Confirmed: Arsenal wasted huge transfer opportunity to replace departing star for net cost of just £5m

Arsenal have just confirmed the sale of Gabriel Martinelli to Al Hilal, leaving them short of depth in attack until the transfer window opens up again in January.

A frustrating summer ends with Arsenal arguably weaker in attack than they were last season, when it was already a clear area of concern, despite them going on to win the Premier League title.

Martinelli’s sale has gone through for a fee as high as £60m, according to BBC Sport, and that highlights just how foolish Arsenal were not to pay the £65m required to sign Antoine Semenyo earlier this year.

The market has exploded since then, with similar players like Morgan Rogers and Bradley Barcola moving for close to double that amount, so the £60m raised from offloading Martinelli probably won’t do them as much good now.

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However, if they’d just gone in and paid Semenyo’s £65m release clause (fee via BBC Sport‘s report at the time) they could then have sold Martinelli a few months later and majorly upgraded their left-hand side at a net cost of just £5m.

Antoine Semenyo is an Arsenal fan and surely would’ve joined

Semenyo was on fire for Bournemouth in the first half of last season, and he’s continued to shine since his big move to Man City.

The Ghana international scored ten goals for the Cherries and a further 11 for City last term, with his total of 21 putting him level with Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres’ final tally in all competitions.

It’s hard to understand why Arsenal didn’t move for this player who would’ve been such a great fit, and who surely would’ve been happy to join as he’s an Arsenal fan, according to the Athletic.

There was a report at the time from talkSPORT that AFC were considering Semenyo, but wanted to make a sale first, so perhaps there were financial restrictions holding them back.

Then again, we later heard that Arsenal had the finances possible for big names like Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez this summer, so something doesn’t quite add up there.

Arsenal need to be more aggressive in the transfer market

The lesson here is surely that Arsenal need to learn to be quicker and more aggressive in the transfer market.

Even if there’s some logic in waiting for a player sale to go through first, the north London giants clearly made the wrong call here and it might actually end up costing them more in the long run.

Similarly, they dithered with the Rogers transfer, allowing Chelsea to swoop in, and they now find themselves desperate for signings in an inflated market.

Just a few months on, £65m for Semenyo looks like amazing value for a world class player, and taking into account that they did eventually sell Martinelli in the same year, it’s a catastrophic decision that cost them an ideal replacement and upgrade for a net cost of just £5m.

It’s always easy to say these things with hindsight, of course, but Arsenal have to learn from this if they are to truly join the elite and put together a squad to end their Champions League heartache.