SAMI MOKBEL: Transfer window pain for Spurs and Arsenal again

You can’t imagine Mikel Arteta or Antonio Conte will reflect on their respective January transfer windows with much positivity.

Late on Monday night, Arsenal’s worst fears had become a very expensive reality while Tottenham were just happy to have signed two Juventus fringe players after being snubbed twice in the space of 24 hours last week.

Let’s start with Arsenal: they wanted this to be the Dusan Vlahovic window - instead it will forever be remembered as the month they let Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leave for nothing.

Truth be told, the Gunners knew the very public fall-out between Arteta and star striker Aubameyang would hit them in the pocket - as was outlined in this newspaper on December 16.

But quite how much it cost them surpassed even their own anxious predictions.

Aubameyang - their £350,000 per week centre forward - was en route to Barcelona on a free transfer on deadline day.

Arteta’s decision to ostracise Aubameyang had played into Barca’s hands.

In normal circumstances, Aubameyang - with 18 months left on his contract - would be worth upwards of £40million. It’s hard to argue that the numbers add up for Arsenal.

They will point towards the fact they are saving just over £27million in wages as justification behind their decision.

Similarly, Arteta will say Aubameyang’s departure is crucial to maintaining squad harmony. It’s hard to put a price on that.

But that is unlikely to satisfy those in charge of the Emirates coffers, who would have expected at least some return on a striker they signed for £56million in 2018.

As revealed by Sportsmail last month, Arsenal had received an offer from Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal, who were willing to take Aubameyang on loan until the summer, take on all of his wages and