Arsenal have, in recent years, been a club that failed to get the most from a player in the transfer window, and selling Konstantinos Mavropanos is arguably their worst example yet.
According to the Athletic, the Gunners will sell the Greek international for £4.5m to VfB Stuttgart this summer. Whilst Arsenal will make some profit on the sale of Mavropanos, reports indicate that the defender could be sold on again for £21m.
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Indeed, Arsenal messed up in allowing Stuttgart to sign Mavropanos for such a cheap fee, with the Bundesliga side likely to sell on the 24-year-old defender for a huge profit in the transfer window and also leave the Gunners with one less quality defender.
The deal is one that, once again, reflects poorly on Arsenal, and here are five more transfer deals the Gunners have been involved in that eventually left the north London side looking blue in the face.
Alex Song
The 2012 summer transfer window was highlighted by the sale of club captain Robin van Persie, who left for Manchester United and left the Gunners without a talismanic striker to lead the line. Yet there was also another big sale in this period, that being Alex Song to FC Barcelona.
Just like with Van Persie, the season before had been Song’s best in an Arsenal shirt, with the Cameroon international bagging an incredible 14 assists in all competitions, only for the defensive midfielder to move to Barcelona and essentially lose all momentum in his career.
Shkodran Mustafi
From one bizarre sale to one acquisition that has gone down in Arsenal folklore as arguably their worst ever signing, that being German international Shkodran Mustafi, who at £35m is one of the biggest wastes of money the north London side have ever put out.
We all know why this transfer was a failure. Mustafi was regularly at fault for mistakes at the back which cost Arsenal crucial points, and it’s not too surprising that the Gunners never finished in the top four when the now-Levante defender was at the club.
Lucas Perez
Another player who joined Arsenal in the same window as Mustafi was Lucas Perez, a striker who spent so little time with the north London side that you probably forgot that he was even with the Gunners until now.
The Spaniard spent just one year at the Emirates Stadium before moving back to Deportivo on loan and then eventually heading to West Ham on a permanent deal, with Perez now at La Liga side Cadiz CF.
Serge Gnabry
Another classic example of Arsenal underselling a promising talent, Serge Gnabry left north London for a reported £7m in what was one of the worst moves Arsene Wenger made in his final years as manager of the club.
As we know, Gnabry has since gone on to become one of the best attackers in world football, with the winger one of Bayern Munich’s most important players and a forward who will be key for Germany in the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Willian
Everyone and their mother seemed to predict Willian to fail at Arsenal, and after just 12 months at the club, the Gunners had mutually agreed to terminate the Brazilian’s contract after a horrific single season at the Emirates.
Willian infuriated supporters on social media for his lacklustre performances, with the Brazilian scoring just one goal during his time with Arsenal and becoming something of a representation of the disastrous campaign the Gunner endured that year.
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