‘Why can Arsenal not sell like Manchester City? They’ve made nearly £100million from selling youngsters this summer!’
These are questions that have circulated in the wake of Cole Palmer’s £45million switch to Chelsea which has left Arsenal, who confirmed the £34.4million sale of Folarin Balogun to Arsenal on Wednesday, under a bit of pressure. There had been emphasis of sporting director Edu doing as much as he could to improve the club’s reputation in the market regarding outgoings.
This has, to some degree, been achieved with profits made on the aforementioned Balogun, Matt Turner and Auston Trusty. Should Nottingham Forest activate the reported £12million buy-option in Nuno Tavares’ loan after a £2million loan fee then his value will have been doubled after two seasons.
Granit Xhaka was sold for £21.5million, more than half what the Gunners paid seven seasons ago, to Bayer Leverkusen in a very impressive deal. Yet despite all of this, Manchester City have sold four of their academy projects and made more money than Arsenal this summer.
Certainly, this gives me reason to empathise with why people have a critical view still regarding sales. However, it ends swiftly when taking a step back and considering the context of the sales between the clubs.
Palmer, James Trafford, Carlos Borges and Shea Charles will earn City a reported combined £96.2million if all add-ons in their deals are met. Outside of add-ons, they’ve banked £77.5million in guaranteed fees.
Think back to City players in the past decade who have made the step from the youth to the senior level and made more than 30 appearances for the club. Before reading on, give yourself a moment to think about it.
The obvious candidate is Phil Foden who is without a doubt the best thing to come through the club in the modern era. Cole Palmer looked to be heading toward more chances but has now made the switch to Chelsea.
Beyond Foden, though, we have a small group. Rico Lewis has 15 Premier League appearances and 24 across all competitions but suddenly minutes have been very hard to come by.
The other notable names that have been quickly forgotten are Eric Garcia and Kelechi Iheanacho. The Spaniard made 35 appearances across all competitions before leaving on a free transfer (yes, City have lost players for nothing too) for Barcelona, and Iheanacho played plenty in the league before leaving for Leicester for a reported £25million fee.
The player with more appearances and heading back to the start of that past decade timeline is, of course, Micah Richards, making 245 appearances across all competitions.
Beyond this handful though, especially in more recent times, very few make it into the senior setup before leaving. Arsenal is very different and the list to make plenty of appearances in the first team is far longer and there’s good reason for that.
Are you ready? Here they are: Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock, Emi Martinez, Hector Bellerin, Alex Iwobi, Jack Wilshere, Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs, Francis Coquelin, Johan Djourou and Nicklas Bendtner.
This is of course from the past decade; go back further and there are countless more, famously breaking into both Arsene Wenger and George Graham’s famously successful sides. Some of the players in the above list were bought from outside and spent at least a year in the academy too but this is similar to plenty on Man City’s list.
The key difference here is that when Arsenal produce young players they have a clearer pathway into the first team than Man City’s do. The volume of appearances on the above list are also well beyond the 30-mark for the most part and highlight the success of the work done with the youngest.
This has given players like Ethan Nwaneri, whom Man City were interested in signing, a reason to sign a professional contract with the club instead of being tempted to the Etihad Stadium or Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea also keen. Folarin Balogun even decided to renew, but sadly the pathway didn’t emerge and Arsenal benefitted with a potential record sale depending on whether the sell-on clause benefits the side in the long term.
In addition to Nwaneri, there’s hope for the likes of Reuell Walters, Lino Sousa, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Amario Cozier-Duberry and so on. Arsenal may not be able to sell their young stars for massive financial benefit, although that said Balogun, Martinez, Iwobi and Szczesny all earned the Gunners a serious figure at the time of their departures.
However, whilst the focus for City has proven to be perhaps prioritising the financial benefit to recoup funds from their youth, at Arsenal it is about promoting that talent and finding the stars of tomorrow like Saka and keeping hold of them. Despite the rumours, turning down an approach for Emile Smith Rowe from Chelsea where City accepted it for Palmer only hammered this home further.
