Usual Arsenal policy was to sign relatively young players, use them well, let them develop and then sell them off for top dollars. That type of transfer is not easy to accomplish successfully over the run of many years. Still, Arsenal has some top young talents in their squad, I can see Saka and Smith-Rowe as top players in couple of years. I agree with what you wrote and Arsenal should definitely be top 5 team by their pedigree and they don't have a chance to accomplish that with current squad. Champions League spot should be a must for them.
Ben White is decent player, but his price is what it is because he is English and plays in Premier League. John Stones was also not worth 70+M or whatever when City signed him. That kind of players from other leagues could be obtained for under 5M. But that is situation with young English players for last couple of years.
They've also brought in big players over the years, for example; Ozil. Okay, it didn't work out for Arsenal or Ozil, but I think anyone can admit that he's a fantastic talent, and I'm not quite sure why it all went wrong for him at Arsenal. I felt his first few seasons he actually did well, and complimented their attack.
Saka is fantastic, and martinelli. Both of those have bright futures if they are nurtured correctly by the club, and I think Arsenal is the perfect team for them, since they aren't going to be competing against world class players, but still have decent enough exposure to different competitions every so often like the Europa League.
I still don't agree on Ben White, even if you include the English tax. I think John Stones is double the player Ben White is. Ben White isn't a top 6 player, and that's the ambition a team like Arsenal should be aiming for. However, Arsenal are slowly becoming a top half club.
Forgot about Martinelli, he is also top talent. As you say, Arsenal should be a good place for those top talents to become world class players.
I was never fan of Ozil game. I admit he has soft touch and very good last pass but he just looks so uninterested on the pitch. I see him like a player who would be top 20 years ago, but nowadays everyone is so fit and players like Ozil are becoming extinct in top leagues. Should have been born earlier
I believe there was not many Arsenal supporters sad to see him go, he was top 10 in the world per wages and nowhere near top 10 on the pitch in his last 2 Arsenal years. Could be wrong though, not like I am living in London.
I was not talking about English tax, I was talking about generally very high prices for young English guys. If they were born in some other country, let's say Denmark, price would be 1/3 for the player of same quality. Stones was great last season but was he that good when City paid 70M for him to Everton? I remember bitching about how he was overpriced at that time.