Leandro Trossard joins Arsenal for £27m
Leandro Trossard has left Brighton after a productive three-and-a-half-years at the Amex, completing a £27 million switch to Arsenal.
The deal looks a good one for all parties. Brighton nearly double their money on a player out of contract in 18 months time whilst the Gunners strengthen their squad by signing the leading scorer from a side pushing for a top five place for a knockdown fee.
Trossard brings proven Premier League quality to the Emirates at a third of the price Chelsea paid for Mykhaylo Mudryk, who has played just 29 times for Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukrainian Premier League.
Although most Brighton supporters will wish Leandro Trossard well at Arsenal, there is undoubtedly a sadness about the rancour in which his time at Brighton has ended.
It seemed unlikely that Trossard would sign a new deal with the Seagulls and it was widely accepted a January or summer sale was inevitable.
Trossard though was not taking any chances. Having scored seven goals in 14 games before the World Cup, he returned from Qatar quite clearly giving less than 100 percent.
Roberto De Zerbi was not impressed and so dropped Trossard for effectively downing tools. Without their top scorer, Brighton went and netted four at Everton, five at Middlesbrough and three past Liverpool, proving undoubtedly that Trossard’s sense of importance was unfounded.
No one player is bigger or better than the Albion. Not that Trossard’s agent Josy Comhair agreed, releasing a statement which read like something written by a petulant child.
Comhair said his client had been disrespected by De Zerbi, been involved in an altercation with a teammate over a trivial matter and that the only solution was for Brighton to sell.
Trossard subsequently scuttled off via the Eurotunnel 24 hours before Brighton faced Liverpool at the Amex.
Whilst he was somewhere on a French motorway wondering whether to pay 20 cents to use a service station toilet or piss in a bush on the side of the road, the Albion were busy given arguably the most complete performance in their history.
In some ways, that does make Trossard a strange fit for Arsenal. The Gunners’ current success has taken time to build with Mikel Arteta pruning his squad of egotistical players with bad attitudes, such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
For Arteta to now add a bloke who essentially went on strike to force through a move seems counter to the culture BEING BUILT at the Emirates – especially when Trossard is on record as saying he does not want to be a bench warmer.
That is most likely where he will end up initially at least, from where toys might be thrown from the pram and the boat rocked as Arsenal chase a first Premier League title in 19 years.
Whilst Trossard’s exit from Brighton has called into question his attitude, there can be little doubting his ability on the pitch.
Over the past three-and-a-half seasons, the Vampire of Genk has done more than most in helping to turn the Albion from relegation battlers to pushing for regular top 10 finishes.
Trossard finished as joint-top scorer last season alongside Neal Maupay. He also sits with Maupay third on the list of Brighton top flight scorers, his 25 goals less than only Glenn Murray and Michael Robinson.
With his hat-trick at Liverpool in October, Trossard became the first Albion player to notch a hat-trick in the Premier League era. That put him in an exclusive club of three top flight treble scorers, Peter Ward and Gordon Smith being the others from the early 1980s.
Some of the goals Trossard scored were spectacular. The first time volley lob against Brentford in an 8pm kick at the Amex on Boxing day, enjoyed by a crowd of “30,141”.
The last minute winner at Spurs in April when he weaved through the home defence to secure a famous Albion victory. A week earlier and his thumping effort against Arsenal set Brighton on their way to a 2-1 win at his new employers.
WAB’s favourite Trossard goal came at St Mary’s on Mother’s Day 2021, when we enjoyed a lovely Twitter exchange with his mum after her son had inspired the Albion to a first victory away at Southampton for 12 years.
Another later winne came at Brentford in September 2021, sending Tony Bloom wild with joy in the away section of the Gtech Stadium.
Trossard had bleached his hair blonde in the build up to that game, which made him look like Derek Acorach and inspired one of the great Jurgen Locadia Instagram stories titled “Hello blondie”.
All those memories should have enabled Trossard to leave on good terms, thanked for his service over 121 matches and of course those 25 goals.
Both he and his agent ruined any chance of that, however. Still, it would be funny if Leandro Trossard turns out a bigger success at Arsenal than Mudryk is at Chelsea, being the only Brighton player who the Blues and Glow Up Graham Potter have not tried to sign.
