“We wasted a whole lot of money to sign him, but now it’s time to release him and let him go”- Arsenal Sporting Director Edu Gasper has told Mikel Arteta to bin £35M Arsenal star who’s earning far more than even David Raya

“We wasted a whole lot of money to sign him, but now it’s time to release him and let him go”- Arsenal Sporting Director Edu Gasper has told Mikel Arteta to bin £35M Arsenal star who’s earning far more than even David Raya

‘Arsenal should get rid of a forgotten man who deserves more’- Edu Gasper

The experienced star should leave the Emirates.
Arsenal are in fantastic form in the Premier League, and while they may not win the title, they look set to compete for many years to come.

Mikel Arteta and Edu have built a fantastic team from the rubble of a disappointed Unaia Emery team in recent years, with good transfers playing a key role in the rebuild, as well as the development of youth.

Bukayo Saka, perhaps the club’s most valuable player, came from Hale End, and before William Saliba, Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice started playing alongside him, it was Emile Smith Rowe.

The young Englishman was undoubtedly Saka’s dynamic partner, so much so that the two sang a song together, and although injuries have hampered his development, he may still have a bright future in N5, although it is surprising that a player who currently earns more than him is rarely used in the squad, given that he has so much potential.

Emile Smith Rowe’s impact at Arsenal
Smith Rowe made his debut for Arsenal at the end of the UEFA Europa League match against Vorskla Poltava in September 2018. However, he only made 12 appearances in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons, and his real breakthrough came in the second half of Arteta’s first full season at the club, 2020/21.

In all competitions, the Croydon-born gem has made 33 appearances, four goals and seven assists, and was named Arsenal’s Supporters’ Player of the Year in 2021.

The following season, he further improved his goal tally, scoring 11 own goals and two assists in just 37 appearances and was described by Arteta as a “key player” for the Gunners.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan for the ‘prolific’ striker, as scout Jacek Kulig described him, but due to a number of injuries, retirements and problems over the past two seasons, he has only played 552 minutes of football in 30 games for the Gunners since the start of last season.

It was a tough defeat for a player who only a few seasons ago looked capable of playing a similar role to Saka in the new Arsenal team, but as Arteta has started to give him more chances again this season, the “exceptional” Hale End gem, as Paul Robinson described him, could break into the starting line-up again.

But in the meantime, the club may want to offer him a new contract, as his current salary of £40,000 a week, even taking into account his injury problems, is far below expectations, at least compared to the salary of another player who has no future in the first eleven.

How much money has Mohamed Elneny cost Arsenal?
First of all, it should be pointed out that Mohamed Elneny is quite popular with the fans because of his obvious love for the club, and while this is admirable, his irrelevance to the team makes his contract situation quite strange.

The Egyptian international was signed from FC Basel for around £5 million in January 2016, but has only made 161 appearances for the club, playing around 9520 minutes of competitive football.

He earned £30,000 per week in his first four seasons at the club, before spending the 2019/20 season on loan with Turkish club Süper Lig Beşiktaş, who then paid his wages for that season.

After returning to Arsenal, he began earning £50,000 per week until he signed an extension in February 2023, increasing his salary for half of last season and again this season to around £55,000 per week, meaning the 31-year-old has earned around £15.8 million in wages from Arsenal so far, and will earn more at the end of the season.

Combined with the £5 million transfer fee, that means North London has spent a total of £20.8 million on Elneny, which equates to around £2,184 per minute or £129,000 per game.

A 98-man national team was not bad for the Gunners, not at all. However, his lack of playing time during eight years at the club shows that he is not very important either, and it seems strange that he earns 15 thousand pounds a week more than Smith Rowe, who could still become an integral part of Arsenal’s future.
Ultimately, the club must decide whether it is time to move on, and given the club’s current trajectory, it must decide that it is.