Saints have made and saved a good amount of money thanks to a transfer blunder by Arsenal.
Arsenal are no strangers to signing injured players on loan for no apparent reason. An injured Kim Kallstrom was signed on loan back in 2014 and the Swede managed just one start for the Gunners.
Denis Suarez was another one brought in by Unai Emery last season and the Spaniard spent more time in the treatment room than he did on the pitch.
Just when you thought Arsenal had learnt their lesson, Mikel Arteta sanctioned a loan move for Cedric Soares in January and it’s seeming more and more likely that the Portuguese international will end his loan deal without playing a single game for the Gunners.
The Telegraph reported two months ago that Arsenal had paid £1 million as a loan fee to Southampton and had agreed to cover all of Cedric’s £65,000-a-week until the end of his loan spell.
That’s almost 22 weeks which means that the Gunners will fork out close to £1.5 million on his wages despite Cedric potentially not featuring for the Gunners in any competition.
Arsenal had Hector Bellerin coming back to full fitness and Ainsley Maitland-Niles capable of playing at right full-back. Shkodran Mustafi has played in that position before for club and country while Arteta has used Sokratis Papastathopoulos there as well.
Kieran Tierney and Sead Kolasinac were both expected to be in action by mid-March while Bukayo Saka has done extremely well in an unnatural left-back position.
Arsenal were well covered in both full-back positions which makes the deal to bring in an injured player baffling. The transfer blunder has unnecessarily cost the Gunners about £2.5 million but their loss is Southampton’s gain and the Saints’ board are probably laughing at the deal now.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
