Arsenal: 7 crucial transfer departures to complete

It’s no secret. Everyone is well aware. Arsenal will achieve nothing this transfer window unless there is significant movement in the squad to facilitate the essential purchases needed to try and amend what is a slippery slide into mid-table mediocrity.

Seeing the opening day of the Premier League season end in an atrocious 2-0 loss away to newly-promoted Brentford, off the back of back-to-back eighth place finishes in the division, many will argue that Arsenal are already mid-table.

It’s mostly unarguable.

The squad is bloated, the manager is struggling and the dejection in and around the fanbase at the state of affairs is at an all-time low. With just over two weeks to go until the transfer window closes and three matches within that time frame to play, this August has the potential to salvage Arsenal, or ruin them.

Arsenal: 7 crucial transfer departures to complete for Mikel Arteta and co ahead of Premier League deadline on August 31

There is not shirking the severity of the situation as much as some positivity wouldn’t go amiss, and selling players between now and August 31 will help determine whether there will be smiles in the terraces or glum, disheartened faces.

Already Arsenal have been forced to pull the plug on their pursuit of Tammy Abraham having failed to make room for him in the squad literally as well as financially, and even if as a fan you weren’t overly keen on the thought of his signing it’s a poignant example of the struggles facing the club.

With Chelsea and Manchester City to come, even the most ardent believers in Arsenal Football Club are having difficulty foreseeing anything other than a zero point start to the 2021/22 campaign after three matches.

Good thing West Brom is also on the fixture list to provide some Carabao Cup respite, right? Even that feels daunting.

So, to lift the mood and facilitate the arrivals that are so sorely needed, seven sales have to be sanctioned. Whether they will or not is another matter.

1. Hector Bellerin

Well, it’s not going to be Inter, is it?

Supporters were pinning their hopes on the Italian champions taking Hector Bellerin off the club’s hands but having sealed a deal to sign Denzel Dumfries from PSV Eindhoven, that is now dead in the water.

How telling is it that despite having three right-backs on the bench in the defeat to Brentford, Arteta opted to bring on a natural left-back, Nuno Tavares, for Calum Chambers in the 80th minute?

It’s baffling to even consider that the manager has that many players in his squad whom he doesn’t trust. Bellerin is clearly one of them now.

Who will take him? Well, there is still said to be Serie A and La Liga interest but it was Inter who were coming closest to matching Arsenal’s valuation, thus any departure for Bellerin feels like it could go down the loan with an option route.

Not ideal. At all.

2. Sead Kolasinac

It’s been reassuring to hear that Arsenal might actually sell the Bosnian this summer instead of just buying out his contract, a decision that would cost the club a cool £5.2m.

£5.2m per year, for Sead Kolasinac.

Fenerbahce and Lazio are interested. ‘Interested’ being the buzz word this summer. Whatever the fee is, nobody really cares. Even if either of the clubs offer £5 and a packet of crisps it will do so long as his big salary doesn’t need paying out and his wages are finally off the bill.

While there are multiple sales that need sanctioning, Kolasinac’s is a key one as he is of no use to the club. Not even making the bench against Brentford despite the absentees, with two competent left-backs in front of him, his departure is essential.

It will happen in some capacity, although how that will be remains to be seen.

3. Ainsley Maitland-Niles

Someone who could actually be of use to Arsenal appears to in fact be of absolutely no use to Arsenal.

Is he a right-back or is he a midfielder? Who knows. Arteta doesn’t fancy him in either way having been left on the bench against the Bees, neither coming on in defence or in midfield to try and provide Arsenal with some attacking impetus.

It’s a sale that needs to happen but of all those on the chopping block, one that wouldn’t be surprising were he to stay. With Joe Willock gone and the midfield looking thin, especially when AFCON comes around, there may be scope for Ainsley Maitland-Niles to remain.

However, he only has two years left on his deal. Come next summer if he doesn’t pen a new contract his value will have dropped even further, and it’s unlikely he’ll want to sign a new deal given how bit-part his role will be in the coming campaign.

4. Lucas Torreira

Now over a full calendar year since Lucas Torreira played for Arsenal, the midfielder isn’t even in the country as far as we know as he and his club desperately try to move him on.

How Arsenal have gone from having a perfectly usable defensive midfielder to someone who isn’t deemed good enough to play in a squad that has finished eighth in consecutive seasons is baffling.

Mohamed Elneny is the fourth choice option in the centre of the park now. That could easily be Torreira, even if the Uruguayan isn’t said to have settled in England.

Everyone has done a job they don’t especially like. We just ride it out until something else comes along.

The whole situation became borderline laughable as he even tweeted a picture of himself at a fairground in Madrid with his family in the middle of the Brentford game. How disengaged can you get? It’s as unbelievable as it is disrespectful.

Torreira’s time at Arsenal is indicative of the mess the club is in. Loan with buy option imminent.

5. Willian

Willian wants to go. Arteta wants Willian to go. The fans want Willian to go.

What. A. Mess.

The Brazilian is waiting on a move that may never come. Only clubs in the middle east can realistically afford to take on his substantial wages, on top of whatever fee it is that Arsenal will demand for a club to sign him. In truth, they’re in no position to demand anything for Willian.

Could he leave on loan? That seems like the most viable option with whatever club that fancies him paying a portion of his wages together with Arsenal. It’s shocking that this is a scenario pretty much everyone would jump at.

As of yet there are no takers. Nobody willing to part with a huge investment for a player who is 33 and can’t even make the bench at Arsenal even with three senior forwards absent from the sqaud.

[insert would drive him to the airport gag]

6 & 7. Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah

With every passing day, the price tags Arsenal placed on Lacazette and Nketiah shrink by a few hundred thousand.

Come August 31, they’ll be available for £4m. Probably.

What is hugely concerning with both Lacazette and Nketiah is that with the inevitability of any potential sales going to take place at the 11th, Arsenal will then be stuck in a position where they not only don’t have time to sign a replacement, but also may have to shun said interest given selling both would leave them with only Aubamayeng and Balogun.

These are an example of how perilous the situation is when selling players is left until the very latter stages of the window.

Arsenal simply haven’t been able to move anywhere near the volume of players on yet and in the case of Lacazette and Nketiah, every day more they stay is one day less to find a replacement.