Arsenal: Player sales just as important as player acquisitions

Arsenal are in dire need of investment this summer. But while purchasing the correct players is critical, selling the right ones for the right price is just as important.

It has been reported by various sources time and time again that Arsenal will have a transfer budget of about £45 million pounds this summer. Given the size of the club and their self-professed goals of challenging for the title, this is absolutely ridiculous.

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However, there is unfortunately not much that the common fan can do to contest this. The club’s controversial owner, Stan Kroenke, owns 100% of the organisation and, sadly, what he says, goes.

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Arsenal are run in a self-sustaining manner and the lack of Champions League football, which they will now have for the third year in a row, severely harms the transfer budget. It is reported that if the club did manage Champions League qualification, the budget would be boosted by a good £20-30 million, such is the added financial footfall of the competition. But the Gunners did not qualify. In Wednesday night’s Europa League final, the last route into the competition, they lost, emphatically.

With the small budget restricting the spending this summer, player sales are now an absolute must if serious improvements to the current squad want to be made. Unai Emery will have some crucial judgements to make on current individuals, deciding whether to keep them and use them or get rid.

Players such as Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who are on ridiculously high wages given what they bring to the table, should now be considered as prime candidates to be moved on. The club cannot afford to have luxury players like those, especially when they so expensive.

Other players, such as Shkodran Mustafi and Sead Kolasinac, are also on very high wages given their undeniable inconsistency. Clearing out just these four players would clear up over £600,000-a-week in wages, not to mention at least some sort of transfer fee would presumably be earned in return, which, that would help boost the spending budget. The team is in desperate need of a mass-clear-out and ‘big name’ players should not have immunity from the metaphorical axe.

You can add aging veterans to the list of players that big decisions must be made about this summer. The likes of Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal should not be kept at the club solely for sentimental reasons. If Unai Emery believes they produce for the team, fair enough, but if they are being kept simply out of a lack of ruthlessness, that is a problem.

Older players on high wages sticking around for no apparent reason can be extremely detrimental to the club’s well-being. Selling players that are past their prime may not bring in loads of cash, however, it would make the freakishly large wage bill a little smaller.

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Acquiring quality players is incredibly important in the coming transfer window, of course. But selling those that are surplus to requirements is equally critical. The board has a lot of work to do in cleaning up the mess the previous regime left. Whether or not they are capable is still to be determined. Let’s hope they are and that this is not another depressing summer window

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