'Unbelievable' player says he took a 'significant pay cut' just to leave Arsenal on deadline day
Arsenal fans hoped for new signings on transfer deadline day, but it was all about outgoings.
The Gunners’ dream of signing Julian Alvarez was crushed after the Argentine refused to make the move back to the Premier League.
That leaves Arsenal short of options in attack, especially as they ended up offloading several attackers in recent days.
One of them is Gabriel Jesus.
Gabriel Jesus says he accepted a pay cut to leave Arsenal and join Barcelona
Jesus was one of Arsenal’s highest earners.
The Gunners signed the ‘unbelievable‘ Brazil international from then-champions Manchester City in a deal worth £45 million. He was the superstar signing for them in that window.
Arsenal made Jesus their highest earner at the time, paying him a whopping £265,000 a week.
Andrea Berta wanted to get that figure out of his wage bill in this window, and after links to several clubs, the Italian found a breakthrough.
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Arsenal struck an £8.5 million-plus-add-ons deal with Barcelona for Jesus, and the striker agreed to a move immediately.
Interestingly, the former Manchester City man has come out and claimed that he accepted a much lower salary package than what he was on at Arsenal.
He said, as per Simon Collings on X: “When I saw that it would become a reality, I was very excited. Not only me, but Barca also made a great effort to make this signing happen.
“I took a significant pay cut, but it’s a dream to be here at Barcelona.”
Arsenal have freed up a lot of money through sales
Arsenal have been in a great financial position because of their success on and off the pitch over the last few years.
However, their wage bill was still fairly high at the start of the summer window. Some of it has now been freed up.
The sales of Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira and Christian Norgaard, the contract termination of Reiss Nelson, and the imminent departure of Gabriel Martinelli move on over £800,000-a-week worth of wages.
That equates to over £30 million saved in wages, in addition to the transfer fees Arsenal have received for many of the above names.
That should keep the finances healthy for the upcoming windows.
