What? Arsenal put in a bid of the exact same value as Chelsea did for Mudryk, after Arsenal previously had a couple of more reasonable bid like £50m and £60 rejected. Their final bid was around the same as what we paid for him in the end.
No he's not but clearly City secured Haaland at an artificially low value. The release clause that Haaland's camp managed to get Dortmund to agree to ended up being wonderful for City but you guys were trying to get Kane for £100m the previous summer. Haaland in the current market, under normal circumstances, isn't going for £51m. He's more likely to be valued at triple that. Martinelli was signed as a literal teenager to Arsenal's development squad before they realised he was quite good. He's the equivalent of Chelsea signing Omari Hutchinson and then realising he can play for the first team.
I'm not saying there aren't good deals to be found, but just like you guys paying £100m for Grealish, United paying through the nose for Antony and Liverpool for Nunez, the market is the market and you more often than not have to overpay for popular players, especially if you're a rich club.
Anyway, this was all beside the point. Comparing 2004 prices to 2022 prices is kind of wild because you buy a whole new team filled with top talents with just £120m. These days £120m could get you max a couple of good players, maybe 4 but no genuine world class players.