Santi Cazorla is unlikely to ever play football again, let alone pull on the red and white of Arsenal, so finding a replacement for him must be a top priority in the summer.
Thankfully, Arsenal have been on the lookout for a replacement for him for a few windows now, and although they haven’t succeeded in landing any of their targets, there are quite a few around that they are interested in.
Here are 9 of them:
4Sergi Samper
23-year-old Barcelona midfielder, Sergi Samper, claims that he turned down the chance to come to Arsenal when Arsene Wenger approached him in the summer of 2016.
Samper even claimed that he didn’t want to listen to Wenger, as he had his heart set on making it at Barcelona.
“I did not want to listen to [Arsene] Wenger,” Samper said. “I told him clearly that I wanted to stay, I wanted to succeed at Barcelona, and what would make me happy was succeeding at Barcelona in the future.”
Arsenal have long been linked with the midfielder and this summer Barcelona may see it as their last chance to cash in on the player.
Samper hasn’t come by regular opportunities at Camp Nou and it doesn’t look like he will in the near future. That happens when Sergio Busquets plays in your position.
Samper had a £9m release clause in his last contract but he signed a new one in the summer of 2016, tying him to the club until 2019.
Arsenal showed the midfielder around London Colney along with Jon Toral and Héctor Bellerín. While the other two signed for the club, Samper stayed in Spain to chase his dream of becoming a Barcelona regular.
Now, years on, Bellerín is playing every week at the Emirates Stadium and Samper, seen as an apt replacement for Mikel Arteta in 2016, has played just 342 minutes this season for Barca.