Arsenal had made far more than just those three transfers. Several other players had also arrived in London one after another.
It was just that their transfer fees were nowhere near as high as Buffon, Nesta, or David Beckham's, and they were not as famous either, so they did not cause such a sensation.
For example, they brought Ronaldinho over from Paris Saint-Germain for thirty million euros.
They bought Cristiano Ronaldo for thirty million euros.
And for five million euros, they brought Lionel Messi over from Barcelona!
The reason they were able to secure Messi for such a low price was that he had only just turned sixteen at the end of June. David Dein had gone secretly to Barcelona before Messi's birthday and finalized the deal.
Under UEFA regulations, academy players under sixteen could not sign professional contracts. Academy contracts were renewed annually, and players could choose to leave on a free transfer once their contracts expired!
Of course, to encourage clubs to develop their academies, anyone who wanted to take an academy player from another club also had to pay that club a certain amount in compensation.
On the surface, Arsenal paid Barcelona five million euros in compensation, but behind the scenes, they also paid Messi's agent and Messi himself a combined signing bonus of ten million euros!
At the time, Messi had not even played a first-team match for Barcelona, nor did he know what kind of future awaited him.
Faced with the enormous financial temptation and the highly generous contract Arsenal offered, he ultimately chose Arsenal.
This sort of arrangement—privately offering a player himself a massive signing bonus to entice him into joining one's club—was quite common in professional football and did not violate any rules.
Sometimes, a star player's transfer fee was even lower than