Arsenal nearing 3 player sales worth £26m

Konstantinos Mavropanos Set for £7m Arsenal Exit

With two central defenders away on loan during the 2020/21 campaign, there was unlikely to ever be enough room for both to come back to London Colney and fight for a place in the squad, let alone the starting lineup, unless one was sold.

A decision has been made for William Saliba to return and be assessed during pre-season, but as for Konstantinos Mavropanos, football.london report he is due to leave the club this summer with Arteta not convinced he can offer enough to his side to stay.

Now ‘on the verge’ of re-joining Stuttgart on a permanent deal for £7m, Arsenal’s decision to hand the Greek defender a new contract in July 2020 before sending him out on loan to the Bundesliga for 12 months has paid dividends.

Signed for £1.8m from PAS Giannina in 2018, Mavropanos will become the first player since Olivier Giroud in 2012 to be bought and then sold for a profit.

However, £7m feels like an awfully low figure for a player who has just come off the back of a superb campaign in Germany and is still only 23 years old.

Winning 75.4% of his aerial duels, sitting in the 98th percentile for interceptions, completed dribbles, passes blocked, tackles in the defensive third and so on and so forth, the point is that he was brilliant for Stuttgart and this deal feels like one where it’s satisfying the players’ preference over the club’s.

Mavropanos hasn’t hid his desire to stay at the club but with interest elsewhere he could surely have garnered a bigger fee. But, in any case, there is no room for him at Arsenal with the Ben White deal hotting up and at least it’s a profit for a change.

The other departure closing in has less emotional attachment to it.

Continued…