Mikel Arteta states that the futures of Arsenal’s out of contract players ‘has been decided’

With the Premier League campaign now done and dusted, Mikel Arteta’s attention turns to the offseason and the moves that the club can make. Several players will be moving on, and reinforcements will need to be brought in.

Alexandre Lacazette, Bernd Leno, Eddie Nketiah, and Nicolas Pepe are expected to be moved on, with Lacazette and Nketiah to move for greener pastures as their contracts run out.

In January, the club began getting rid of the “deadwood” as several players were sent out on loan and sold as Arsenal trimmed its wage budget by half in four weeks. That ultimately left the squad relatively thin in certain positions, which proved to be detrimental to the club’s Champions League aspirations.

Injuries to Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney proved to be losses the squad could not overcome.

Mikel Arteta says that decisions have already been made regarding Arsenal’s out of contract players

Gunners boss Mikel Arteta spoke to Arsenal.com after his team’s 5-1 thumping of Everton and said that the futures of the out-of-contract players at the club had already been decided. He added that he would be talking to the player involved over the next day or so.

“I will speak to the three players now or tomorrow, and after that, we need to start to move on, but we have clear ideas of what we want to do,” Arteta said.

“It’s been decided (players futures), but it’s very difficult to communicate it; what they deserve is to have a little bit of what they had today. But to do it earlier, one way or the other, with three situations like that, is very, very awkward, and it could affect the team. So as a club, we have to do the right thing in the right moment, and sometimes to combine those two issues is not easy at all, but we will try to do the right thing.”

Having famously stated that the club needed to be “ruthless” in its approach to getting talent out and into the club, the Spaniard says that he and the club will do what is in the club’s best interests.
More players are expected to be moving out the Emirates door in the coming months.

The Arsenal manager says that the players in question know their situation, and the conversations that are to happen will be made with honesty and integrity.

“From my side, I will do, and the club will do what we have to do and what we think is the best thing for the club to move forward and do it with the integrity and the honesty that we’ve always done it,” Arteta said.

“Those players know individually their situation, when it’s going to be communicated, and when that situation happens face to face the way that they deserve.”

With numerous players being moved on in the winter and summer windows, it gave opportunities to the younger members of the Arsenal squad. Towards the end of the season, Hale End talents such as Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe, along with Eddie Nketiah, all got valuable game time at such a young age.

The Arsenal boss has been surprised at the improvement in his younger players and that he is proud of them as they look to make their mark at the club.

“I’m extremely proud,” Arteta said.

“I’m even surprised about how far they’ve come, and not only them, we have many other examples of that as well, and this is part of the decision that we made last summer, that if we are going to get to a certain level those players normally they get to that level when they get in the peak of their careers, obviously they are not there, but they are moving fast, and they are giving us hope with them, we can reach the level that we want.”

The offseason will be crucial to Arsenal continuing to build on the progress of this season. Aaron Ramsdale, Benjamin White, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Martin Odegaard, Takehiro Tomiyasu, and Nuno Tavares have all shown their quality at different stages.

Now it is time to bring in the top-quality players in positions of need, so the club does not have to rely on the squad’s younger players for results.

With a new centre-forward and a central midfielder top of the club’s wish list, they will be hoping to get their business done early so the new players can hit the ground running when the new campaign gets underway in a couple of months’ time.