Arsenal’s coffers should be swelled by a return to the Champions League but with fringe players looking for more game time and lots of deadwood still on the books, there’s real potential to reset our reputation as a poor selling club.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles has confirmed that he’ll be leaving Arsenal on a free and we already know that Pablo Mari will complete a move to AC Monza after they secured their Serie A status for another year.
In the coming days, it’s also expected that Granit Xhaka will draw the curtain on seven seasons as a Gunner to sign for Bayer Leverkusen in a deal worth £13 million.
But what else could happen? We take a look…
[Remember, more poos means we’re less convinced by the rumour / exit]
Thomas Partey
Writing in the Mirror, John Cross suggests that clubs in Italy are weighing up a move for the Ghana international. Integral to Arsenal’s midfield in the first half of the season, the midfielder’s form fell off a cliff in the closing months amidst concerns about his fitness. He turns 30 in a couple of weeks’ time (until then he’s 29, that’s how it works), so he’s no spring chicken and with two years left on his contract this would be the optimal time to try and claw back some of the original €50 million outlay. That said, can we afford to let both Partey and Xhaka leave in the same window? Seems risky.
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Kieran Tierney
Once appreciated and now underused, the Scotland international has long been linked with a move to Newcastle United and they remain the frontrunner to sign him. There were also some spurious links with Manchester City but they only surfaced after Arsenal were said to be interested in Joao Cancelo. A swap deal with the Blues was mooted by some no-marks and that is clearly not going to happen. The Scottish media seem to think Celtic have a sell-on clause, so we’ll also have to take that into consideration.
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Reiss Nelson
Out of contract this summer, it’s said the winger has so far rebuffed Arsenal’s attempts to get him to stay. Brighton were linked a while back but in recent days it’s AC Milan who appear the most interested in taking the player on a free. They’ve also been linked with Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek and already have England international Fikayo Tomori on the books. Is any of that relevant? Probably not. Fabrizio Romano claims sides in France have also contacted our man.
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Folarin Balogun
Having hit 21 goals in 37 appearances for Ligue 1 outfit Reims and with the USA trumpeting his high-profile international allegiance switch, Balogun is very much in the spotlight at the moment. Unsurprisingly, clubs across Europe are sounding him out about a summer move knowing Arsenal might struggle to offer him the minutes he needs to develop. Again, AC Milan have been mentioned as a destination.
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Sambi Lokonga
Links with newly-promoted Burnley can be directly attributed to Sambi’s working relationship with Clarets’ boss Vincent Kompany who was briefly in charge at Anderlecht. The former Manchester City captain is on record saying how much he rates the 23-year-old although he’s yet to prove he’s worthy of such praise. The Belgian was hoping to build his confidence on loan at Crystal Palace but his game time has been limited since Patrick Vieira was sacked and Roy Hodgson took over. He’s only played 70 minutes for the Eagles since January. Sevilla are the other side thought to be sniffing around.
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Auston Trusty
Voted Birmingham City’s player of the season by fans, the American returns to Arsenal with a feather in his cap and a full year of Championship experience under his belt. The Scottish Sun have reported that SPL giants Rangers want to sign the centre-back.
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AOB
There are a host of other players who Edu has placed on the market, including Nicolas Pepe, Alex Runarsson, Cedric Soares, Nuno Tavares and Charlie Patino. Speculation about where they might end up has been thin on the ground so far. Emile Smith Rowe and Rob Holding could also leave if the right offer comes in.
If you own a football club and have some spare cash, don’t be shy…
Why does Eddie never get mentioned in these round ups. He’s hardly set the world alight when he’s come on and would surely command a decent fee to put towards a substantial upgrade?
Why other teams will come for a player who ‘hardly set the world alight’?
If they have no decent options up front then he could potentially be a huge upgrade for a team (the west hams / palace / forests of this world)
He went through a patch of scoring goals but I’ve never been sold on him really being the level to push us forward to where we want to be going.
I think we need something along the lines of an Ivan toney (minus the ban) to give us something different up front
Balogun will give us something different up front so hopefully we can give him a chance and direct our funds elsewhere instead.
Of course it depends if he wants to stick around, but Mikel and Edu appear to be rather persuasive.
I don’t see Eddie being sold, even with Balogun in the squad.
He’s only just signed a new contract, and the manager trusts him enough to impact games from the bench. There would probably be more speculation about him if the Balogun situation was less up in the air as well.
He ‘set the world alight’ against Man Utd, with two crucial goals, when we needed him to step up in the absence of Jesus.
As for an upgrade – we may have one already.
Flo Balogun.
Arsenal need an upgrade on Jesus, which would push Eddie to no 3 choice . Not sure he would be too happy about that and maybe the time is right to cash in while he has had some decent game time and good value still.
Eddie is already no 3 choice. Trossard is no 2
I don’t think it’s inconceivable that we listen to offers for Holding and Marquinhos either, if the price is right
Holding for sure. Marquinhos likely will get loaned again.
What the hell? Marquinhos is definitely staying I think.
I think he probably will, but not an impossibility that he could be sold if we get a buyer
Wow. I forgot we even have Marquinhos. Where has he been?
Norwich.
Norwich on loan… And from what I have heard ad read, it didn’t go great. He has lots of time on his side though
Long as we keep Holding for Sunday v Diego ‘nutter’ Costa
I honestly think letting Patino leave would be a Gnabry-sized blunder.
If he’s not going to sign a new contract, and if we can include buy-back/sell-on clauses then it makes sense.
Yeah, of course, that’s an area we need to get considerably better in. I just think this is going to be one that comes back to bite us on the arse, but like you say, if the player wants to go then we’re not left with much alternative
Letting Balogun go is the potential blunder.
Andy Cole II, springs to mind….
