Mikel Arteta still has £48m Arsenal transfer gift for Stan Kroenke with next steps clear
In what is approaching five years in charge at Arsenal, Mikel Arteta has signed 32 players. 18 of those remain part of his Premier League squad this season.
It is a testament to the work done that not only have such a large group become central to plans under Arteta, but also that they are doing so as regular title challengers. It has cost the club, and by extension Stan Kroenke, £560million to acquire.
Taking out the two loanees for this season (Neto and Raheem Sterling), it comes to an average of £32.6million each. Even given a lack of trophies, it is some reward and value for money given the way Arsenal's rivals have gone big in the market for significantly less output.
What also comes to light is just how impressive a lot of this has proven to be. Despite spending £560million on the current set of players (not counting the academy graduates), it was not deemed to be an extravagant or major outlay on the relative players.
Only Ben White for £50million was really questioned at the time. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City in 2022 were both viewed as being good deals for all parties.
Taking the estimated value from respected football data site Transfermarkt at the point each player signed permanently for Arsenal, the club overpaid by £48million to accumulate what is now the second-best squad in England. Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Magalhaes, purchased for under £60million, would now fetch at least double if not triple that at current market rate, each.
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They are the headlines of a team-wide improvement that is now deemed to be worth £688.2million. Again, add in Bukayo Saka and that rockets some more.
On the surface, Arteta has simply been able to develop his players no matter where they have come from. For Kroenke, this is justification for not only sticking with the Spaniard but also backing him in deals worth £65million for Kai Havertz and over £100million for Declan Rice.
In the 16 players looked at here, 10 are now judged to be worth more than when Arsenal signed them, evidence of the wholesale setup across the board. David Raya, Riccardo Calafiori, and Mikel Merino are all still level given the brief period they have officially been permanent players. Jorginho and Thomas Partey have both gone down, so has Jurrien Timber, but there is understandable mitigation.
Timber's injury has seen him drop and there is no worry over his performance levels so far, whilst the two midfielders are ageing and over 30 years old. It is natural for their price to plummet at this stage of their career.
Adding in Saka, who is said to be worth a staggering but still far from big enough £117million. Arsenal would surely want, in advance of that, to vaguely consider a sale regardless.
The real challenge now is to turn this into something more tangible on the pitch. Results have gotten better by the year but silverware is yet to be delivered. Either way, Kroenke is looking likely to get a return on his giant investment over the past five years with Arteta at the helm.