I had a little look at the players we've allowed, for one reason or another, to leave this club for nothing in the last ten years. It makes for extraordinary reading. The youth players included in this list are either there because of their subsequent careers, their status in the game at the time or the calibre of the club they left for:
Luke Ayling
Fran Merida
Philippe Senderos
William Gallas
Michaël Silvestre
Sol Campbell
Jay Simpson
Alban Bunjaku (went to Sevilla. Didn't have the head but had talent)
Manuel Almunia
Kyle Ebecilio (U17 WC Golden Boy, just like Cesc, Aguero and Rooney)
Denilson
Andrej Arshavin
Sanchez Watt
Sebastian Squillaci
Lukasz Fabianski
Bacary Sagna
Chuks Aneke
Park Chu-Young
Nikolas Bendtner
Abou Diaby
Ryo Miyaichi
Matthieu Flamini
Tomas Rosicky
Yaya Sanogo
Chris Willock
Matthieu Debuchy
Santi Cazorla
Jack Wilshere
Gedion Zelalem
Stefan Lichtsteiner
Aaron Ramsey
Julio Pleguezuelo
Danny Welbeck
Yunus Musah
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Mesut Özil
Shkrodan Mustafi
Sokratis Papastathopolous
You can make excuses for some of these players, certainly, and a lot of these players were deadwood at the time of departure, but this is an outright disaster. Every player on this list (bar, perhaps, Cazorla and Campbell) could have been sold for money if we had better management with better timing. If you want to point fingers for Arsenal's decline, look at how regularly we let first team players go for literally nothing.
Free Transfers Since 2010-11
posted on 15/5/21
comment by Legacyton 125.2 (U8879)
posted 3 minutes ago
Your list isn't even complete:
Jeff Reine-Adélaïde
Ismaël Bennacer
Donyell Malen
João Virgínia...
All sold for very little, or let go for nothing.
And I'm sure there are still yet more too.
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They weren't free transfers, but were indeed sold for far too little.
posted on 15/5/21
Some of the names on the list though...
Bunjaku
Ebecilio
Zelalem
Pleguezuelo...
Such big things were expected of them. I'd have to Google them now, to find out where the heck they all ended up.
posted on 15/5/21
None of them have done anything, but all four were supremely talented.
posted on 15/5/21
That list looks like the Paris phonebook.
posted on 15/5/21
comment by Boris 'Inky’ Gibson (U5901)
posted 15 minutes ago
That list looks like the Paris phonebook.
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What?
posted on 15/5/21
I don't see what the issue is with letting players go at the end of their contract.
You sign someone for three years, you can't then moan when they play for three years instead of getting a new contract or sold after two.
Don't see why football contracts should be worth less than any other profession.
posted on 15/5/21
comment by SirCastic (U8772)
posted 6 minutes ago
I don't see what the issue is with letting players go at the end of their contract.
You sign someone for three years, you can't then moan when they play for three years instead of getting a new contract or sold after two.
Don't see why football contracts should be worth less than any other profession.
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We're competing with sides that manage to sell hundreds of millions of talent, rather than let it go for free.
posted on 15/5/21
comment by Boris 'Inky’ Gibson (U5901)
posted 1 hour, 31 minutes ago
That list looks like the Paris phonebook.
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Frenchnal
posted on 15/5/21
A lot of our issue is we sign average players and give them huge contracts, no one wants to take them on that money so are stuck with them. Might be doing the same with Bertrand next
posted on 15/5/21
So many of them have had career ruining injuries.