Arsenal: Prepare for disappointing sales

Arsenal are reportedly looking to offload a slew of players this summer as Unai Emery looks to rebuild the squad. Fans, though, should prepare for some disappointing sales figures.

For the right price, everything is up for sale. In football, this has always been the case. Never did I think that Cristiano Ronaldo would first leave Manchester United and then Real Madrid. But for the right price, he was sold on both occasions.

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Even the best players in the world, the most important players of a squad, will be sold if a bid high enough comes in for them. So, when discussing the nature and sensibility of a sale, it must always be tied to the price paid. If Aaron Ramsey was leaving Arsenal this summer for £100 million, there would be few complaints. It is the fact that nothing is gained in return that riles so many.

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This summer, it seems clear that the Gunners are eager to offload a boatload of players. There are those that do not feature all that heavily, Carl Jenkinson, Mohamed Elneny, the returning loanees. But per all reports, Arsenal are wanting to go a step further and actively try to sell many of their more important players of the past season. Unai Emery wants to rip it up and start again. It is a plan that makes a lot of sense.

To rebuild the squad, Emery needs resources. Although the development of young talent already at the club will certainly help, where the real progress will be made is in the transfer market. In football, money talks, and Emery will be wanting to spend his way out of trouble. Sadly, though, he has little money to splash. This is where the sales enter the equation.

Arsenal are being aggressive in their offloading of players because they want to raise funds for Emery to reinvest in the squad. The reported £45 million transfer kitty is not a lot. This must be heavily supplemented by player sales. And there are three substantial players that seem to be rising to the top of a potential sales list: Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Selling all three makes complete sense. They do not fit what Emery wants to do, they are very expensive, particularly in the case of Ozil and Mkhitaryan, and they have largely underperformed this season, with Mustafi especially proving that he lacks the requisite quality to produce at the highest level. In a vacuum, selling these players is a smart move. But you cannot separate the cleverness of selling a player from the price they are sold for, and this is where disappointment will seep in.

If Arsenal are wanting to raise way north of £50 million from selling these three players, they will not get their wish. Mustafi is worth little more than £15 million with his mistake-riddled performances, Mkhitaryan is on approximately £200,000, has played largely awfully this season and is now the wrong side of 30, while Ozil’s much-discussed wages could force the club to pay another to lessen the damage. £20 million for Ozil or Mkhitaryan would be good going indeed.

Arsenal do need to make sales this summer. They need to gut the squad and start again. And Emery deserves to be the leader of this process. But there may be some disappointing sales along the way because few of these players are worth as much as what they may seem.