had 1 year left on his deal, not a terrible deal.
Looking like it's almost done £42m and on a 5 year contract https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-signing-of-italy-defender-riccardo-calafiori
According to Simon Collings, we offered £50k That is ridiculously cheeky. Wolves were never going to accept a fee like that!
Lokonga going to Sevilla - loan with €12m option to buy and 25% release clause if Sevilla decide to keep him. They're covering his salary for the year. Cannot believe we've been unable to find a permanent buyer for Lokonga and at least break even on what we paid for him...
Can I just say, this is entirely our own fault? We gave Ramsdale a bumper new contract in May 2023 and then a few months later decide we want to bin him by replacing him with Raya. Now his market value has tanked and he's on a lucrative contract that makes him hard to shift. Especially because most teams that can afford Ramsdale don't need a new goalkeeper right now. What a stupid decision this was if we'd known we wanted a new goalkeeper last Summer.
Haven't been on here for a little while, so here's a little transfer roundup over the last 10 days: Calafiori seems to be getting closer. Slowly but surely... U19 goalkeeper Tommy Setford has signed for the club from Ajax. £1m fee + add-ons. Don't know much about him, but appears to be quite highly regarded by a lot of people from what I've read. Suppose we'll find out what happens. Marseille interested in signing Nketiah...could be one to watch. We've rejected a bid reportedly in the region of £30m for Emile Smith-Rowe from Fulham. Unclear whether they'll come back in for another bid, but Crystal Palace are also interested in him. And there's concrete interest in Reiss Nelson from West Ham. Weighing up an offer between £15m - £20m.
Selling Nketiah would be smart. Nelson probably as well. We need to keep some homegrown players though so I really hope we keep hold of ESR.
