Arsenal have operated smoothly in the transfer market in recent years, but this came after a period of disastrous signings and an evident lack of a clear plan.
Arsenal’s final years under Arsene Wenger, and Unai Emery’s spell at the club, were overshadowed by uncertainty off the pitch. The Kroenke family did not gain full ownership of the Gunners until 2018, and there was chaos at executive level.
Director Ivan Gazidis departed and was replaced by Raul Sanllehi, who was then dismissed after playing a controversial part in some transfer deals.
The arrival of Edu Gaspar, and later Mikel Arteta in 2019, helped change Arsenal’s fortunes for the better. Arteta is leading his team at the top of the Premier League, and Edu has helped him build a squad of top-quality young players on long-term contracts.
During Arsenal’s years of struggle, Wenger took a lot of blame for some of the transfer failures at the time, but Ian Wright blamed one other senior figure instead.
Ian Wright blamed Dick Law for Arsenal transfer failures under Arsene Wenger
Speaking via The Express in 2017, after Arsenal finished outside the top four for the first time in 20 years, Wright slammed transfer chief Dick Law, revealing a lack of professionalism when it came to securing big-money signings.
“Wenger wouldn’t get Griezmann. Why would Griezmann come to Arsenal over any [rival] teams in the current climate?” Wright stated of Antoine Griezmann, who nearly moved to Arsenal in 2013 but lost patience as they stalled over a deal.
“Whether it’s Arsene’s fault, whether it’s the people above him, Arsenal are not your first destination if you’re Antoine Griezmann, if you’re Kylian Mbappe.
“It’s not realistic that Arsenal will get them. There’s so much more to be done before we can go for those players.
“I’m hearing that Dick Law is going to leave at the end of the season and rightly so. I’m hearing that he was the one [to blame] for [not signing] Suarez.
“He was the one who I’m hearing that we went to sign Ozil and he missed the plane to get him, for Christ sake.
“This is somebody who’s trying to bring recruitment in to make the club better. That’s the incompetence that we’re dealing with.
“How can [we bid] £40m and a pound for Luis Suarez who went to Barcelona for £75m and made Barcelona better. How does that get through the different layers of management?
“For that to actually come out into the public domain. There’s massive problems at Arsenal at the moment.”
How Edu Gaspar fixed Arsenal’s transfer market incompetency
Arsenal’s transfer strategies were a mess under previous regimes, with sub-standard players signed, and gaps often left in the squad by the club hierarchy.
High-profile transfer chases for players such as Luis Suarez ended in embarrassing fashion through ineptitude behind the scenes, but it has been a different story in the last few seasons.
Edu and Arteta undertake a thorough scouting process when it comes to transfers now, and also judge signings based on their character, profile and tactical fit. This has seen the likes of Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Magalhaes join and succeed at the Emirates.
Arsenal are unrecognisable off the pitch when it comes to the way they operate with transfers now, and Edu even won an award for his work as a director. The days of transfer frustration and amateurish operations with Dick Law at the helm ended in 2017, and Wright’s fears about Arsenal’s transfers are now a distant memory.