According to Forza Roma (a contributor to La Gazzetta dello Sport), Arsenal have turned down a €10 million offer for Henrikh Mkhitaryan from AS Roma.
The Armenia international is currently on a season-long loan at the Stadio Olimpico and appears to have impressed head coach Paulo Fonseca with his professionalism. So much so, that they wouldn’t mind keeping the midfielder on a permanent basis.
Mkhitaryan’s departure in the final hours of the European transfer window, organised swiftly by Mino Raiola, was a bit of a surprise given it came hours after he’d featured against Sp*rs and not long after the sale of Alex Iwobi.
That said, few tears were shed. During 18 months at the Emirates, he was an infuriatingly inconsistent and, under Unai Emery’s tutelage, didn’t seem to be enjoying himself much. It turns out very few were.
Does Mkhitaryan have an Arsenal future? It seems unlikely. He’s on big wages, secured as part of the swap deal that took Alexis Sanchez to Old Trafford (LOL), and he’s getting on a bit.
If the report is true and we’ve rejected a €10 million offer, that seems fair enough. We may not have paid a fee for him ourselves but he’s a decorated player with a decent back catalogue of clubs. We should be holding out for at least double that amount.
It’s said that Mkhitaryan has already picked up Italian, his eighth language(!), and wouldn’t mind putting down some roots in the Italian capital with his wife pregnant with their first child. So far this season he has three goals and an assist to his name in 10 appearances for the Giallorossi.
One to keep an eye on.
Why? That’s 10 mil plus 180k of wages gone. How much do we really expect to get for him? I’d cut our losses and use that to help fund the rebuild, but what do I know ??♂️
Raiola got him on the mental wages, Raiola can get him off it, to allow a sensible transfer fee.
Hes under the cosh now a bit, what with moving his clients out of places they were doing decently and into high paying footballing dead-ends.
Make him earn his commish.
You can bet that Raiola will want a considerable kick back from Arsenal to push through any deal.
We’d probably get next to nothing and still have to be paying a percentage of his wages.
10 mil Euros… so more like £8.5M
Mkhi makes roughly 10 mil a year, so we would be getting 10 mil plus getting 10 mil of wage bill. We have a buyer now, I’d go for that instead of hoping something better comes along. 10 mil for a 31 year old who’s not really produced all that much on inflated wages isn’t too bad. What’s the saying, don’t pass up a good shot for the perfect shot. If this were a 26 yo in good form I’d hold out. We have plenty other players we need to move on that’ll likely be difficult, this one seems a… Read more »
I think the saying is ’10 mil in the hand is worth more than 20 in the bush’
Do we know how much of his wages we’re still paying? If Roma are paying the bulk already that changes the maths. Besides, do you take their first offer if they’re that keen?
I think this would turn out a good deal!!!! For £20million I’d bit their hands off!!!! We need all the in coming transfer fees we can!!! Another £20 Million for Mustafi and it’s a promising summer already!!!!
Why not £100m each though?
Think some people might have missed this sarcasm…
We know there is a good player in there somewhere… would be interesting to see what Arteta could do with him considering what we seen so far from others who have been under performing. Does any one know if there is a recall option in his loan deal?? is there a chance he could be coming back this window??
How long do you hold out for that though? It’s been, what, four years since we was consistently performing well with Dortmund. Would much rather cut our losses, though I think we should be aiming for £15-20m bracket transfer fee wise.
That’ll help
MjC you could very well be right, it might be a lost cause and if he was coming back to play on the wing, how much time would he realistically get with Pepe and Nelson ahead of him… I am just worried he might run his contract down to get a bumper pay day for what would likely be his final club IF Xhaka does leave I wonder if Mkhi can play in the center, like in a similar way Cazorla did for us, get ball to feet while surrounded, turn and find a pass or use a bit of… Read more »
I think he could play in the Ozil #10 role in Cup games and as depth. We are flush with wingers but lack CAMs, and frankly Willock needs to go on loan. Mhki would be an upgrade in this respect.
But, age and wages, and an offer on the table. Tough call.
Willock is ready for first team. He can’t be good in every game.
Agree with this. While it would have been interesting to see him perform under a proper coach (like the much better returns in Italy and not for Mourinho or Emery), he is not the future, certainly not at the rate of pay. Even if he reaches his Dortmund performance level (which was awesome), it will be a be for a very short period considering his age.
Its players like Saka (not the same flank), Pepe, ESR (not a winger but to gain experience) that we should be looking to.
£15m and wages off the bill sounds perfect. I got disillusioned with Mkhi I have to say because he definitely has talent. I’m so happy to see him smiling and soon to become a father which is something he was keen to do. Good luck to him.
He is rubbish. Arteta with one win under his belt cannot perform miracles!
More than anything this makes me wish we kept iwobi who I think would make an ideal number 9 in artetas set up after a bit of instruction
Iwobi number 9? How many goals was he scoring?
