“We sold him for a chicken change and He has scored 28-goals in just 15-matches, we regret this decision…Henceforth, we won’t sell any young talents anymore”: Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke has clearly explained his biggest regret in January transfer window, ready to activate buy-back clause for 17-year-old phenomenal striker
Mikel Arteta has acknowledged it. Nuno Santo acknowledged it in midweek. The whole world knows what the issue is at Arsenal Football Club right now.
2024 saw a progressive year for the Gunners. The back end of last season was met with one defeat as they not only scored goals galore but were resolute defensively, ensuring the team’s title challenge went down to the Premier League’s final day.
They scored six at West Ham, five against Burnley, four versus Newcastle and six against Sheffield United during a run of four devastating matches at the back end of February and the beginning of March.
How much difference a year makes? Now, the club can’t buy a goal for love nor money. Mikel Merino’s double is the only two goals Arsenal have scored over their last three games, subsequently losing 1-0 to West Ham and then playing out a 0-0 stalemate with top-four hopefuls Nottingham Forest.
So, where’s it all gone wrong?
How Arteta has tried to revive Arsenal’s attack in 2025
Coming into the winter transfer window Arsenal knew they were a body light. Bukayo Saka’s hamstring injury suffered against Crystal Palace back in November ensured they were without their golden boy.
Still, Jason Ayto – their interim sporting director – and the club’s ownership didn’t appear to be in a great hurry. That was, until, Gabriel Jesus was ruled out for the season having sustained an ACL injury in the FA Cup.
With the Brazilian down and out, Arsenal now arguably needed two attackers. Rumours came and went. A move for Alexander Isak was never going to materialise and it was thought as though getting long-term target Benjamin Sesko out of RB Leipzig in January was going to be a tough ask. They may still pursue the Slovenian in the summer but that will be too little too late as far as 2024/25 is concerned.
The window ended with no one arriving. Fans groaned, fans moaned, fans gesticulated aggressively at the Emirates Stadium. Then came the biggest blow of all. Kai Havertz. The man who Arteta claimed that “his robustness and his availability is unbelievable.”
It would appear as though that was a cursed comment. Just a week later, during Arsenal’s warm weather camp in Dubai, the German suffered a hamstring injury. He’s now out for the season too.
All of a sudden, with Gabriel Martinelli also on the sidelines, the Gunners were now down to bare bones. So, what’s been the solution? Arguably, there hasn’t been one.
Against Leicester, it was a front three of Ethan Nwaneri, Leandro Trossard and Raheem Sterling. Nwaneri was a menace, providing chance after chance and rattling the post in the second half. Trossard was ineffective up top and Sterling was withdrawn for Mikel Merino. Imagine that.
Merino, however, was the saviour. He scored twice courtesy of delicious assists from Nwaneri and Trossard. Since then, Arsenal have been toothless.
The idea of fielding the Spaniard up top, a player with a similar wirey build to Havertz certainly makes sense but he’s not a centre-forward, far from it.
Against Nottingham Forest, we even saw left-back Riccardo Calafiori drifting into central pockets in offensive zones, notably rattling the woodwork with a fine first-half effort. His erratic defending, however, saw him withdrawn at the break.
So, this will probably be the story for the rest of the season. How they must rue selling some of their finest Hale End talent? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, of course, but there’s one who now happens to be outscoring the aforementioned Isak…
Arsenal must regret selling Hale End superstar
Hale End has proven to be a consistent production line for Arsenal in recent years. It was Saka and Emile Smith Rowe who saved Arteta when he first arrived in N5 and now he’s getting the same level of performance from two further Hale Enders; Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Sadly, the Gunners have already cashed in on a player making greater strides than both of them this term.
That happens to be Mika Biereth. You’ve all heard of him now, but you probably didn’t while he was learning his trade in the academy set-up.
Signed from Fulham, the centre-forward walked straight into the U21 side where he scored 12 times in 26 outings. Those numbers are hardly awe-inspiring.
There were a number of loan spells during that time, featuring for Dutch side RKC Waalwijk and enjoying a fruitful time at Motherwell and Sturm Graz last term, scoring 15 times and supplying nine assists across his spells with both clubs in 2023/24.
Truth be told, Arsenal have been pretty rubbish at loaning out players and growing their value but they were able to do so on this occasion, eventually selling the Denmark youth international last summer to Sturm Graz for just £4m.
After a first half of the year where he lit up Austrian football once again, bagging 11 league goals in 16 games and two Champions League goals, he was on the move again.
Over the winter, Monaco came calling, paying £10.8m for his signature which looks like an absolute bargain considering his form now.
In the words of former GOAL reporter Robin Bairner, the 22-year-old’s “form continues to be absolutely crazy” having scored ten times in seven games including three remarkable hat-tricks.
That makes him the joint-most prolific player in Europe’s top five leagues throughout 2025. He’s been so good that he’s outscoring the aforementioned Isak and Liverpool’s man of the moment, Mo Salah.
