Arsenal: What’s the plan with Henrikh Mkhitaryan?

Arsenal need to start the sales, but few guys are even being talked about. Why isn’t Henrikh Mkhitaryan kicking up more transfer speculation?

There are three guys that everyone knows Arsenal need to sell: Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Ozil has been talked about at length. It’s his contract that’s the biggest hold-up, and it’s going to be horrible trying to get him off the books.

But the other two shouldn’t be as hard. Sure, Shkodran Mustafi has had his issues, but he’s still a tremendous athlete with a ton yet to give. And Henrikh Mkhitaryan isn’t bogged down by a massive money deal, he actually chipped in his fair share of goal contributions last year, and yet, for whatever reason, he is the guy least talked about among the three stooges.

For all of his faults, Mkhitaryan was the only of the three that truly shone at times last year. There was one month where he was on fire, scoring, assisting, and looking like his old Borussia Dortmund self.

The man still has it, he just hasn’t been himself since leaving the Bundesliga. Keep in mind that Manchester United bought him for nearly £40m, and while we got him in a swap, it was still valued at just over £30m.

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Maybe age and lack of consistency has hit that value a bit, but expecting to get £25m out of selling him is by no means a ridiculous concept. Not when you see all the other ridiculous price tags floating around out there for guys whose only credit is that they play in the Premier League. Mkhtitaryan plays in the Premier League and he hasn’t exactly been awful… just below average.

It makes me wonder if there is a hierarchy to the sales here. A sort of prioritizing, and of the three, Mkhitaryan is the least pertinent to sell. But that’s where I get a bit confused because I think he’d be one of the easiest of the three, and it’s not that obvious that Arsenal are trying to sell him. After all, he does play the game much closer to Emery’s style than Ozil does. Worst case he’s a viable midweek starter and veteran leader.

Selling should still be a priority though, which is why I’m so confused as to why there isn’t more chatter centered on the Armenian out there. He’s not exactly old and he still has gobs of talent.