The media are waxing lyrical over a once-£74 million player who Arsenal let go this summer, following an excellent attacking display in his side’s latest league game.
Players sold or loaned out by Arsenal in summer transfer window
While Edu Gaspar and the Gunners recruitment team brought in a host of key new additions – including David Raya, Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino, Neto and Raheem Sterling – they were equally productive in shipping players out.
Mikel Arteta gave the green-light for Edu to offload Cedric Soares and Mohamed Elneny first, with Arsenal deciding not to renew their contracts and let the duo leave on a free in late June.
Following Soares and Elneny, Karl Hein, Mika Biereth, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Reiss Nelson, Fabio Vieira, Aaron Ramsdale, Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith-Rowe also sealed exits from the Emirates Stadium – either on loan or permanently.
The transfers have saved Arsenal quite a bit of cash in terms of their wage bill, with Nketiah’s sale to Crystal Palace and Nelson’s loan move to Fulham alone chalking off around £100,000-per-week.
This will have allowed the north Londoners to reinvest that money in the wages of key new arrivals like Sterling, who is actually thought to pocket far under £163,000-per-week at his new club, as Arsenal are believed to be paying way less than 50 per cent of his £325,000-per-week take-home at Chelsea as part of their loan deal (Miguel Delaney).
|
Raheem Sterling’s all-time stats for Chelsea |
|
|---|---|
|
Goals |
19 |
|
Assists |
12 |
|
Yellow cards |
13 |
|
Red cards |
0 |
|
Minutes played |
5,335 |
Of course, there is the potential for any of the aforementioned departees to thrive away from Arsenal, and one of them is left-back Nuno Tavares.
The left-back sealed a loan-with-obligation-to-buy switch to Serie A side Lazio, which will become permanent for around £7.5 million next summer, as Arsenal wave goodbye to the Portuguese who has seemingly played his last game for Arteta.
While Tavares has been called “extraordinary” on some of his loan spells away from Arsenal, but Edu and co still elected to part company with the 24-year-old who was far down Arteta’s pecking order.
Tavares, since departing London Colney, has actually impressed so far – which has attracted praise from Italian media. The former Benfica starlet, who once even commanded a seismic £74 million release clause at the Primeira Liga side, bagged two assists on his Lazio debut at the weekend in their 2-2 draw against AC Milan.
La Gazzetta dello Sport heaped praise on Tavarez following his dazzling attacking display, even comparing him to ex-left-back stalwarts Aleksandar Kolarov and Senad Lulic, who starred in the position for years.
Tavares’ debut against Milan has seemingly excited the national press in Italy, with La Gazzetta claiming the “music has changed” around him, and they insist he could be Lazio’s left-back answer for years to come.
