London house prices will break the bank at the best of times, then try throwing an iconic football-based location into the mix.
A two-bedroom flat on the grounds of Arsenal’s old Highbury stadium has been listed on the Zoopla property website for a cool £660,000.
The flat, above the stadium’s old East Stand, is ideal for Gunners fans keen to relive the glory days of the Invincibles.
Normally at this point we’d make a cheap gag about Arsene Wenger’s reluctance to spend money, but this is no joke – and it’s certainly not cheap.
So instead, here are a few players who Wenger bought for a comparable price to the third-floor property (all figures from transfermarkt.co.uk).
Mikael Silvestre – £665,000
The closest in price to the flat is French defender Silvestre, one of few players to join the club from Manchester United in the Premier League era.
Silvestre joined Arsenal in the summer of 2008 and played less than 50 times in his two seasons with the club, being used mostly as a back-up to the likes of William Gallas and Kolo Toure.
Joel Campbell – £700,000
While Silvestre was always destined to be a squad player, Arsenal have higher hopes for Costa Rican forward Campbell.
After joining from Deportivo Saprissa, the 23-year-old is now back in the first-team shake-up after several loan spells over the last few years.
Carl Jenkinson – £788,000
Another of the current squad to cost a little more than a flat with good transport links, Jenkinson’s progress at Arsenal has been hindered by the breakthrough of Hector Bellerin.
Currently on loan at West Ham, the England international has picked up two red cards during his time at the Emirates – the same number of (early) baths as the flat.
Stathis Tavlaridis – £630,000
Remember when Wenger’s transfer policy had a real ‘throw sh*t at a wall’ feel to it? Greek defender Tavlaridis was one of a number of forgotten 90s signings alongside the likes of Fabian Caballero, Tomas Danilevicius and Alberto Mendez.
The physical centre-back played just a handful of games for the club before joining Lille, though one of these was a 4-0 League Cup win over Manchester United alongside fellow forgotten man Igors Stepanovs.
Nicolas Anelka – £532,000
Not all of Wenger’s cut-price signings were failures, though – Anelka was one of the first players the Arsenal boss brought to England, and he had a part to play as Arsenal won the double in 1998.
The Frenchman top-scored the following season before moving to Real Madrid for more than £20m – imagine how many flats that could buy you…