If we get a half decent offer for Partey we should take it. He’s been rubbish for most of the games lately, when he’s not been injured, and he’ got two years left on his contract. There are also other issues with him, I’d be glad to see him sold.
Partey was excellent the whole season until he had to play those 3 games with Rob Holding behind him.
He was as good as anyone in the league earlier, and really crucial to the way we played. I don’t think a player loses form so drastically and so quickly unless he has an injury. That leaves a quandary: if it looks like a chronic issue, then his sale value is much lower. If we’re confident it’s temporary, then there is no reason to replace him in the short term, especially if Xhaka is going.
The “other issues” you allude to, of course, can change everything.
What other issues?????
What happened to Tavares? I remember reading he did very well in the start of the season and that we might even turn a profit on him. Now it seems like he is destined for another loan without obligation to buy?
Him and Lokonga will be real test of Edus selling ability. Young and lots of potential but nowhere near a finished product. I hope he can get someone to bite on the talent – I would probably be ok with a smaller fee now and a hefty sell on clause.
Players we shouldn’t have bougyto start with. It’s very difficult to sell on players who are not good enough
Tavares has a shit attitude and has been progressively worse on the pitch. Marseille don’t want him around after the season ends and Mikel doesn’t want him at Arsenal. He’ll be sold or worst case scenario loaned again, he has no future at the club. It’s a pity because there is a talent there but he doesn’t do himself any favours.
Bad attitude and cannot defend for toffee.
Tavares was bloody awful. A loose cannon.
The guy is a disaster waiting to happen. We cannot afford to carry anyone anymore.
Get rid. Now.
I believe we seriously need more firepower in the team/squad, if we’re to put the results of games beyond the reach of referee/VAR decisions. It will also enable us to compete better with the usual suspects.
Makes life easier in general if you win most games in the first half.
Seems key to being able to mount a sustained challenge on all fronts.
There’s a guy in his final year contract proudly wearing an arsenal shirt when he was 11 who scores 25 plus goals every season in the PL playing for a washed up team who hasn’t had a trophy to its name for 30 years
Wait Harry Kane ? Good player but we need winners.
Oh get real FFS.
Harry fucking Kane….
Jeeez….🙄
I’d forgotten about Trusty.
If he had a good season for Brum (he looked good in every “all touches” clip of him I watched) I think he should fetch a decent amount from a Championship club. I can’t see Rangers being able to offer more for him. If it’s chump change, we might as well loan him out again.
Personally I think he looks decent, but they signed Kiwior now, so it’s unlikely he’ll get into the squad.
Fabio Vieira should be on this list and out the door. Offers absolutely nothing. He makes Pepe look like Mbappe.
Possibly the worst take on a player i’ve heard in a very long time
I guess you should watch some games first.
I agree. Too lightweight, and not influential enough to overcome it. Total crap that he gets match time over ESR.
Esr has been just as bad
Emile Smith Rowe hasn’t played
Most of the games that we brought him on were situations where we needed a goal because the game was tied or we were behind. He really didn’t give us anything. He actually sucked the life out of the team. He needs to go on loan or sold. Definitely not Premier League material.
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Fucking hell I forgot about Runarsson!
Plug from The Bash Street Kids.
All our keepers and former keepers are internationals. England, Iceland, Estonia, USA, Argentina, Germany, Poland.
His would be the comeback of the century.
I wish someone could tell me what happened to ESR that he featured so little this season. I know he was injured, and on the comeback trail, but we flagged so much at the end, and I believe he could have got us back into many of the games we struggled in and dropped points.
This happened with Martinelli after his injury and it seemed Arteta didn’t rate him. Next season he is the main man. Hopefully a similar thing going on here. He gave him the number 10 so would have to be a big drop off somewhere to suddenly be wanting rid
Keep seeing him in promotional pictures so perhaps he is staying put
That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking too. There are also reports of him being retrained for a deeper role which could be interesting. Hope he stays.
Me too
I heard that same report of him being trained as a No 8 – he has that flexibility in his play for it.
He’s got a Debruyneness about him in the way he turns and runs vertically. Guardiola has set his tactics to allow KDB loads of space in the 10 role and it kinda worked out. Arteta should be able to figure out something similar to get the best out of ESR.
Makes sense, he’s more powerful than Sakanelli and good ball retention in tight spaces.
I would like to see ESR stay but the others leaving would not bother me too much.
I don’t think we will get Rice though – Man Utd or Chelsea will just outbid us every time.
The player also has to agree personal terms, it’s not just who bids the highest. That would give us the edge over Chelsea.
. . . claw back some of the original €50 million outlay. (emphasis added)
Interesting word choice. Partey has often been the best and most influential player in the squad in terms of how we want to play. He’s been a pillar of the first XI since his arrival. He’s been good value for the initial transfer fee.
It would be a mistake to jettison him after finally providing proper rotational cover for his role/position so that he isn’t asked to run through pain and injuries. We might see the best of him next season.
Hopefully a summer full activity and another window of getting rid of deadwood. I’m convinced Edu and Arteta know what they are doing now, so apart from the obvious ones, your Saka’s, Ode’s, Salibas’ to name a few I couldn’t care who they decide to get rid of. Bring it on.
Still think a “Plan B” striker who is imposing in the air would add something to the team ? An HFB type of striker to give options for our wide lads ! Hopefully Rice arrives & a right back/left back or get Tomi to stay fit ! Harvey Barnes at Leicester would be a good addition for depth as well !
We are in the champions league and the squad needs 5 high quality additions to take the team forward. I would like to see us retain academy players and add high quality additions. I would like us to win the premier league next season. I personally believe that Chelsea, United and Liverpool will be in a rebuilding stage. Next season we must win at Anfield and City.