Arsenal are having to trim their squad if they want to bring in the players Mikel Arteta desires to help take the club back into the top four.
The Gunners have so far only tied up deals for Willian (free) and Gabriel Magalhaes (£22m) and if the club are to invest more money, they will probably need to sell assets. The club are thought to want to improve by signing two midfielders and potentially another forward.
These moves won’t come cheap, with the likes of Houssem Aouar and Thomas Partey earmarked in midfield, the club would need to spend in excess of £40million to sign each of those players.
So who can be sold? Arsenal appear to be generating lots of interest in their players from Italy. Earlier this week Corriere Dello Sport reported that Andrea Pirlo wants to bring right back Hector Bellerin to the club. The Gunners are also in negotiations to sell Ainsley Maitland-Niles to Wolves, so the club may be deciding to sell one or the other.
The Italian report suggests that contact has already started between Juventus and Arsenal, but that the Gunners are asking for 30million euros, paid up front.
Other Italian interest is in Lucas Torreira. The Uruguayan midfielder seems destined to return to Italy. Viola News bring us the Italian reports that suggest Fiorentina have moved to the front of the queue for Torreira with an offer of 8.5m euros for a one year loan and a further 18m euros to make the deal permanent upon completion of the loan. Torino are amongst other Italian clubs interested though and so Arsenal hold a strong position in these negotiations – equally they will be keen to release some funds soon.
And finally, Sokratis. The Greek defender is going to be well down the pecking order at Arsenal next season, with the arrival of Gabriel only limiting his first team opportunities further. But despite him not being the perfect player for Arteta, his experience and defensive abilities make him an attractive option to other. Reports in Italy have linked him to both Napoli and Roma.
If Arsenal could seal deals that would see Torreira, Sokratis and Bellerin, the club could generate in the region of £60m to help fund more arrivals – it would also clear significant room off of the wage bill.