Alex Iwobi? One goal and zero assists in 16 matches Alex Iwobi?
Nah, I’m good that we sold him for 34 million. Quite shocked still, actually.
Yup that sounds like the one!
You would play Iwobi as a striker? Riiigghhhtt
I’d hope it’s just us pushing for maximum value, rather than wanting to keep a player that just didn’t work out
Me too, and use the incoming funds to purchase Ceballos.
Ceballos has done nothing for us
We held out for half decent money for Kos…of course we want maximum value.
He’d be a top player under Arteta. I hope there is a recall option this January. We’ll go all the way in Europa league with Mkhi in the squad. I’m not all that confident with Nelson, Willock or even Pepe. I think Mkhi understands the game better than them.
Are you serious about Pepe? Has already shown what a sensational player he will become this season
Pepe is raw, he’s got end product, but there’s plenty of rough edges to his game.
Physically he doesn’t look ready.
Think it’ll be next season before we really start seeing him adjust, Lacazette was the same in his first season.
The man will be 31 in three weeks and has never played consistently well in England. He’s on huge wages. I’d jump at the change to offload him. Maybe push that fee up a bit if possible but we could do a lot with that extra room in the wage bill. Plenty of younger players more suited to our needs would jump at half of his wages.
10.000001 euros!
Have you guys never read ” The art of the deal” By Donald J Trump? Never take the first offer. 10m sounds decent but again if it’s the opening offer…
Also , no I haven’t read that shit and I’d wager that neither has he. Doesn’t come of as a “reader” to me.
If Trump had posted the first paragraph in Twitter he would have got at least a 100k RTs & 100k Likes.
So we should hire some dirty lawyers to go threaten Roma into paying more money then?
More of a writer then?
Perhaps Arteta wants the chance to fully assess the squad in the next pre season before he sanctions sales. To be fair we could probably use a Mhki at the top of his game right now. Whether Arteta can bring that out in him? Who knows.
Cum?
15 million and it’s a deal. We can use that to strengthen the squad.
Would be shocked if we could get double that in Europe, best we cut our losses quickly and move on.
I wish no arsenal fan would complain about the wages. We understand transfer fees need to roughly balance out, but none of us have a clue as to the wage limit for the whole squad. None of us know what the club is willing or able to pay in wages to the squad. Stop acting like it’s your own personal money paying these guys, for real.
I probably would have taken it simply to get his wages off the books. Is he worth much more? 30 about to be a 31 year old in a few weeks with his best years behind him, declining clearly. An international still, yes, but for Armenia, let’s face it he isn’t making any other decent national sides. Just accept and be done with it. Who knows if we get a better offer or any other offer at all.
I want him back. Let arteta work with him
Swap him for Lorenzo Pellegrini.
Sell him now.
I wont mind recalling him, we need an Ozil alternative until end of the season. Willock and ESR need to be send on loan for remainder of the season so that they can play regularly. They have the talent but physically not ready, decision making is also an issue with the young players. Mhki might turn out good under Arteta and will help Ozil in that number 10 role.
I’m trying to think of who the last player was that we sent on loan at Willock and ESR’s age that actually returned and made good in the first team?
I guess Chambers, who was actually older, but who else?
That might just be down to a lack of talent for a while there though.
Beilik?
To be honest I would have taken that offer. He’s the wrong side of 30, not going to move any mountains with us and his wages are huge.
10 million in current football club is nothing.
While I think we should offload him, I think the club is trying to give standing point that the clubs cannot lowball us anymore unlike last time.
His loan fee is dwarfed by his wages, so I would take what we can and get is 10m a year off the books. At some point you have to simplify things and get rid of all the players hanging on to Arsenal in the form of loans.
Blogs, among others, didn’t like him. I think he was fast, technical and offensive with good passes. But we don’t lack attacking midfielders. The defence is first and second priority. Although I think Sokratis is at the required level, he needs one or two established, world class players beside him.
Arteta seems to be satisfied with Granit and Lucas. But I would like reinforcement in midfield as well. This autumn, we have been totally overrun. Where is the next Pirlo, Fabregas or Veratti?
The next Pirlo would be abused to the end of time for his lack of pace. Pirlo was not the quickest player and it would seem fans now hold speed as everything. Once a player has pace, he just seems to be more committed, to want it more, to be a hardworker in the eyes of fans.
Bring him back , in Man united they finished 5th he helped them win the Europa league and they played CL , last year he was playing the toughest role ,getting the ball to the front ,and helped us reached the final EU and we lost .he went to Roma his doing brilliant there . His a player where all the coaches were giving him toughest tasks in the team and play him out off position .look what happen to us this year ,we dont have anyone to build up game and do the tough work . He was always… Read more »
Sell him.
I mean we got him for free.
Lazy solution by Mslintat.
Antone can be shit under a complete shit manager. Emery has been the worst manager i have ever seen. id still sell for 10.