Arsenal's transfer records according to transfermarkt:
Rank
Name
Amount
Season
1
Nicolas Pépé
€80m
19/20
2
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
€64m
17/18
3
Benjamin White
€59m
21/22
4
Alexandre Lacazette
€53m
17/18
5
Gabriel Jesus
€52m
22/23
6
Thomas Partey
€50m
20/21
7
Mesut Özil
€50m
13/14
8
Granit Xhaka
€45m
16/17
9
Alexis Sánchez
€43m
14/15
10
Shkodran Mustafi
€41m
16/17
It's in Euros because they record it in Euros in their database, even though the spending was reported in pounds in many sources. Keeping it in pounds would have been tricky with inflation and currency rate changes over the years.
So, Pépé was the most expensive player Arsenal ever bought, but was he the biggest flop from the top 10?
Who do you think was the best and worst deal from that top 10 list?
It's also interesting to see the transfer inflation. When Arsenal bought Ozil, he set the transfer record, and €50m was a lot of money. Just 3 years later Mustafi cost €41m and while that was a lot of money for Mustafi, it didn't register as a massive transfer spending, the way €50m had just a few years earlier.
The way people talk about pepe is funny when you compare his starts to the Sanchos and grealish’ Havertz ect especially in a far worse Arsenal team but barely any heat on them
agree about Sancho (and Havertz to a lesser extent), but Grealish has been pretty great this year. The situation he found himself in is obviously better than the one Pepe was in, but it's hard to call him a flop.