Feature

Signed, sealed, delivered

03 Sep 2013
Behind the Numbers

This week our statistician analyses Arsenal's signings since the year 2000.

Mesut Ozil is the 83rd permanent signing Arsenal have made since the turn of the century and the seventh player to have joined from La Liga in that time.

The talented German international moved from Real Madrid, becoming the 26th midfielder and seventh 24-year-old to join Arsenal in the past 13 years.

"Arsenal have made a new signing once every 60.2 days on average since the beginning of the 21st century"

Arsenal have made a new signing once every 60.2 days on average since the beginning of the 21st century, and four in 2013 following the acquisitions of Nacho Monreal, Yaya Sanogo and Mathieu Flamini.

Loan players are not included in this list, therefore Emiliano Viviano is omitted, as are the likes of Michal Papadopulos, Julio Baptista and Yossi Benayoun, as they were all signed on loan forms. Alex Song and Mart Poom signed permanent deals after completing a loan spell.

Those who signed professional forms while already affiliated to the Club are also not included in this analysis, so Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Johan Djourou, Cesc Fabregas, Nicklas Bendtner and Wojciech Szczesny etc are not counted here, as they all joined the Club's academy before turning professional.

Of the 83 players signed this century, 26 (31 per cent) were midfielders, 25 (30 per cent) defenders, 21 (25 per cent) forwards and 11 (14 per cent) goalkeepers.

Ozil is the fifth German to sign for the Club since 2000, following the arrivals of Jens Lehmann, Per Mertesacker, Thomas Eisfeld and Lukas Podolski.

He is the first 24-year-old to sign since Gervinho in July 2011 - 55 (66 per cent) of the Club's signings in the 21st century have been 24 or younger.

 

 

Arsenal's signings since 2000 - By Position - By Age

Arsenal's signings since 2000 - By Position - By Age

 

 

 

 

Arsenal's signings since 2000 by nationality

Arsenal's signings since 2000 by nationality

 

 

Since the January transfer window was introduced to the Premier League in the 2002/03 season, Arsenal have bought 15 players in this 'window', the very first of whom was Guillaume Warmuz - a French goalkeeper who never played a first-team match for the Club.

In fact, of the 83 players listed, 12 (14 per cent) never played a single minute of first-team action for the Gunners - though this does include the likes of Joel Campbell, Wellington and Deyan Iliev, who are all still at the Club - and of course Ozil.

"The Gunners have bought 14 players on either the winter or summer deadline day"

The 15 winter signings account for 18.1 per cent of the total transfers Arsenal have made since the current transfer deadline format was introduced.

The 2002/03 season was also the first to impose an August 31 transfer deadline. Since then, the Gunners have bought 14 players on either the winter or summer deadline day - including Ozil. The previous one was Monreal in January.

As August 31 fell on a weekend this year, the deadline was moved to September 2, and Ozil therefore became the first player to join in September since Greek defender Stathis Tavlaridis 12 years ago.

The previous permanent signing before Ozil was Flamini, who appears twice on the table below, having originally joined aged 20 in 2004.

Lehmann and Sol Campbell are the other men who appear on the list twice, having both re-signed in the past 13 years.

 

 

Arsenal's signings since 2000 by month signed

Arsenal's signings since 2000 by month signed

 

 

Players who have never played for the first team

Guy Demel
Paulinho
Guillaume Warmuz
Joe O’Cearuill
Vincent van den Berg
Havard Nordtveit
Pedro Botelho
Samuel Galindo
Wellington
Joel Campbell
Deyan Iliev
Mesut Ozil

Three of Arsenal's last six signings arrived from Spain's La Liga (Santi Cazorla, Monreal and Ozil), while the Bundesliga has also supplied three players over the past three seasons (Mertesacker, Eisfeld and Podolski).

Only one player in the past five years has joined from a fellow Premier League side (Mikel Arteta from Everton) but overall 11 (13 per cent) of the players on the list joined Arsenal from another English club.

The main source of Arsenal players since 2000 though has been the French leagues. In this time 19 (22.9 per cent) of Arsenal's signings have come from French clubs, the most recent example being Sanogo, who joined from Auxerre.

He was the third player this century to move to Arsenal from Auxerre (following Abou Diaby and Bacary Sagna). The other clubs to supply three players to the Gunners during this period are Marseille, Borussia Dortmund and Sao Paulo.

Overall the 83 signings came from eight different sources/countries, and represent 37 different nationalities. Eight of the signings (including Flamini) joined Arsenal as free agents.

