As rumours mount that Alexis Sanchez could be on his way out of the Emirates, we take a look at seven of the best Arsenal players to have been sold under Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez has been linked with a move to Manchester City
The reports surrounding Alexis Sanchez just won’t go away. The player says he wants Champions League football, whilst Arsene Wenger says he is the man to get Arsenal back into the Champions League. A re-union with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City or a move to free-spending PSG have all been mooted if he is to move on.
The bookies currently have Sanchez as shorter odds to stay at the Emirates than he is to leave, but should the Gunners decide to cash in or Sanchez decide to force a move, it wouldn’t come as the biggest surprise. Arsenal have a habit of selling some of their best players under Wenger, and whilst they tend to get decent fees for their departing stars, no Premier League title in 13 years has left Gunners fans frustrated.
With the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy all having left the North Londoners in recent years – all to Manchester City incidentally – there are no shortage of options. Here are our top seven players sold by Arsenal under Arsene Wenger:
7. Serge Gnabry
Former Gunner Serge Gnabry
We start with the most recent of the Gunners departures, having only left the club last summer. Gnabry hadn’t made a first team appearance for Arsenal in more than two years and had just had a disappointing loan spell at West Brom when they agreed to sell him to Werder Bremen for £5 million.
They could have a Pogba on their hands soon though. Gnabry was the top scorer at the 2016 Olympics, ahead of the likes of Neymar and Gabriel Jesus, and he won the U21 Euros with Germany this summer. What’s more, the 22-year-old winger scored 11 goals from just 23 starts in the Bundesliga last season, leading to a call-up and two caps for Germany’s senior team.
He was snapped up by Arsenal’s old adversary’s Bayern Munich earlier this summer, but has been loaned out to Hoffenheim to gain further experience.
6. Kolo Toure
Unlike Gnabry, Arsenal fans did see the best of Kolo Toure, and he only got worse after leaving the Emirates. The charismatic Ivorian centre-back spent seven years at Arsenal, forming an excellent partnership with Sol Campbell, particularly during Arsenal’s ‘Invincible’ 2003-04 campaign.
He left the club in 2009 though after a bust-up with fellow defender William Gallas, and made a £14 million switch to Manchester City, who were beginning to flex their financial muscles under new ownership. He won a Premier League title with City in 2011-12 and has since played for Liverpool and current club Celtic, as well as having a rather repetitive song about him and his brother Yaya go viral.
5. Marc Overmars
Arsenal greats: Overmars, Anelka, Bergkamp and Petit
Younger viewers may not remember Marc Overmars too well, but the Dutchman is without doubt one of Arsenal’s greatest players of the Wenger years. A winger from a bygone era, Overmars liked to stay wide and use his searing pace to dart past opponents.
He arrived at Arsenal from Ajax for around £6 million, and departed for Barcelona for £25 million after three outstanding seasons with the Gunners. It was a huge fee in 2000, but Arsenal fans lost a fan favourite.
4. Thierry Henry
You may have been expecting Arsenal’s greatest ever player to top this list, but Henry was just about to hit 30 when the Gunners sold him to Barcelona, he’d just had his worst goal scoring season in his eight years with the club and he only had two decent seasons in La Liga before heading stateside to play for New York Red Bulls.
That being said, Henry is Arsenal’s all-time leading goal scorer, and could well have stayed at the top for a little while longer if he’d remained at Arsenal where he was the star, something that couldn’t be said of him at Barcelona. Arsene Wenger certainly got Henry’s best years, but his departure still hurt, and the long-serving Frenchman hasn’t won a league title since losing his key man.
3. Robin van Persie
Robin Van Persie upon signing for Manchester United
The loss of Marc Overmars and Thierry Henry may have hurt Arsenal fans, but at least they lost them European giants on the other side of the continent. They lost Robin van Persie, by far their best and most important player at the time, to direct divisional rivals Manchester United. Whilst Henry had just had his worst season with the Gunners prior to his departure, van Persie had just had his best, scoring 37 goals in all competitions.
Naturally, he went to Manchester United and won the Golden Boot to help Sir Alex Ferguson win the Premier League title in his last season at Old Trafford. His next two seasons weren’t quite so impressive, and in 2015 he swapped Manchester for Istanbul, signing for Fenerbahce.
2. Ashley Cole
Like van Persie, Ashley Cole was snatched from Arsenal by a major Premier League rival. In fact, in Cole’s case, it was both a Premier League and London rival, in the form of Chelsea. There was a lot of anger and bitterness surrounding the move, and the England international was nicknamed ‘Cashley’, but regardless of what you think of Cole as a person, there can be no denying his talents as a player.
He broke into the Arsenal team at 18, and was an integral part of the Invincibles set up in his early 20’s. He joined Chelsea in 2006 after protracted negotiations, and went on to win both the Premier League and Champions League with the Blues, and was for a number of years the best left-back in the world. The 36-year-old is now playing in the MLS for LA Galaxy.
1. Cesc Fabregas
Cesc Fabregas: Arsenal’s greatest loss?
The biggest loss of Arsene Wenger’s reign to date has to be Cesc Fabregas. A World Cup and European Championship’s winner, Fabregas was Arsenal’s club captain and their most important player when he was sold to Barcelona. His departure was especially hard to take after the Gunners had spent eight years nurturing Fabregas, even sacrificing Patrick Vieira for his benefit as Wenger didn’t believe the two could play together.
The Spaniard ended up spending three seasons in La Liga, where he won five trophies, although Arsenal did have the option to bring him back to the Emirates in 2014. They probably should have done, as Fabregas has won two Premier League titles since returning to the Premier League with Chelsea, and is now ranked second in the Premier League’s all-time assists chart, trailing only Ryan Giggs.
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