Arsenal prepared to sell 9 players for £100m windfall before transfer deadline
Arsenal are holding a late fire sale of players in the hope of raising £100million in transfer fees this summer to help balance their books.
The Gunners have splurged once again in the market with over £200m being spent to secure the signatures of West Ham captain Declan Rice, defender Jurrien Timber from Ajax, Kai Havertz from Chelsea and a loan deal for Brentford goalkeeper David Raya.
However, to date there has been minimal funds raised from incomings. Granit Xhaka’s sale to Bayer Leverkusen at £12m was the most notable exit, while modest fees were also received for Matt Turner, Aaron Trusty and Pablo Mari being moved on.
The transfer window shuts on 1 September and Arsenal are wary that they must raise more funds in the closing week of the window to help balance the books and help reduce their bloated first-team squad, with multiple fringe players with little hope of regular minutes.
Two exits which look to be closed imminently are Kieran Tierney and Folarin Balogun; left-back Tierney has an agreement in place to join Real Sociedad on a season-long loan deal without an option to buy, while Balogun is poised to move to Monaco.
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Balogun spent last season on loan from Arsenal in France with Stade Reims, scoring 21 Ligue 1 goals in 37 appearances, and is keen to play first-team football this season. Any fee received for the talented forward is likely to be significant.
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Balogun is edging towards a move back to Ligue 1 with Monaco (Getty Images)Yet the Gunners are also in the market for cover for Timber, who has suffered a long-term injury and for Financial Fair Play purposes, multiple more sales are necessary for the club to contemplate before further bolstering their ranks.
There are question marks over the future of Gabriel Magalhaes, who started all 38 Premier League games for the club last season but was left out of the line-ups for the wins over Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace that have opened the campaign. There is interest in the Brazilian from Saudi Arabia, while Real Madrid – who have lost Eder Militao to a long-term injury – are monitoring his situation.
There is also uncertainty over the future of Takehiro Tomiyasu amid interest from Crystal Palace this summer, but the injury to Timber and doubts over other defender’s futures mean that the Japanese international is unlikely to be moved on this summer – despite ironically picking up a red card against Palace.
Albert Sambi Lokonga – who spent the second half of last season on loan at Palace – is likely to be moved on again with Brighton among the sides interest in the midfielder, who is likely to depart the club this week.
Sambi Lokonga is set to leave Arsenal again this transfer window (Julian Finney/Getty Images)Arsenal are planning to terminate the contract of £72million signing Nicolas Pepe if they cannot secure a transfer fee for him this summer. The Ivorian spent last season on loan at Nice last season and found the net eight times in 28 appearances. However, he suffered knee injuries in the second half of the campaign and was only involved in 19 Ligue 1 matches throughout the campaign.
Pepe was signed for £72million – a club record transfer fee prior to the arrival of Rice this summer – back in the summer of 2019 having starred at Lille, and he has just one year left to run on his contract with the Gunners. He bagged 27 goals across three seasons prior to his loan exit last summer.
A trio of out-of-favour defenders are also set to be moved on; Rob Holding has interest from Turkish Super Lig club Besiktas, while Cedric Soares – back from a loan at Fulham – is also surplus to requirements – and Nuno Tavares, who was on loan at Marseille last term, has interest from Premier League clubs with Aston Villa weighing up a move to replace Lucas Digne.
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