All permanent signings since 2000

PlayerPositionFromAgeDate
1999/2000    
LaurenDefenderMallorca23May 30, 2000
Guy DemelMidfielderNimes19July 1, 2000
Robert PiresMidfielderMarseille26July 3, 2000
2000/2001    
Sylvain WiltordForwardBordeaux26Aug 24, 2000
Igors StepanovsDefenderSkonto Riga24Sep 4, 2000
Sebastian SvardMidfielderFC Copenhagen17Nov 1, 2000
Tomas DanileviciusForwardFC Lausanne22Dec 13, 2000
EduMidfielderCorinthians22Jan 16, 2001
PaulinhoMidfielderSao Paulo18May 2001
JuanDefenderSao Paulo19May 2001
Francis JeffersForwardEverton20June 14, 2001
Gio van BronckhorstMidfielderRangers26June 19, 2001
Olafur-Ingi SkulasonDefenderFylkir AC18July 1, 2001
Sol CampbellDefenderUnattached26July 3, 2001
Richard WrightGoalkeeperIpswich Town23July 5, 2001
Junichi InamotoMidfielderGamba Osaka21July 23, 2001
2001/2002    
Stathis TavlaridisDefenderIraklis Saloniki21Sept 24, 2001
Kolo ToureMidfielderAsec Mimosas20Feb 14, 2002
Pascal CyganDefenderLille28July 11, 2002
GilbertoMidfielderAtletico Mineiro25July 29, 2002
2002/2003    
Rami ShaabanGoalkeeperDjurgardens27Aug 30, 2002
Guillaume WarmuzGoalkeeperUnattached32Jan 31, 2003
Philippe SenderosDefenderServette18June 1, 2003
Jens LehmannGoalkeeperBorussia Dortmund33July 25, 2003
2003/2004    
Gael ClichyDefenderAS Cannes18Aug 4, 2003
Daniel KarbassiyoonDefenderRoanoke Star19Aug 31, 2003
Jose Antonio ReyesForwardSeville20Jan 29, 2004
Robin van PersieForwardFeyenoord20May 17, 2004
Manuel AlmuniaGoalkeeperCelta Vigo27July 14, 2004
Mathieu FlaminiMidfielderMarseille20July 22, 2004
2004/2005    
Emmanuel EboueDefenderBeveren21Jan 2, 2005
Alexander HlebMidfielderStuttgart24June 27, 2005
Vito MannoneGoalkeeperAtalanta17July 1, 2005
2005/2006    
Mart PoomGoalkeeperSunderland33Jan 1, 2006
Emmanuel AdebayorForwardAS Monaco21Jan 13, 2006
Abou DiabyMidfielderAuxerre19Jan 13, 2006
Theo WalcottForwardSouthampton16Jan 20, 2006
Tomas RosickyMidfielderBorussia Dortmund25May 23, 2006
Joe O'CearuillDefenderUnattached19July 1, 2006
Vincent van den BergForwardUnattached17July 1, 2006
Alexandre SongMidfielderBastia18July 1, 2006
2006/2007    
William GallasDefenderChelsea29Aug 31, 2006
DenilsonMidfielderSao Paulo18Aug 31, 2006
Carlos VelaForwardCelta Vigo17Jan 1, 2007
Lukasz FabianskiGoalkeeperLegia Warsaw22May 26, 2007
Havard NordtveitDefenderFK Haugesund17July 1, 2007
EduardoForwardDinamo Zagreb24July 3, 2007
Bacary SagnaDefenderAuxerre24July 12, 2007
2007/2008    
Lassana DiarraMidfielderChelsea22Aug 31, 2007
Pedro BotelhoDefenderFigueirense18Jan 1, 2008
Aaron RamseyMidfielderCardiff City17June 13, 2008
Francis CoquelinMidfielderLaval17July 1, 2008
Samir NasriMidfielderMarseille21July 11, 2008
Amaury BischoffMidfielderUnattached21July 30, 2008
2008/2009    
Mikael SilvestreDefenderMan United31Aug 20, 2008
Andrey ArshavinForwardZenit St Petersburg27Feb 3, 2009
Thomas VermaelenDefenderAjax23June 19, 2009
2009/2010    
Sol CampbellDefenderUnattached35Jan 16, 2010
Marouane ChamakhForwardBordeaux26May 21, 2010
Laurent KoscielnyDefenderLorient24July 7, 2010
2010/2011    
Samuel GalindoMidfielderReal America18Aug 1, 2010
Damian MartinezGoalkeeperIndependiente17Aug 1, 2010
Sebastien SquillaciDefenderSevilla30Aug 27, 2010
Wellington SilvaForwardFluminense18Jan 31, 2011
RyoForwardChukyodai Chuyko18Jan 31, 2011
Jens LehmannGoalkeeperUnattached41Mar 17, 2011
Carl JenkinsonDefenderCharlton19June 8, 2011
GervinhoForwardLille24July 18, 2011
2011/2012    
A. Oxlade-ChamberlainForwardSouthampton17Aug 8, 2011
Joel CampbellForwardDeportivo Saprissa19Aug 19, 2011
Ju Young ParkForwardMonaco26Aug 30, 2011
Andre SantosDefenderFenerbahce28Aug 31, 2011
Per MertesackerDefenderWerder Bremen26Aug 31, 2011
Mikel ArtetaMidfielderEverton29Aug 31, 2011
Thomas EisfeldMidfielderBorussia Dortmund19Jan 31, 2012
Lukas PodolskiForwardCologne27July 1, 2012
Olivier GiroudForwardMontpellier25July 1, 2012
2012/2013    
Santi CazorlaMidfielderMalaga27Aug 7, 2012
Deyan IlievGoalkeeperFK Belastica17Aug 30, 2012
Nacho MonrealDefenderMalaga26Jan 31, 2013
Yaya SanogoForwardAuxerre20July 1, 2013
2013/2014    
Mathieu FlaminiMidfielderUnattached29Aug 29, 2013
Mesut OzilMidfielderReal Madrid24Sept 2, 2013

Stats correct as at September 3, 2013

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