Arsenal failed in transfers for European champion and £88m star who joined Chelsea
Arsenal will hope not to replicate their previous form in transfer windows this summer
Arsenal have missed out on a number of key transfer targets over the years(Image: Simon Stacpoole/Mark Leech Sports Photography/Getty Images)
Fresh off ending their 22-year wait to reclaim the Premier League title last season, Arsenal and manager Mikel Arteta are determined not to stand still. The Spaniard has pledged that the champions will strengthen over the summer, yet the transfer window at the Emirates Stadium has had a quiet and methodical start.
Aside from converting defender Piero Hincapie’s successful loan from Bayer Leverkusen into a permanent deal, the Gunners’ sole new face is French goalkeeper Illan Meslier, who arrived on a free transfer.
However, the club’s summer business is far from finished. Arsenal remains actively in the market for elite talent, with a particular focus placed on bolstering their quality in midfield and attack.
As sporting director Andrea Berta and Arteta work to acquire new arrivals, they will be desperate to avoid the painful memories that defined previous transfer windows in north London.
Mykhailo Mudryk
Arsenal were originally at the front of the queue for Mykhailo Mudryk back in 2023, but found it difficult to reach an agreement on a price with Shakhtar Donetsk. The Gunners submitted three offers for the winger, yet all were turned down as they declined to satisfy the club’s £85m (€100m) asking price, including add-ons.
Mudryk remained keen on a transfer to the Emirates and frequently took to social media to show he was keeping tabs on their fixtures. The failure to reach an agreement prompted Chelsea to resurrect talks with the Ukrainian club.
The Blues rapidly overtook their city rivals in the negotiation process owing to their willingness to put £26.5m in add-ons on top of an initial £62m fee, something the Gunners refused to match. Despite his early promise, Mudryk’s spell in west London has been nothing short of a disaster.
The winger struggled to nail down a regular starting berth during his first two seasons before being suspended after returning a positive doping test in December 2024. In April of this year, Mudryk was handed a four-year ban from English football until 2028, a ruling he has since appealed against.
Thomas Lemar
Arsenal came agonisingly close to shattering the British transfer record with their proposed £92m swoop for Thomas Lemar in 2017. At the time, playing for Monaco, the Frenchman had agreed to join Arsenal on deadline day, with the deal hinging on the Gunners’ sale of Alexis Sanchez to Manchester City.
Offloading the Chilean would have freed up funds for Arsene Wenger to push through the capture of Lemar. However, the transfer fell apart at the eleventh hour when Lemar, who was due to link up with the France national team later that same day, was not informed by Monaco about the switch in time.
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The breakdown in communication led to Lemar spending another season in France while Sanchez remained at Arsenal despite the agreement with City. The midfielder moved to Atletico Madrid 12 months later and has been there ever since, aside from a season-long loan spell at Girona during the previous campaign.
Gonzalo Higuain
The former Argentine striker is a name Arsenal supporters have become all too familiar with. Gonzalo Higuain was long touted as a potential Gunners signing, and it came close to becoming a reality in 2013 when the club reportedly reached an agreement with the player.
Anticipated to set the north London outfit back more than £20m, the deal collapsed when Higuain opted to put pen to paper with Napoli on a contract worth £130,000 per week. Arsene Wenger subsequently confirmed the transfer never materialised.
The Frenchman said, “We were working on two or three targets, and Higuain was one of them. It didn’t come off in the end, but that doesn’t take anything away from his quality. Napoli took advantage of that at the right moment.
“As we know, in the end, Real Madrid sold two great players, one of them went to Napoli, one went to Arsenal. So, it’s 1-1 on that front.” Higuain hung up his boots in 2022 following a stint with Inter Miami.
Juan Mata
Seeking a creative midfielder to fill the void left by the exits of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, Juan Mata emerged as a priority target for Arsenal. Yet the Spaniard ultimately joined Chelsea in 2011 despite reportedly having already agreed personal terms with the Gunners.
According to Dick Law, Arsenal’s former transfer negotiator, the club were deterred by Mata’s £37m package, which combined the transfer fee and his wages. Speaking to The Athletic, Law said: “Then we waited. Juan definitely wanted to come to Arsenal; there was no question about that.”
When questioned whether Arsenal ever contemplated paying over the odds for a player, he clarified: “I don’t think that calculation ever entered our equation. We didn’t have the money to say, ‘We’ll spend a bit more.'”
Mata proceeded to spend two and a half years at Chelsea before moving to Manchester United in 2014, and departed after eight years. Presently without a club, the 38-year-old most recently featured for Melbourne Victory.
Demba Ba
Demba Ba came close to moving across the city from Chelsea to Arsenal in 2013, but revealed such a transfer was blocked by Jose Mourinho. During his second stint managing the Blues, the Real Madrid boss rejected Ba’s request to leave Stamford Bridge due to a lack of playing time, given the arrival of Samuel Eto’o.
Reflecting on the circumstances, Ba, 41, told FourFourTwo: “I was really close (to joining Arsenal). I was at my house in Paris, having a day off, when I got a phone call from Arsene Wenger – he asked if I’d come back to London for a medical.
“I woke up at 9am on transfer deadline day, jumped on a train, got to London, but then it never happened. Arsenal made a couple of signings on the same day (Mesut Ozil and Emiliano Viviano), and Mourinho chose to block the deal, as he didn’t want to help make one of Chelsea’s competitors stronger.”
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