Unai Emery signed 12 players when he was Arsenal boss, so how many are left at the club and has Mikel Arteta really been clearing them all out?

Villarreal unveil Unai Emery as head coach (Photo via Villarreal CF)
Villarreal unveil Unai Emery as head coach (Photo via Villarreal CF)

The players that Mikel Arteta has opted to keep and those he seems physically repelled by look like they might have a pattern, so I thought it would be a good idea to see if what we all ‘thought’ actually matched reality. That isn’t always the case, as you know.

Sometimes our brains can tell us one thing when the facts are very different.

So, I wondered after seeing some social media chatter, is Mikel Arteta really clearing out Unai Emery’s players?

The short answer would be ‘yes’.

Unai Emery’s Arsenal signings

According to transfermarkt, Unai Emery brought in 12 players during his three windows as Arsenal boss. He also promoted five players from the youth ranks to the senior team.

Of those 17 players, six are currently at the club, one of whom we tried to sell this summer and another will be allowed to leave for free next summer, his replacement already purchased for £24m. There’s also another on the list we would have sold had we not spent such a stupid amount on him.

Emery brought the following players to Arsenal:

  1. Lucas Torreira (on loan)
  2. Bernd Leno (will leave for free next summer)
  3. Sokratis (gone)
  4. Matteo Guendouzi (on loan, will be sold permanently next summer)
  5. Denis Suarez (gone)
  6. Stephan Lichtsteiner (gone, although Emery got rid of him)
  7. William Saliba (on loan, still hasn’t played a single official minute for Arsenal after 2 years)
  8. Kieran Tierney (renewed)
  9. Nicolas Pepe (would most likely have been sold had Arsenal not spend £72m on him)
  10. David Luiz (gone)
  11. Gabriel Martinelli (renewed)
  12. Dani Ceballos (gone)

Emery promoted the following Arsenal youngsters:

  1. Eddie Nketiah (tried to sell this summer)
  2. Dejan Iliev (on loan until the end of his Arsenal contract)
  3. Reiss Nelson (tried to sell this summer)
  4. Joe Willock (gone)
  5. Bukayo Saka (renewed)

Contrast that with the players from the youth ranks that Arteta has promoted:

So, back to Emery’s players. There are 17 listed, 16 if we discount Lichtsteiner. Of those, seven remain at the club but only five play regularly (Leno, Tierney, Pepe, Martinelli, Saka) and Leno looks like he’s lost his slot after just three games.

Of those five, one will leave next summer (Leno), another was at the club before Emery arrived (Saka) and another was mostly an Edu signing (Martinelli).

Make of that what you will…