Andrea Berta’s biggest mission to win over Arsenal fans is not to sign a world-class striker and a winger, but to prove he knows how to sell players for decent money; you know, like Liverpool and Manchester City somehow always do.
We’re continuing our pessimistic tour of Arsenal’s summer sales, predicting five more that Berta will inevitably screw up in classic Edu Gaspar style.
Jakub Kiwior – £35m
We might be looking at a club-record sale for a defender at Arsenal, which sounds good on paper. When you compare it to Liverpool getting the same for Jarell Quansah — which would rank sixth in their record departures list — not so good.
Clubs constantly cite other sales: ‘Player X cost this much, so our Player Y is worth that much too.’ Manchester United set an awkward precedent by overpaying for Rasmus Hojlund and now clubs are quoting similarly daft fees before a sale.
For example, Frankfurt reckon Hugo Ekitike is worth over £80m, so Leipzig are taking a similar stance with Benjamin Sesko, much to Mikel Arteta and Berta’s frustration.
If and when Liverpool sell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen for £35m, Arsenal must use that as a benchmark in Kiwior negotiations. He’s better than Quansah, more experienced — in the Premier League and significantly so internationally — and proven in two of Europe’s top five leagues.
This is Arsenal we’re talking about. It might become a benchmark, but we can’t see them getting more than £35m — unless Berta is an expert negotiator, which Edu Gaspar certainly wasn’t.
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Oleksandr Zinchenko – £10m
A genuine momentum-shifter when signed in 2022, Zinchenko was brilliant in his debut season but gradually fell down Arteta’s pecking order as the Spaniard began to prefer more defensively sound full-backs — or in other words, centre-backs playing at full-back.
Injury niggles have dogged Zinchenko’s three years at the Emirates, and he started just eight games in 2024/25. Being injury-prone and clearly unwanted means a technically world-class player could be available for peanuts.
Zinchenko cost Arsenal £32m from Manchester City, and there’s no chance they recoup that. In truth, we’d be shocked if Berta even gets half.
That’s not to say he’s not worth more — but we’ve been around long enough to know this has ‘£10m move abroad’ written all over it.
And obviously, after leaving for a pittance, Zinchenko will play 40+ games and become his new league’s best left-back, or an elite midfielder, which is what he actually wants to be.
Reiss Nelson – £8m
Nelson is a weird one. On the one hand, you’d think Arsenal should get around £20m for a homegrown winger who’s clearly good enough for a bottom-half Premier League team. On the other, he’s barely played thanks to a combination of injuries and the pecking order.
Would £8m represent good business for Arsenal? Absolutely not. But that’s kind of the whole point.
Ideally, the 25-year-old would have joined Fulham on loan last summer, established himself as a Premier League regular, then returned to north London to provide cover for Bukayo Saka or be sold for a tasty fee. Unfortunately, injuries had a big say in his year at Craven Cottage, and he’s now at a tricky stage in his career.
Having already thrived abroad — at Hoffenheim in 2018/19 and Feyenoord in 2021/22 — Nelson might fancy another foreign excursion, and that could be exactly what his career needs.
The Gunners should be looking for at least £15m for the winger, but will inevitably settle for about half that.
Karl Hein – £1m
Estonia’s No.1 and coming off the back of a decent season at Real Valladolid, it doesn’t look like Hein is being considered as David Raya’s back-up, with Kepa Arrizabalaga now being pursued.
Whoever picks up Hein this summer will be getting a very good goalkeeper for the price. We’re not entirely sure what his ceiling is value-wise, but we’re fairly confident Arsenal will under-sell and settle for around £1m. That’s £1m for a first-choice international who started 31 La Liga games last season.
Leandro Trossard – £12m
There’s only a year left on Trossard’s contract and Arsenal don’t feel under any pressure to sell — but they definitely would for the right price. Saudi Arabia could bail them out with £30m, and probably would if it were Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester City — but definitely not Arsenal.
They couldn’t shift Nicolas Pepe to the Saudi Pro League and ended up terminating his contract, while Thomas Partey will now walk for free after interest last year. At this stage, it seems the Saudi billionaires have done most of Arsenal’s rivals a favour — just not them.
Saudi interest in Trossard came too late last year, with clubs registering an interest after the English transfer window had closed, meaning the Gunners gave no real consideration to selling the Belgian.
This time around, they’ll probably accept a derisory £12m just to avoid losing him for nothing in 2026.
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