Mikel Arteta has made a number of excellent signings at Arsenal over the last six years, although he’s also undoubtedly made a handful of mistakes in the transfer market.
The Spaniard has overseen the Gunners’ rise from mid-table mediocrity to being perennial title challengers in his tenure, and he’s now looking to cap this off with a piece of major silverware.
This trajectory isn’t achieved without recruiting a number of excellent players, with the likes of Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes all brought in under Arteta’s jurisdiction.
Inevitably, however, there have been certain signings that haven’t materialised in the way that he’d have hoped.
Mikel Arteta failed with Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko signings
In the summer of 2022, Arsenal signed Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City.
Signed for a combined £75 million, the two former City stars drastically improved the Gunners’ level in the opening six months of their spells in North London.
However, things turned sour on both fronts relatively quickly.
Jesus suffered an ACL injury in January, and this merely capped off a miserable couple of years for the Brazilian, whose career has ultimately been derailed by fitness issues.
Meanwhile, Zinchenko left for Nottingham Forest on loan on deadline day, and will leave Arsenal for free next summer when his contract expires.
Speaking on the Beyond the Back Four Podcast, transfer expert Graeme Bailey blamed Arteta for ultimately failing with these two specific signings.
“Let’s not forget when Arteta first came in, he was responsible for a few additions that have recently stank the place out,” Bailey said.
“Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus have not been good returns, and they were very costly signings.”
The case for Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus being good Arsenal signings
While Arsenal will ultimately lose both players for free and will not have won anything as a result of their impact, neither were abject failures at the Emirates.
Jesus lit North London up with his initial form in a red and white shirt, providing Arteta’s team with a number of exceptional performances that took the Gunners from being a team competing for the top four to a team competing for the Premier League title.
Meanwhile, Zinchenko changed the way Arsenal built up from the back and this was extremely successful in his first 18 months in N5.
The Ukrainian’s defensive deficiencies were then exposed, but his early impact will not be forgotten.
In retrospect, spending this amount on these two players was a mistake, but at the time they made Arsenal a lot better and seemed to be worth the investment.
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