Arsenal didn’t attempt to sell Shkodran Mustafi in the summer, despite reports claiming otherwise.
The situation surrounding the German defender was cleared up by chief executive Ivan Gazidis at the annual general meeting.
In response to a question about Arsenal’s transfer policy, Gazidis denied that the club tried to sell Mustafi in the summer.
Gazidis denies the club tried to offload Mustafi in the summer. Says the club has performed ‘very well’ in the transfer market.
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) October 26, 2017
The question put to him highlighted the purchases of Gabriel, Lucas Perez and Mustafi as players the club didn’t truly rate.
It referred to reports in the summer that Mustafi was allowed to leave Arsenal as Arsene Wenger didn’t truly rate him, despite only signing him the previous summer.
The report coincided with Arsenal’s attempts to sign West Brom defender Jonny Evans and were believed to be related.
However, in the end, Arsenal didn’t sign Evans or any other new centre back and Mustafi returned to the starting line-up. He was a regular at the back until he picked up a muscle injury while on international duty with Germany.
Mustafi was playing in the middle of the back three instead of as one of the side centre-backs. His performances have been mixed this season, and it’ll be interesting to see if he’s still in Wenger’s plans come next summer.