Arsenal and Shkodran Mustafi: Consistent failure to sell tells whole story

According to David Ornstein, Arsenal have attempted and failed to sell Shkodran Mustafi in almost every window since they signed him. That tells you everything you need to know.

There are many players that Arsenal should be attempting to sell this summer. Some of them are because they simply lack the quality required to perform at the sharp end of the Premier League. Others are because of the financial restrictions the club is working under. More still are a combination of the two.

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But if you had to pick out one name who, above all others, should be prioritised as a sale this summer, it might well be centre-back Shkodran Mustafi, who suffered another deplorable season as a hapless anchor at the base of the defence.

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The German spans both the financial and footballing reasons to conduct a sale. Not only has he proven his footballing deficiencies, but he is also paid £90,000-a-week to slip and slide his way to utter incompetence. That is the kind of player that every club should be looking to offload.

And this week, David Ornstein confirmed many rumours that have seeped out of the club over the past few years: Arsenal have attempted to sell Mustafi in almost every transfer window since his £35 million arrival in 2016. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Ornstein said:

"“After the Europa League final, Unai Emery who had always put his faith in Mustafi despite a number of high-profile mistakes, decided that enough was enough with him. And he is no longer in favour of keeping him – so he could be sold. Arsenal have tried to sell him pretty much every window since they signed him.”"

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And that tells you everything you need to know regarding Mustafi. That even after being signed as the club’s joint-second record transfer, there were immediate doubts regarding his utility and that he was nearly offloaded on several occasions.

The reason they did not complete the sale is obvious, when you think about it. Price. Arsenal did not want to publicly humiliate themselves and suffer a substantial loss on a signing that they were utterly giving up on within a year or two of his signing. They were likely holding out for the £35 million they paid. That, of course, was never going to come.

This also corroborates Gary Neville’s story of how Mustafi came to be sold from Valencia in the first place. Neville stated that he and the Spanish club were trying desperately to sell Mustafi but could not find a buyer for him. And then, out of the blue, Arsenal swooped in with a jaw-dropping £35 million bid. They accepted it in an instant.

The whole Mustafi venture has been a complete mess, from the price paid to sign him, to the failure to sell him from that point on; from the wage he is paid, to his performances on the pitch. It might just be time to cut bait and run because this venture has gone far enough. And Unai Emery agrees.