Arsenal’s 10 biggest transfer sale mistakes
Nicholas Hughes
- Updated: 14 Oct 2023 10:41 CDT
- 6 min read
Arsenal have been a household name in European football for many years, being one of the continents true powerhouses at the beginning of the 21st century.
Boasting some of the world’s best players comes with the territory, and Arsenal have had some stellar names lining up at Highbury and the Emirates over the years.
While the Gunners have a track record of finding diamonds in the rough and polishing them into world-class players, they haven't always got things right with players going the other way.
Top performers have been allowed to leave, sometimes by the club's doing, other times by the player's. Here are the Gunners' 10 biggest transfer sale mistakes...
Emiliano Martinez – Aston Villa, 2020 (£17m)
Emi Martinez was afforded a first-team opportunity in 2020 when Bernd Leno suffered an injury after the Premier League’s return from the COVID-19 shutdown.
The Argentine was outstanding to close the season for the Gunners and was instrumental in Mikel Arteta’s side claiming a famous FA Cup final victory, as well as the Community Shield soon after.
It came as a big surprise when he was allowed to leave for Aston Villa a matter of weeks after that success, and for a relatively minor fee of around £15.6 million.
The signing of Aaron Ramsdale for almost double what they recouped for Martinez made the sale all the more curious, and particularly given Martinez’s outstanding performances at Villa Park.
Alexis Sanchez – Manchester United, 2018 (swap for Henrikh Mkhitaryan)
Alexis Sanchez was near untouchable at times for Arsenal. Joining from Barcelona in 2014, the Chilean was brilliant to watch on the wing or leading the line and had Arsenal as close to a league title as they had been in some time.
But a Premier League title continued to elude him and Alexis saw a chance to move on in search of what he thought was a greater likelihood of success.
As it turned out, his stint at Manchester United was underwhelming at best, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan was nowhere near matching Sanchez’s levels when he arrived, moving in the opposite direction.
Letting Alexis go to Man Utd was a critical mistake, it pushed Arsene Wenger closer to the trap door and Arsenal struggled to cope with his departure.
Serge Gnabry – Werder Bremen, 2016 (£4.5m)
Admittedly, few would have seen Serge Gnabry developing quite the way he has done, but his sale goes down as a monumental error from Arsenal’s point of view.
Gnabry was hardly given a chance by the Gunners, playing just 10 times in the Premier League before a loan spell at West Bromwich Albion.
Arsenal sold Gnabry to Werder Bremen in 2016 for a measly £4.5m, and after scoring 11 Bundesliga goals, he moved on to Bayern Munich just 12 months later.
He has gone on to become a Champions League winner, serial Bundesliga champion and a staple in the German national team, leaving Arsenal red-faced over his premature sale.
Robin van Persie – Manchester United, 2012 (£24m)
While this was a sale that Arsenal did not want to have to make, Robin van Persie made it very clear in the summer of 2012 that he wanted out in order to challenge for a league title.
Much to the fury of the Gunners faithful, Van Persie made the switch to Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, and sure enough, he had a Premier League winner’s medal around his neck 12 months later.
While Arsenal replaced RVP with Olivier Giroud, who proved a successful, if not spectacular, signing, the Gunners struggled to recover after seeing their goalscoring captain walk out the door.
Samir Nasri – Manchester City, 2011 (£25m)
Samir Nasri emerged as one of the league’s best players at Arsenal, but as was becoming a pattern for the Gunners, the Frenchman saw titles elsewhere.
Pushing for a move in the summer of 2011, Arsenal were forced to sell Nasri to Manchester City for around £25m, and once again, he won the Premier League after just one season away.
Arsenal lost left-back Gael Clichy to City in the same window, another example of the club strengthening league rivals due to their limited chance of winning silverware.
Another sale that was perhaps out of the club’s control, but one that has gone down as a big mistake nonetheless.
Cesc Fabregas – Barcelona, 2011 (£30m)
The summer of 2011 was a painful transfer window for Arsenal, and the one that hurt the most was the loss of their captain and star midfielder Cesc Fabregas, who returned home to Barcelona.
This sale marked the first of the aforementioned transfers that saw star players leaving for better opportunities elsewhere, and all for relatively low sums of money.
Fabregas was integral to Wenger’s side, and any chance they had of winning trophies, and allowing him to leave so easily was one of the biggest transfer blunders in the club’s history.
Adding insult to injury, Fabregas would return to the Premier League just three years later and played a starring role for bitter rivals Chelsea, winning two Premier League titles with the Blues.
Thierry Henry – Barcelona, 2007 (£16m)
Still arguably the Premier League’s greatest-ever player, Thierry Henry was allowed to move to Barcelona in 2007 in one of the least popular farewells in the Gunners' history.
Henry had given Arsenal two Premier League titles and taken them to the cusp of the Champions League, but a move to Barcelona was unavoidable as he chased the next step in his career.
The Frenchman won two La Liga titles and a much-coveted Champions League to justify the move on his part, but Arsenal would clearly rather have kept him.
Ashley Cole – Chelsea, 2006 (£5m plus William Gallas)
Arsenal fans never really forgave Ashley Cole for pushing for a move to Chelsea, as the left-back jumped ship to the Gunners’ London rivals in 2006.
The small transfer fee and the exchange of a player four years Cole’s senior made the deal all the more difficult to swallow, with Gallas never really recapturing his best form while at the Emirates.
Cole went on to win one more league title with the Blues and lifted the Champions League in 2012, and the topic of his sale continues to be a touchy one for Arsenal fans.
Patrick Vieira – Juventus, 2005 (£18m)
This sale might be the most bizarre on the list. At 29 years of age, Patrick Vieira was still competing at a high level, having made the PFA Team of the Year every year from 1999 to 2004.
But the Frenchman was curiously allowed to join Juventus in 2005 and was replaced only by a very young Alex Song in what proved to be a massive mistake from Arsenal.
Vieira did only last a year at the Old Lady, but that was because he upgraded to Inter after Juve were relegated, and he went on to win four Serie A titles in a row as well as a Champions League in 2010.
Andy Cole – Bristol City, 1992 (£1.35m)
Arsenal let a 20-year-old Andy Cole leave their ranks in 1992 without so much as a single Premier League appearance.
Cole was sold to Bristol City for £1.35m before leaving for Newcastle United the following year, where he netted a stunning 34 goals in his first season of Premier League football, which was a long-standing single-season record.
Cole would go on to score 187 goals in the English top flight, holding the second-best record all-time for many years before he was overtaken by Wayne Rooney.
Continuing the trend of players winning trophies away from Arsenal, Cole lifted the Premier League five times and won the Champions League with Man Utd.
