Arsenal have reaped the benefits of unearthing talent from the academy over the years, with Mikel Arteta‘s current crop showcasing just how far hard work can catapult starlets hoping to graduate from Hale End.

The Gunners enjoyed a highly-successful 2022/23 campaign, which inspired a charge for the Premier League title inspired by the likes of Bukayo Saka, who is arguably one of the club’s best ever academy graduates.

Saka, who joined Arsenal’s youth set-up at the age of eight took his chances throughout the levels of the academy, with him now sitting today as a crucial player at the club earning £195k-per-week and enjoying his status as a 2023 Ballon D’Or Nominee.

The 22-year-old sensation is not the only star to recently burst through the doors of Hale End to impact the first team, with Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith-Rowe following suit, however not every big talent from the set-up in north London has selected Arsenal as the place to grow as a senior player.

After excelling on a season long loan spell with Ligue 1 outfit Reims, Gunners academy striker Folarin Balogun opted to leave his boyhood club to seek further highs in France, signing for Monaco this summer in a deal worth £35m.

While the north Londoners received a suitable fee for the 22-year-old, other exits from the capital over the years have proved to be huge financial fumbles by Arsenal, with none more frustrating than the loss of Donyell Malen.

Donyell Malen enjoyed a good spell at Arsenal

In 2015, Arsenal welcomed Dutch prodigy, Malen, to the scene at Hale End from Ajax at the age of 16, as the Gunners saw potential in the versatile teen forward.

The 1999-born whiz enjoyed a strong two years in England, making a total of 67 appearances at both U18 and U21 level in which he scored 27 goals for the club.

His time at Arsenal was inspired by his former coach at Ajax U10’s, Dennis Bergkamp, who will forever be a much-loved figure in Islington, with his figure cast in bronze outside the Emirates Stadium.

During his time in the academy ranks, the then-teenager was tipped to have a great future, with his former agent Mino Raiola backing him to one day become a “revelation” in north London.

Donyell Malen left Arsenal for extremely cheap

Despite enjoying his time in England, in 2017, the forward made the decision to continue his career back in his homeland instead of opting to extend his stay with Arsenal, which he explained to be due to the potential opportunities that could arise in the Netherlands.

It didn’t take long for Malen to make his wishes a reality, as he was signed by PSV Eindhoven that year for a fee reported to be in the region of just £200k.

It quickly became apparent of the direction that the departed forward’s career was headed, and with that came the realisation of just how poor the decision was to sanction his exit for less than £1m.

A year after his exit, in the summer of 2018, Football Transfers documented the start of Malen’s rise in value, as his expected transfer value (xTV) sat at €4m (£3.4m) just 12 months after his £200k departure.

From that point onwards, the Dutchman’s xTV almost doubled year by year, as highlighted in the table above, adding to Arsenal’s pain of losing the forward from their grasp at such a slim figure just a year prior to his senior breakthrough.

Donyell Malen’s impressive rise at PSV

A year after his arrival at PSV, Malen became an established member of the first team, following his heroics during the 2017/18 campaign with the U21’s, in which he netted 13 goals and claimed three assists in 22 appearances.

During that season, the Dutch international picked up four Eredivisie appearances, paving the way for his senior breakthrough the following term, where he recorded 31 appearances.

In the 2018/19 Eredivisie, the tricky forward scored ten goals and recorded five assists, and his record improved the season after with 11 goals, despite only playing 14 games due to sustaining a complex knee injury which left him sidelined for over 200 days.

After surgery, there was some anxiety that the youngster may have lost some of his pace and proficiency in the final third, however this was far from the case, as in the 2020/21 edition of the Eredivisie, he recorded 27 goal contributions in 32 appearances.

At 22, Malen ended that season as the second-highest scorer in the league, and it wasn’t long until his talents were noticed beyond the threshold of his home country.

Donyell Malen got his big European move

Following Jadon Sancho’s blockbuster move to Manchester United in 2021, Borussia Dortmund were on the prowl for attacking reinforcements, and deemed Malen as the ideal option to fill the void left by the Englishman.

Dortmund paid PSV a fee of €30m (£26m) for the Dutchman, a figure 12900% higher than the price Arsenal sold Malen to the Eredivisie outfit for.

While Dortmund were slyly hoping to see home parallels between the former Gunners starlet and Sancho, their similarities in the 2021/22 campaign were far from being for their quality in the final third.

Both Malen and Sancho had a slow start to life at their new clubs, with the Dutch international recording only nine goals and six assists in 38 appearances for Dortmund that season, while Sancho scored just five times and registered only three assists.

Last term, the £26m man contributed to 18 goals in 35 appearances, however, scoring ten and assisting eight, with him on track to beat that record as he’s already secured four goals and two assists in 12 appearances in 2023/24.

Donyell Malen’s market value has soared

In the summer of 2022, Malen’s xTV hit a high of €48.8m (£42.4m), with his current market value recorded by CIES Football Observatory to be sat at a whopping €60m (£52m).

Lauded as a “sizzling” earlier this year for his form at Dortmund by U23 scout Antonio Mango, Arsenal are frequently reminded of the mere £200k price tag that they lost the former academy star for, with his current value reading 25900% higher.

While it’s more of a pleasant sight to see a once hopeful starlet succeed on the biggest stages of domestic football, the Gunners truly missed out on unearthing a goldmine in Malen.