The transfer window shuts on 31 August, which gives Arsenal about 25 days to wrap up a number of deals but what do they need to do?
While most Arsenal fans’ minds will go straight to which players the Gunners should bring on board, there’s also a number of bodies who only have one year left on their deals and therefore need to be offloaded.
Not only will this bring the average quality of the squad up but it’ll free up wages and may even make the club some money.
Here are the first team players with a year left on their contracts:
- Alexis Sanchez
- Mesut Ozil
- Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
- Jack Wilshere
- Santi Cazorla
- Kieran Gibbs
- Joel Campbell
- Carl Jenkinson
The three in bold, Alexis, Ozil and the Ox, are the players that Arsenal are said to be trying to get to stay. The other five should be sold.
Watford are said to be after Gibbs; Sampdoria, Antalyaspor and Swansea, as well as boyhood club West Ham, have been linked with Wilshere, while Serie A trio, Cagliari, Sassuolo and Hellas Verona, are reportedly interested in Jenks.
While the three players mentioned above may not sign new deals immediately, the least we can do for the moment is make sure we don’t sell them.
When it comes to bringing players in, Thomas Lemar is the main man being linked with a move to Arsenal this summer.
The Gunners have reportedly been in talks with Monaco over the 21-year-old winger for over a week now, so obviously these need to be wrapped up or at least a definitive conclusion met. If this deal doesn’t work out, will Wenger return for Riyad Mahrez? All avenues that need to be explored well before the window shuts.
Other than this, realistically, perhaps Arsenal could sign another decent centre-back, like Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk, and, in an ideal world, a proper replacement for Cazorla.
Nice’s Jean-Michael Seri could be a good fit and would set the Gunners back around £35m.