Despite a slight stumble against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday that wasn't entirely their own fault, Arsenal have started their Premier League campaign in reasonably impressive form, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa.
However, happenings off the pitch have been a little more mixed. While the signings of Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino certainly improve the squad, some fans feel they aren't enough, a feeling only compounded by the latter's recent injury.
That said, Edu Gaspar and Co did do one final piece of business on deadline day by bringing in Raheem Sterling on a season-long loan from Chelsea, which could prove to be a masterstroke if Mikel Arteta can coach the best back out of him like he did when the pair were at Manchester City.
Nevertheless, as exciting as the Englishman's arrival is, he's still worth considerably less than a previous deadline day signing when adjusted to 2024 money.
Sterling's move to Arsenal
It may have taken quite literally the entire summer, but Arsenal finally brought in some attacking reinforcements in the shape of Sterling in what feels like more of an opportunity signing than one planned out months in advance.
That said, the reason why Edu and Co decided to bring in the Englishman no longer matters, and while there may be some detractors out there, bringing the former City ace to the Emirates for a season-long loan feels like a great bit of business.
For example, at his best, the 29-year-old is a force of nature, and his time at the Etihad, in which he scored 131 goals and provided 73 assists in 339 games, is a testament to that.
Appearances
129
339
81
Goals
23
131
19
Assists
18
73
12
Goal Involvements per Match
0.31
0.60
0.38
Moreover, while he hasn't been at his electric best in West London over the last couple of seasons, he has still been relatively effective and perhaps a little more impactful than people have given him credit for.
For example, in 43 appearances for the Blues last season, he scored ten goals and provided eight assists, equating to an impressive average of a goal involvement every 2.38 games.
Sterling is not going to win Arsenal the league, but he is certainly a brilliant addition to Arteta's squad. However, he's not the most valuable deadline-day signing the club have made; that title belongs to someone else.
Mesut Özil's valuation in 2024
Yes, the player in question is former Arsenal star Mesut Özil, who famously joined the club from Real Madrid for around £42m on deadline day 2013.
Now, the German's fee is already more than Sterling's recent valuation of €46m – £39m – from Football Transfers, but it is significantly more when we adjust the fee for the rapid inflation football has experienced in the 11 years since the transfer has happened, and we can do that thanks to the clever people at Totally Money.
Totally Money have taken the 100 most expensive transfers of all time across each season since 1992 in Europe's top five leagues. Armed with plenty of historical financial data they have calculated what footballers of yesteryear would be worth in the present day after taking into account the remarkable rate of inflation.
They have worked out that in today's market, the Gunners would have paid a fee in the region of £77.5m for the former Real star's services, which would make him the club's second most expensive signing of all time, behind only Declan Rice, and while that's a massive amount of money, he still would have been worth it.
For example, while his time in North London did eventually come to a rather unsavoury end, when he was at his best, the Gelsenkirchen-born midfielder was a simply mesmerizing footballer to watch and undoubtedly one of the best passers in the game.
During his time with the Gunners, the "fantastic" ten, as dubbed by Ian Wright, scored 44 goals and provided 75 assists in just 254 appearances, meaning he averaged a goal involvement every 2.13 games for what was, at the time, a fairly average side.
Moreover, he helped the club end their eight-year trophy drought with the 2014 FA Cup and left the club with three more under his belt, along with two Community Shields to boot.
Ultimately, while he didn't quite achieve everything fans were hoping he would at Arsenal, Ozil will go down as one of the club's most gifted players in recent history and quite possibly their best deadline-day signing ever.
Arsenal sold amazing star for £540k, now he's worth far more than Sterling
The talented attacker would be a valuable squad player for Arteta.
ByJack Salveson HolmesSep 3, 2024
