Manchester City’s decision to sell both Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal last summer was justified as it allowed the Premier League champions to strengthen their own squad, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The Gunners paid a total of £77m for both players and, with Mikel Arteta’s side sitting five points above City in the table, there have been questions asked as to why the Manchester club were willing to offload the pair. However, Romano feels that the Citizens had little choice in the matter:
“I think it was no mistake to sell them to Arsenal as they needed fresh money to invest on Haaland, Phillips, Akanji and Zinchenko/Gabriel only wanted to join Arsenal, so they had no other option.”
Romano is right on the money here. You also need to consider that very few clubs in European football would have paid what Arsenal paid for Jesus and Zinchenko.
With Jesus having less than a year left on his contract, it could be argued that City did pretty well to receive the fees they did, and the funds were put to good use, bringing in reinforcements in key areas of the pitch.