5 transfers Arsenal are failing to complete this summer

Who is panicking? Is anyone? Should we be? Is calm what is needed? Are Edu and co doing their jobs properly? Is the situation at Arsenal fixable? Where do we go from here? Why haven’t we permanently sold anyone? What do we make of all this?

A few of the questions that supporters may be feeling anxious about. It’s a given. After all, Brentford is around the corner and with no Martin Odegaard and no fit Thomas Partey, while only Ben White has joined to play in the starting lineup, the squad is only marginally improved.

Signings will come. Not so much out of confidence of a deal being struck in the coming days, but merely out of necessity. A backup goalkeeper and attacking midfielder, at the very least, have to be signed before deadline day. No ifs, buts or maybes.

In order to facilitate those moves, however, a few sales wouldn’t go amiss.

5 transfers Arsenal are failing to complete this summer as Mikel Arteta seeks to overhaul his bloated squad with quality and financial injection

This is where a serious problem lies and recent developments surrounding Joe Willock offer some vital encouragement on that front. A few reports have been circling around claiming that a fee in the region of £22m will be sent Arsenal’s way by Newcastle, who are throwing all their eggs (money) in that one basket (player).

Whether the squad needs a Willock or not – it does – that kind of money, especially given how the market is, can’t be overlooked.

Much more is still demanded.

There are a glorious amount of used plants in the Arsenal forest that need re-homing. Some landscape gardening is underway but it’s tough to find buyers for budget trees that are used to living in premium grade soil.

Some of these players in particular are proving even tougher to shift. As Arsenal pursue a goalkeeper that may end up costing them £30m and a playmaker comfortably housed at a club who hold all the power, they won’t manage much until they shift these troublesome few.

1. Alexandre Lacazette

Age: 30
Contract expiry: 2022
Rumoured wages: £180k-per-week

Arsenal currently boast three centre-forwards. In a season where there is no European football to contend with and all eyes are on the 38-game Premier League season, that is plenty.

So why have numerous links emerged surrounding the potential capture of a new No. 9? Because while Arsenal may have three, they don’t want those three.

Between Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Folarin Balogun, the one to be cut is clear. The captain will stay for another season at least and Balogun has recently agreed a long-term contract with the plan being to nurture him into a first team star. Or try to, anyway.

With one year left on his deal it’s Lacazette to go. Why hasn’t he? Probably something to do with length of contract, age and wages. If we’re hazarding a total stab in the dark.

Any move for Lacazette will be his last ‘big’ one, and finding a club who can negotiate around his £180k-per-week salary, offer him the length of contract he’d want at his age and pay a fee to Arsenal for a talented striker is nigh-on impossible.

Throw in the chance to discuss a pre-contract agreement with another club in January and suddenly it’s not much of a surprise Arsenal can’t move him on.

2. Sead Kolasinac

Age: 28
Contract expiry: 2022
Rumoured wages: £100k-per-week

When your replacement has been signed and you’re still at the football club one month on it’s plain to see just how painful an operation it is trying to shift Sead Kolasinac.

There are no disagreements surrounding his future: Arsenal want to move him on and he is keen on doing likewise. Leaving in January to join Schalke 04 not only indicated how minimal the market is for a left-back who can’t pass but also how little enjoyment he was having in north London.

He wants out of Arsenal and in whatever way that can be achieved, it will be.

Which of course indicates – as was fairly obvious from the moment he returned in the summer – that a contract termination is due. Turkish outlet Fanatik are suggesting it’s precisely that that Fenerbahce are pushing for, as they want to sign the Bosnian but only on a free deal having already agreed personal terms.

Unsurprisingly, Mesut Ozil is helping to try and get this deal over line. Not quite sure how, but he is. Apparently.

In any case Kolasinac just needs to go. Arsenal have tried to sell him for even a minimal fee to no avail, and their struggles to do so are hardly surprising – he won’t be here come August 31 as he won’t even be picked for the Premier League squad.

Cancelling contracts are just admissions of failure in sheep’s clothing but we’re all sick of wool now and are in need of a change of wardrobe.

3. Hector Bellerin

Age: 25
Contract expiry: 2023
Rumoured wages: £110k-per-week

Hector Bellerin should be easy to sell.

A lot of players this summer should also be easy to sell but the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on club finances across Europe is no more obvious than with the Spaniard.

Granted, he was poor for large spells last season. He lost his place in the team and unfairly became the scapegoat among the fans when the true trials and tribulations took place.

But Bellerin is also 25 years old, an outstanding professional and, believe it or not, every now and then not too bad. Some journeys just run their course and that’s happened at Arsenal.

And having been the subject of intense interest last summer, here we are now with Inter trying to negotiate a loan deal that includes a £17m option to buy. There is widespread interest in the right-back in Spain and Italy, yet that is the best that is being offered.

So much so that the Gunners are rumoured to have dropped their hopes of a permanent sale in order to sanction his departure.

Another supremely tough deal to complete.

4. Reiss Nelson

Age: 21
Contract expiry: 2022
Rumoured wages: £15k-per-week

With Willock, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Eddie Nketiah all on the transfer list, while they haven’t been moved on just yet, there is at least a wider market for them.

Willock was sensational at Newcastle and is now in the shop window, Maitland-Niles did well enough at West Brom to have a fair few interested parties and Nketiah, despite barely playing, is the England Under-21 all-time top scorer and has looked very sharp in pre-season.

Add their respective ages and homegrown statuses and you’ve got options out there, even if clubs may not pay what it is Arsenal would ideally prefer this summer.

However, with Reiss Nelson, he’s never proven it in the Premier League or elsewhere, and has been living off strong patches of form that have kept Arsenal fans believing he is capable of making it in the first team. The evidence suggests against that despite him having undoubted talent, that needs to be on display elsewhere.

Yet, having gone through another wasted season and with just 12 months left, no wonder the club are struggling to sell him.

Crystal Palace are the side leading the chase but would prefer a loan option so they can adequately assess him. You really can’t blame them.

5. Lucas Torreira

Age: 25
Contract expiry: 2023
Rumoured wages: £75k-per-week

What a complete and utter mess Arsenal have plunged themselves in with Lucas Torreira.

Sometimes managers just don’t fancy players. Well, in truth, quite a lot of the time managers don’t fancy players. Even though Torreira started the a fair few of Arteta’s first matches in charge until he suffered, that setback proved to be the end.

Opting to keep on board Mohamed Elneny as the defensive midfield option over the Uruguayan for his first full season in charge, Arsenal and Arteta succeeded in making a perfectly fine player turn into someone virtually worthless. He cost £26m. Nobody wants to pay any money for him.

There are mitigating factors, such as him not settling in London and the Premier League as well as losing his mother to COVID-19 last season, but even if he doesn’t like being stuck in November weather all year round he can still do his job. Seeing out another season with the 41 appearances Elneny got would have at least made him marketable and, crucially, useful.

Torreira is not an excellent player. He hit a purple patch not long after signing but, at the very least, has proved himself to be more useful than Elneny.

Now he’s over in Madrid training by himself and getting paid to do nothing. He hasn’t played a game for Arsenal in over 365 days.

Arteta took a strong stance on the player and fair enough. But there is nothing worthwhile about doing so if the end result is having a player you paid very good money for turn out to be completely unsellable.

Will he move back to Italy? The most likely outcome is he gets loaned somewhere with an option to buy that the club he’s at turns down, just to return to Arsenal worth possibly even less in 12 months time.

A real mess.