Arsenal: How smart selling can aid squad overhaul

Arsenal are in the process of overhauling their squad. This summer, some smart sales can aid this process as they look to raise significant funds.

After the forced resignation of Arsene Wenger almost two years ago, Arsenal committed themselves to a new era. The Gunners were in a mess. They missed out on the Champions League for the second successive year, the squad was ageing and underperforming, and the rest of the Premier League had caught up and even surpassed the club.

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From a personnel standpoint, Arsenal have since looked to overhaul the entire squad. They have invested more over the past two summer transfer windows than in any two successive summer windows in the club history and now field a team that is almost unrecognisable from that under Wenger.

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But as the results on the pitch prove, there is still a long way to go when it comes to filling out the team. There are major needs across the board that require substantial investment, including at centre-back, right-back, throughout the central midfield, and out wide. You could make an argument that the club needs to sign four or five elite players to establish themselves in the top four and more next season.

Even with an unlimited budget, finding that many impactful players is difficult. But with Arsenal having missed the Champions League for three years, only inflating their wage budget, and on the precipice of Champions League qualification yet again this season, they do not have the financial firepower to sweep through the squad with free-spending transfers. They must be more frugal and economically prudent. To this point, their sales are as important as their signings.

This is where the club can really help itself, providing a financial position to invest heavily. There are plenty of young, emerging talents, each of which could fetch £20 million at a minimum. Being ruthless and selling two or three for hefty returns would allow Mikel Arteta to sign an elite centre-back, for example.

Players like Rob Holding, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Sead Kolasinac and current loanees Mohamed Elneny and Henrikh Mkhitaryan can all be sold for decent figures. It is not unreasonable to think that Arsenal could raise up to £50 million from these players alone.

Then there are the high-paid veterans. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and/or Alexandre Lacazette would represent a £40-plus million return, Mesut Ozil would shave a significant portion off the wage bill if he can be offloaded, while Sokratis, David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi are all vastly overpaid for their current roles in the squad and level of performance.

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Of course, not all these sales will be made this summer — and not all these sales should be made this summer. But as the north London outfit look to revamp their squad with sweeping investments, what might end up dictating the quality and extent of their summer work is not the players that they bring in but those that they sell and the money they can raise.

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