Arsenal: 5 players facing dangerous transfer positions

Arsenal and their ‘unprecedented’ transfer window has yet to shift from underwhelming to mediocre. Three players have walked through the doors, one on a club-record fee for a defender, with the outgoings capable of being counted on one hand.

Joe Willock will be the first major sale of the summer. An outstanding deal by all accounts and the best indicator yet that he elusive creative midfielder the club are in dire need of is going to happen. Whomever that may be.

As for other departures, the now well-known mitigation of (deep breath) having bang average footballers on large wages struggling to be sold by a club who doesn’t want them yet has finished eighth in consecutive seasons is heavily trodden ground. It’s frighteningly difficult.

The days of seeing players depart north London on free transfers or for fees well below their value is not over. More will come. Those infamous lines of Raul Sanllehi three years ago have yet to ring true:

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5 players facing dangerous transfer positions as Arsenal need to sanction sales for those with contracts running out in 2022

"“We need to make sure that those players, when they’ve got two years left on their contract, we’re making the difficult decisions. We’re either renewing those players’ contracts, or we’re selling those players.”"

Constant chopping and changing upstairs hasn’t helped, and the dream final hurdle of seeing such scenarios come to an end is sadly not quite in sight. Before such a policy – which is nothing revolutionary – can start to take effect at Arsenal there will need to be more sacrifices.

Selling in this window with what Arsenal have is a recipe for disappointment, especially given its knock-on effect for incomings. We’re not out of the woods yet.

As more clubs continue to spend large percentages of their revenues on player wages there will doubtlessly be more stars who play out their deals. But for Arsenal, the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the current deadwood and unwanted stars may be another window or two away.

Indeed, there are five players on the books who if nothing is agreed come September 1, may well depart for nothing at all. They’ve all got a year left to run. This is dangerous territory.

1. Sead Kolasinac

Signed: 2017
Fee: Bosman free transfer

This is one that seemed almost certain to result in the Gunners paying him to leave, as Sead Kolasinac has less than a year to run on a contract that won’t be filed in the cabinet come August 31 and instead will be a welcome addition to the shredder.

Fenerbahce are pushing to sign him but are refusing to pay Arsenal a fee for him, with those developments coming courtesy of Turkish journalist Ekrem Konur.

Talks are said to be progressing slowly as the Bosnian wants his £5.2m salary paid to him by Arsenal in order to move on to Mesut Ozil’s current club where he is in line for what is sure to be a lucrative contract.

Yet while it felt certain that the only way Arsenal would receive a fee for him would be if he changed his name to Sead Kolevin De Bruyne, there is some hope given contrasting views from football.london.

Lazio and Fenerbahce both want him and are eyeing permanent sales this summer which, and it doesn’t need mentioning, is the news we’re going to cross our fingers is the accurate one.

Some light at the end of the tunnel? Perhaps so. Arsenal would take £5 over a £5m payout.

2. Alexandre Lacazette

Signed: 2017
Fee: £48m

Who is going to buy Alexandre Lacazette? As of this very minute, nobody.

Atletico Madrid’s loss was supposed to be Arsenal’s gain. Their transfer ban swung the favour by the way of north London and Arsene Wenger didn’t hesitate in bringing his fellow countryman to the club once the opportunity arose.

Scoring after less than two minutes on his Premier League debut, it appeared to be the start of a goal-laden career.

Yet to hit over 14 goals in a single league season, and never surpassing more than 19 overall, for all the adoration Lacazette has from supporters for his attitude, work rate and professionalism, his return of 65 goals in four seasons is not value for money.

The clutch moments in ‘big’ games won’t be forgotten, but as he edges closer to playing out the final year of his contract this whole deal grows increasingly irksome. It shouldn’t have come to this. Yet here Arsenal are trying to flog him off for a fee that likely won’t surpass £10m, on the hopes of a club being willing to pay his £180k-per-week wages (or whatever can be negotiated) and offering him the lengthy deal he’d desire having entered his thirties.

He should have been sold last summer.

3 + 4. Eddie Nketiah & Reiss Nelson

Signed: Both joined academy
Fee: Free

Eddie Nketiah’s month-long ankle injury files neatly into the ‘inconvenient’ folder.

It won’t entirely derail Arsenal’s hopes of shifting him on this summer but it does heighten the chances of this deal being left until the very late stages of the window, which always adds unnecessary risk.

The major issue is that Nketiah has to go this window. Having turned down a new contract, he sees his permanent future away from north London and a loan move only to return and potentially be sold elsewhere is not the career stability a 22-year-old wants to be dealing with.

There are suitors though, which is reassuring, with Brighton the standout candidates so far. Crystal Palace and West Ham have also been linked over the summer.

Any eventuality where the window closes with Nketiah still on the books is catastrophic. He must be shifted to avoid what could be an exemption from the Premier League squad entirely, what with Folarin Balogun now a senior member.

As for Reiss Nelson, the interest in him is very much ‘try before you buy’ which is not only limiting his option due to Arsenal not sanctioning a loan for a player with one year left, but also risking an unfortunate scenario come the deadline.

For Nelson, his best bet is to accept the contract offer, go out on loan for a season and then have performed enough to entice genuine bidders come 2022. Will that happen? It kind of has to or else he’s playing Under-23 football again.

5. Mohamed Elneny

Signed: 2016
Fee: £5m

Oh, Mo. Whatever will we do with you?

Turns out, very little.

Mohamed Elneny is not only exempt from the gossip columns because he isn’t leaving, he’s also not in line for a new contract at Arsenal with talks having been put on hold back in June. There is talk of potentially tying him down to a new deal to protect his value, but what value is that?

With no updates since, it appears as if another contract is to be ran down. Of all of the concerns surrounding players leaving for free, Elneny is the least worrying one. Why? Because he really isn’t worth anything anyway.

Therefore, him staying and playing out his contract isn’t a hugely upsetting notion. As a utility player to come in and fill in either when an injury calamity strikes or if it’s late in a game to play keep-ball, given he won’t kick up a fuss and isn’t on big wages nobody will lose sleep.

Where people will be left wide awake staring at the ceiling is over the fact that Arsenal may well head into the 2021/22 campaign with a grand total of four central midfielders: Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Sambi Lokonga and the Egyptian.

Having played over 40 games last season there can be no repeat. Sadly, unless Ainsley Maitand-Niles stays, the minutes will be there.