Arsenal are expected to be busy in the summer transfer window as they look for attacking reinforcements but Mikel Arteta may live to regret letting one player leave the club
Former Arsenal striker Mika Biereth is now worth nearly 10 times what the Gunners sold him for, it has been claimed. The Danish frontman wasn’t able to break into the first team in North London, but his form on the continent has seen his value shoot up.
The Gunners accepted a £4million bid from Sturm Graz after Biereth impressed on loan last season. He only lasted a few more months there, though, before interest from Monaco allowed the Austrian club to treble their money.
Biereth hasn’t slowed down in the principality, where his goals have secured a return to the Champions League for Monaco. They sit third in the table with just one game to go, and can’t be caught by the chasing pack.
Much of that is down to Biereth’s goals, leaving Mikel Arteta – and Arsenal fans – to wonder what might have been. He has scored 13 times in just 16 league appearances, with PSG’s Ousmane Dembele the only player among the league’s top scorers to boast a better goals-per-90 record.
According to L’Equipe (via GFFN), an unnamed club is ready to fork out just under £30m for the 22-year-old off the back of those performances, leaving Monaco with a decision to make. He isn’t the only Monaco star attracting interest, with Premier League clubs linked with playmaker Maghnes Akliouche and Barcelona eyeing Eliesse Ben Seghir.
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“Yeah, there are loads of situations… not just from Arsenal but other academies where you leave at a younger age when people don’t feel like you’re quite ready for the first team and you go get experiences elsewhere,” Biereth told The Athletic during his Sturm Graz spell. “Then you show a couple of years later that you probably were ready.
“Making it at Arsenal isn’t the be-all and end-all of someone’s career. There are many ways of having a successful career outside of Arsenal.”
Arsenal legend Ian Wright spoke to GFFN in March about his conversations with Biereth and recognised the Gunners’ injury crisis might have ended up offering him an opportunity in North London this term. “If I’m honest it must’ve been something with the plans Arsenal had. Mika should’ve been in and around it at the moment,” he said.
“One of our chats early on was about him showing himself in the preseason for Arsenal and giving it his best go. But he had the bravery to go to Scotland, then Austria and now France and that is what shows he wants to be the best!
“He has to be playing to prove that. His record speaks for itself. It’s disappointing for Arsenal but on a human level, I’m delighted for him.”
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