Charlie Patino to leave Arsenal for just £1m – What happened?

Amid all the ongoing talk of Mikel Merino and Eddie Nketiah, the news that really caught my attention yesterday was that Arsenal had agreed a deal with Deportivo La Coruna for Charlie Patino.

The news sparked plenty of debate amongst Arsenal fans and most of the conversation centred around the fee, which will be around £1 million.

Wind the clock back a few years and few would have predicted that Patino, a midfielder who had been tipped for big things by many who had witnessed his progress through Hale End, would end up leaving the club for such a minimal amount.

But that’s what is about to happen and it’s a bit sad to see a player who clearly has lots of talent heading out without getting close to fulfilling it at Arsenal.

Patino looked nailed on to make his mark when he came off the bench to score on his debut in the Carabao Cup quarter-final win against Sunderland back in 2021.

But he made just one more senior appearance following that game and that came in an FA Cup third round defeat at Nottingham Forest soon after. Not once did he get on the field in a Premier League fixture.

Since then he’s had two loan spells in the Championship. First with Blackpool where he made a fairly decent impression and then with Swansea City, where he spent last season.

There were some promising signs during the start of his time in South Wales, but he struggled for starts following the sacking of manager Michael Duff in December.

Patino did end the campaign with 35 Championship appearances for Swansea, however, adding to the 34 he made for Blackpool the previous season.

So at just 20 years old, Patino has made more than 70 appearances in the Championship, yet Arsenal are only getting £1m for him. To me, it does just feel like a very low fee, even if he hasn’t yet hit the heights that many were expecting.

I was asking around yesterday though, speaking to a few contacts within football gaging their opinion on it and whilst they all agreed that the fee was a bit low, they could understand why Arsenal didn’t get much more.

First of all, Patino had less than a year left on his contract and everyone knew that there was no prospect of him signing a new one.

Also, and probably more importantly, interest just wasn’t there from significant Championship or Premier League clubs, so the spending capability of those that were interested wasn’t huge.

One key thing is Arsenal have negotiated a significant sell-on clause for Patino, so although they are not getting much for him now, if he does go on to be a success and earns himself a decent move in the next few years, they will pocket a nice chunk of cash at some point down the line.

There has long been interest from Spain in Patino. He has that all important Spanish passport because of his father and so there have been plenty of clubs looking at him.

I know that Villarreal were interested at one time, as were Mallorca. But Patino’s father, Jules, is a Deportivo fan so this is an exciting move for him.

It feels like playing in Spain could also be a good fit for a midfielder who has struggled to shake off a view held by many that his slight frame puts him at a significant disadvantage in English football.

I really hope he does well over there, but it is a bit of a shame to see him leave Arsenal in such an underwhelming way. He’s still young though and this could be the step back he needs to get himself going again.

Many will again point at Mikel Arteta and question whether he could have given Patino more opportunities. It’s a fair question and I do wonder if he will look back at the summer of 2022 when he left Patino out of the squad which travelled for the USA tour.

It was a last minute decision and I know that hit Patino hard. He’d had a good summer with the first-team up to that point and had just produced a fine cameo coming off the bench during a game against Nurnberg.

He thought he would be going, as did those around him, but at the last minute he was informed he would not be making the trip and the news came as a massive knock of confidence to such a young player.

I never really understood that decision, especially given some of the players who did make that trip to the States. I really felt Arteta could have handled that better.

Who knows whether that contributed to how things have gone for Patino since, but it did feel like a big turning point in his time at Arsenal.

Anyway, his exit is now imminent and hopefully he will get himself going in Spain and make a fine career for himself over there. He will certainly be going with everyone’s best wishes.

You can also listen and subscribe to all my daily shows via the usual podcast platforms (links below).