Arsenal Paid Too Much for Their New Recruits

Arsenal paid too much for their new recruits and let go of their players for far too little, according to a formula calculated by a London-based investment company.

The data centres on the 'intrinsic value' of a player - a calculated fee based on performances for the selling club and the projected impact on the buying club, as well as taking into consideration their prime age.

It calculates that Arsenal paid almost £31 million too much for Nicolas Pepe and William Saliba.

Alex Iwobi and Laurent Koscielny were let go for £39 million less than their intrinsic value.

The one redeeming factor, in all of this bad business, is that they picked up a bargain in David Luiz, paying £27 million under his intrinsic value.

We can only watch and see whether time will tell if the formula is reliable.

Summer transfer window: Who carried out the best business?

Huge Summer Transfer Season for Arsenal

It certainly has been a big summer transfer season for Arsenal, with six major recruits joining the club and far more spent than the forty odd million pounds that was threatened to be the limited budget as the last campaign ended.

Of the six major recruits, one of them is a loan, another was immediately sent out on loan.

Dani Ceballos on loan from Real Madrid

Many Arsenal fans are over the moon at this new found and untypical splashing of the cash. While I wish all the new recruits the very best and hope that they do well for the club, I can not help but reflect that much of this spending may have been in the wrong areas, given the results of the last few seasons.

Let's bear in mind that Arsenal conceded 51 Premier League goals last season and also had some heavy defeats in the various cup competitions. At the same time, only Man City and Liverpool scored more goals than Arsenal in the Premier League and this has been true for several seasons, Arsenal being among the highest goal scorers, but concede more than any of the top five and even more than some teams that finished below them.

Armed with this information, the Arsenal management chose spend the vast bulk of their transfer budget on attacking and midfield players. They let go two goalkeepers and two right backs and never replaced any of them. They replaced one older central defender with another one, bought a young one and immediately sent him out on loan. They may have bought a decent left back, but he is injury prone and injured at the moment. It's all very well spending a lot of money and bringing in a lot of recruits, but how much change is that going to make, if they are not in the positions where the weaknesses are apparent?                    

David Luiz, older central defender

  

William Saliba, immediately sent out on loan

                           

Kieran Tierney, injury prone and injured at the moment 

               

Nicolas Pépé, record signing, a lot of money

Gabriel Martinelli, youthful forward

Let's also spare a moment to consider the departures

Alex Iwobi - Often the whipping boy for many of the unhappy fans, he was and is highly rated by football managers and other players. As evidenced by his £34 million transfer fee. He never scored an awful lot of goals for Arsenal, but he made some very significant contributions.

Laurent Koscielny - Long term captain and best of a bad bunch of central defenders in recent years. I never rated him as highly as many Arsenal fans, but there is no doubt that he made some major marks and will be missed at Arsenal. I would be interested to know what happened at the club to change his attitude so dramatically. Maybe the new regime, after Wenger, was not to his liking.

David Ospina - A more than adequate back up keeper and first choice for the Columbian national team. His departure baffles me, especially as no replacement has been recruited.

Carl Jenkinson - I don't think Carl was ever given enough opportunities to show that he was probably the best back up right back at the club, especially after his successful spell at West Ham. A talent under utilised by Arsenal and another strange departure that has not been covered with a replacement.

Krystian Bielik - Came in as potentially the next big thing at centre back, never really played at lot of games at Arsenal and apparently never developed to requirements. Left as a midfielder.

Cohen Bramall - There was a huge fanfare when he joined the club and much discussion about his rapid rise from non-league ranks. Again, never got many opportunities to shine and has now gone to a League Two team. The ups and downs of a football career pretty much defined there.

Danny Welbeck - Oh Danny! Danny, Danny Danny! So much potential, so many injuries. He did some great things for Arsenal, just nowhere near often enough. I hope he can find some success before retirement.

Aaron Ramsey - What more can we say about Aaron Ramsey? Releasing him, on a free transfer, was one of the most stupid decisions the Arsenal football club has ever made. For all the money Arsenal have spent on midfielders in this transfer window, have they really replaced the man who should have gone on to be a long serving Arsenal legend?

Petr Cech - Arrived from massive rivals Chelsea and is often accredited as one of the best ever goalkeepers in the Premier League. He was past his prime when he arrived at Arsenal, but still did very well for them, especially considering he spent much of his time behind one of the most suspect defences in the whole table.

So, while a very big transfer window for Arsenal, I can't help but have my concerns about the wisdom of many of the decisions made. But we wish all of the new recruits success and hope that they can bring Arsenal back to really competing for the top prizes in the game.