Will Arsenal regret letting striker Mika Biereth leave the club? On fire at new club Monaco

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Insight from France & Austria 

©TM/IMAGO

Whilst the second half of Arsenal’s season threatens to be derailed by an injury crisis up-top, the sensational form of their former striker Mika Biereth will offer little solace. Both Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus have been ruled out of the remainder of the 2024/25 campaign. But since leaving the Emirates last summer, Biereth has now been regularly finding the back of the net at two different European clubs. He could perhaps be just what is needed at the Emirates for this season’s run-in.

The Danish forward was sold to Austrian side Sturm Graz last summer for a fee that has now risen to €9 million. He was prolific. Biereth scored 11 goals in 16 Austrian Bundesliga games, as well as two in six in the Champions League. In January, his form had caught the attention of top-five league clubs, and Ligue 1 side Monaco splashed out €13m to bring him to the French league. Arsenal had a 30% sell-on clause, so the original fee of €4.7m practically doubled to €9m. His start at Monaco has eclipsed his achievements at Sturm Graz, with the 22 year old scoring seven goals in his first five Ligue 1 matches, including a hat-trick in a 7-1 victory over Nantes last weekend.

As illustrated in the graphic below, since Biereth made his Monaco debut in Ligue 1 on January 17, no player has scored more goals than him in Europe’s top-five leagues. Level with Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé and Atalanta’s Mateo Retegui, he is in good company, and could actually be exactly what the Gunners need right now. In Arsenal’s 2-0 win against Leicester on Saturday, midfielder Mikel Merino came off the bench to play as striker and scored a brace, but it’s hard to believe that Mikel Arteta’s team can consistently rely on the centre-midfielder to solve their issues up-top. They may just be regretting letting academy product Biereth leave the club last July.

Having originally come through Fulham’s youth ranks, providing 40 goal contributions (25 goals and 15 assists) in 37 games for Fulham U18s, Arsenal picked up the striker back in 2021 when he was just 18 years old. The Dane managed 12 goals in 26 matches for Arsenal U21s, but opportunities in Arteta’s first-team were extremely limited. He went on pre-season tours with the Gunners, and was named on the bench four times, but never played a minute for the senior side. An average loan spell at Motherwell last season wasn’t enough to cement Biereth in Arsenal’s plans. The lack of chances to showcase his talent led him to move on last summer, and he had some impact in Austria. Since leaving North London, his market value has risen from €7m to €13m, and that figure could be set to rise further.

Dorian Schuster is Transfermarkt’s Area Manager in Austria, and revealed more about Biereth’s short time at Sturm Graz: “Biereth showed some really good potential in his first (half) season in Graz, but failed to standout as a real ‘goal-getter’ at the very start. This in the end didn’t matter, as Sturm still scored many goals, basically every player got to score.” However, Schuster went on to explain, although he doesn’t feel Biereth was ready to play for Arsenal last year, he developed a lot and showed his potential, “In this season now he smashed everything. He is currently still top-scorer in the Austrian league despite playing at Monaco since January. I’d say he got too good for the league and I’m not surprised he’s showing it in France, but he wasn’t good enough for a top-five league back in July when Arsenal sold him.”

Biereth’s development has certainly sky-rocketed this season. Few could have predicted when he left for Sturm Graz last summer, that just eight months later, he would be one of the most prolific forwards in the top-five leagues. Joachim Durand is Transfermarkt’s Content Manager in France, and has been shocked by Biereth’s immediate impact in Ligue 1: “Biereth is one of Monaco’s few positives at the start of the year. At a time when the team is struggling collectively, the Dane has made a great contribution. Only Zlatan Ibrahimovic did as well in his first seven Ligue 1 games with PSG in 2012/2013.” Durand also expands on what type of forward Biereth is, “He’s not a self-sufficient striker. He needs others to create chances for him. But he stands out for his intelligent positioning, movement and finishing.”

“His ceiling is difficult to estimate, as he has only just arrived in France and has only played a few matches,” Durand continued. “But he has just turned 22 (on February 8) and has plenty of room for improvement. The fact that he has already managed to score in a struggling team is promising. It could be impressive when the team gets better.” It could perhaps even still be a possibility for the Dane to return to the Emirates one day. In an interview with Danish television last October, Biereth said, “A return back to Arsenal would be fantastic, but it’s not something I’m focusing on right now.” It’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t be getting minutes at this moment in time if he was still an option for the depleted Gunners.