'Arsenal sold player they knew was injured to top European club'
Tom Weber
- Updated: 27 Sept 2023 15:37 BST
- 3 min read
Former Arsenal physio Gary Lewin has revealed how the Gunners managed to sell a soon-to-be-retired Marc Overmars to Barcelona for a fortune.
All the way back in the 1990s, Dutch winger Marc Overmars was starring for Ajax under Louis van Gaal, but in late 1995, he suffered a serious injury, "completely severing" ligaments in his left knee.
He returned to the pitch after eight months and was eventually snapped up by Arsenal the following year for a reported fee of £5m-7m. Despite his serious injury, he managed to get back to his best in north London and helped the Gunners do the double in 1997/98.
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By 2000, Arsene Wenger, who was an expert at selling players at the right time, had made Overmars the most expensive Dutch footballer in history when he flipped him to Barcelona for £25m. His injury, however, eventually came back to haunt him and he had to retire a few years later.
Ex-Arsenal physio Gary Lewin has revealed how the Gunners managed to play such a blinder.
What did Lewin say?
Speaking on Ben Foster's podcast, Lewin said: "A medical is not to decide is someone fit to sign or not. A medical is a risk assessment. How many games you've played in the last few years, what significant injuries you've had in the last few years."
"We signed a player for I think it was about £5m, well well-known international player. He had a cruciate injury 18 months before we signed him. We did a full medical on him and we saw an orthopaedic surgeon."
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"The surgeon said, 'look, he's got early signs of degeneration of the knee he's had surgery on. You will get three or four years out of him at this level, then that knee will start to degenerate.' So, we went back to the board, we graded the risk, spoke to the manager and he said, 'gonna sign him, that's great information to have, I will use that in the future.'"
"I thought nothing of it. Two and a half years later - we won a few trophies and he was a big part of that - we then sold him to another European club for £25m. 18 months after that, he retired due to his knee."
