Exclusive: Fabrizio Romano remarks on risky Arsenal transfer system under Arteta
The termination of the contracts of several high-profile players while Mikel Arteta was the manager at Arsenal was considered by the expert in player transfers, Fabrizio Romano, to be a somewhat dangerous strategy for the club.
Romano reviewed the most recent of those contract terminations in the most recent issue of his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
Nicolas Pepe’s deal was terminated, which allowed him to move from Arsenal to Trabzonspor on a free transfer without having to pay a transfer fee. Romano wrote about this topic.
It is hardly surprising that the Ivory Coast international has now been allowed to leave Arsenal, even though it is a bit of a bold statement to green light the move without even receiving a fee for the player.
The Ivory Coast international was Arsenal’s record signing when he joined the club from Lille in 2019, but he never lived up to expectations at the Emirates Stadium.
Romano believes that the club didn’t really have much of a choice with Pepe, even though he agrees that it’s not an ideal approach from a financial point of view.
This has happened in the past at Arsenal with Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but Romano feels that the club didn’t really have much of a choice with Pepe.
According to Romano’s article, “Ideally, I’m sure Arsenal would have liked to bring in a fee for Pepe, who was their record signing back in 2019, but in the end his contract was terminated by the club, and it’s not the first time we’ve seen them take this decision since Mikel Arteta became manager, with other big names like Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also leaving in the same way.”
His further comments were as follows: “I think in some circumstances it’s the only option to move on and let the player try different experience, while the club can also save money by reducing these players’ high pay…
There are some scenarios, such as this one, in which Arsenal had no other choice but to resort to this option because there was just no other way to accomplish their goals.
Exclusive: Fabrizio Romano remarks on risky Arsenal transfer system under Arteta