Andrea Berta arrived at Arsenal in March 2025, succeeding Edu Gaspar and immediately bringing a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 built at Atl\u00e9tico that mixed decisive finds with expensive errors. His time in Madrid was defined by an eye for potential and a willingness to back unconventional moves.<\/p>\n
Among his clearest successes was Rodri. Released by Atl\u00e9tico as a youth, he impressed at Villarreal and was re-signed for around $23 million in the summer of 2018. Within 12 months Manchester City activated his $83.5 million release clause, beginning his transformation into a future Ballon d\u2019Or winner. Marcos Llorente was another shrewd acquisition. Signed from Real Madrid in the summer of 2019 as a replacement for Rodri, Llorente had made just 39 senior appearances for Madrid and had been told by Zinedine Zidane that he was not part of his plans. For $47 million he became a perfect fit for Diego Simeone, making well over 250 appearances and becoming one of the manager\u2019s most trusted players.<\/p>\n
Berta also showed instincts for bargain flips. He helped Genoa turn a profit on Leonardo Bonucci in 2009, buying for $4.7 million and selling for $12.4 million within a month. The decision to sign Luis Su\u00e1rez for $8 million in 2020 was unfashionable but effective; Su\u00e1rez scored 21 La Liga goals in his first season to fire Atl\u00e9tico to the title and added 11 the following campaign. The Antoine Griezmann cycle remains perhaps Berta\u2019s most impressive piece of business: sold to Barcelona for $141 million, recalled on loan in 2021, Atl\u00e9tico refused to trigger a $47 million option and eventually re-signed him permanently for $23.5 million.<\/p>\n
Yet the record contains costly mistakes. Viktor Gy\u00f6keres arrived at Arsenal for $85 million in June 2025 and had an underwhelming start, with most of his seven goals up until Christmas described as flukes and Mikel Arteta deploying Mikel Merino up front in response. Atl\u00e9tico paid around $70 million to re-sign Diego Costa in 2017 only for his contract to be terminated three years later. Thomas Lemar, a near-target for Arsenal in 2017 after a failed $117.5 million bid, has struggled for Atl\u00e9tico and is on loan at Girona in 2025\u201326, with just 10 goals in seven seasons. Jackson Mart\u00ednez, signed for $41 million from Porto after 92 goals in three seasons, lasted six months before being sold and prompting Atl\u00e9tico president Enrique Cerezo to say Mart\u00ednez \u201cwas not at the level\u201d of the club. Finally, Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix\u2019s $148 million arrival in 2019 produced a mixed four-year spell that never fully justified that outlay.<\/p>\n
Berta\u2019s ledger is unmistakably mixed: decisive scouting and spectacular value plays alongside high-cost gambles that did not always pay off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Appointed in March 2025, Andrea Berta’s transfers range from Rodri and Griezmann to costly misfires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1035,1163],"tags":[1342,1064,1343],"class_list":["post-5376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-atletico-madrid","category-transfers","tag-andrea-berta","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-transfer-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}