Arsenal may have made a huge mistake after letting Calum Chambers leave for Aston Villa for just £2m in a shock deal that appeared to come out of nowhere.
The defender had just six months left on his contract, meaning the Gunners were forced into a sale or risk losing him for nothing.
But it could have been different had Arsenal triggered a clause in his contract that extended his deal by another 12 months.
However, according to The Athletic, that never happened after the deadline for doing so passed in December.
While Chambers was nothing more than a bit-part player at the Emirates, Arsenal would have had more control over what they could have done with the Englishman.
A loan, which would have included a fee, until the end of the season would have been likely had the clause been triggered.
That would lead to the summer where clubs could have signed Chambers on a permanent transfer as he entered the final 12 months of his contract.
But that never transpired with the former Southampton star holding all the cards and preventing Arsenal from having the ability to dictate the situation.
It led to a move to Aston Villa for what can only be surmised as loose change in terms of Premier League transfer fees.
Arsenal’s outgoings have left much to be desired in recent seasons since Edu took charge of transfers at the Emirates.
Since his arrival at the club in 2019, the biggest transfer fee that the Gunners have received was for Alex Iwobi for a respectable £28m to Everton.
Selling Joe Willock for £25m to Newcastle can be described as a success too, but there have been several departures that have not benefitted Arsenal.
Shkodran Mustafi, Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Sead Kolasinac and Aaron Ramsey were all allowed to leave on free transfers, though the latter was down to his contract expiring.
Arsenal have also struggled to get rid of players permanently after Arteta ostracised the likes of Lucas Torreira, William Saliba and Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
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None are expected to have a long-term future in north London but selling them on has proved difficult.
On the other side of the coin, the Gunners have been happy to splash the cash as they look to reassert themselves as a top four side.
Just last summer nearly £150m was spent on the likes of Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale as Arteta looks to lower the overall age of the squad.
And the spending is not expected to stop ahead of this summer’s transfer window with big bids expected but convincing the best players to move to the Emirates has proved difficult after already missing out on Dusan Vlahovic, who joined Juventus this month.
