This summer looks like it will be a busy one for the club as Unai Emery finally gets a chance to make his mark on the squad.
While most eyes will be on the players coming in, there are a host of players who are set for the door and we could see as many as 12 (not counting youth players) finally depart.
Stephan Lichtsteiner
Out of contract in the summer, Lichtsteiner has hardly set the club alight since his free move from Juventus in the summer.
He would quite like to stay and at £90kpw I can’t say I blame him.
He said in March that talks over a new deal had started but given he’s hardly been anywhere near the squad recently, it’s hard to understand how the club could justify giving him another contract.
Petr Cech
Cech, we know, will retire at the end of his current Arsenal contract leaving the club looking for a new number two.
Emiliano Martinez seems to think it will be him.
Cech has been offered a coaching role at Arsenal but Chelsea have also offered him the same and it’s not yet clear where he sees his future.
Nacho Monreal
There were reports back in January that Arsenal had exercised their one-year extension option on Nacho’s contract but, at the time of writing, that still hasn’t been confirmed by anyone inside the cub.
He is out of contract in the summer and has been heavily linked with a return to Spain with both Barcelona and Real Sociedad said to want to add him to their ranks in the summer.
Aaron Ramsey
Another we know for sure if off in the summer, Aaron will earn £400kpw with Juventus and his agent landed a cool €9m for getting him to Turin for nothing.
Arsenal lose out in all the ways with this move.
Danny Welbeck
If ever there is a bad time to break your ankle, then it’s as you enter the final year of your contract the year a new manager finally arrives at the club.
It’s not like Welbeck can point to his Arsenal history to save himself.
Two serious knee injuries dominate his CV more than the 32 goals, and 15 assists, in 126 appearances since he moved from Old Trafford for £18m.
Carl Jenkinson
It will be a pub quiz question in years to come – who was the last remaining British core player at Arsenal?
How this has happened is anyone’s guess but it’s hard to see Jenkinson still being at the club when the window finally closes in the summer.
Another whose contract is up at the end of this season, sadly, Jenks’ passion and love for Arsenal are just not enough to earn him a new deal.
Denis Suarez
Although it’s still early days for Suarez at Arsenal, I don’t think the club have much intention of buying him permanently. Why push to have only an option in his loan agreement if they were desperate to get him long-term?
Suarez is running out of games in which to impress between now and the end of the season to earn a move.
So far, he’s played a total of 95 minutes for Arsenal across six matches.
David Ospina
There was a brief moment when it seemed like Napoli were going to back out of any deal to buy Ospina but, thankfully, Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed the Colombian will remain in Italy.
Calum Chambers
Chambers has been playing well with Fulham, as much as anyone has with the Cottagers, at least.
Rumours surfaced that the club would be open to selling him in the summer should somebody meet his valuation and it’s hard to think that won’t happen.
He’s another about to enter the final two years of his contract and Raul Sanllehi has already made it clear there will be no more last-year nonsense that dogged the club when Ivan Gazidis and Dick Law were dealing with renewals.
Arsenal, therefore, have a decision – sell or re-sign. It seems very unlikely they will do the latter.
A fee of around £18m – the amount Arsenal paid for him – will see him leave.
Takuma Asano
Arsenal spent £3.6m on Asano in 2016 and has spent the time since in Germany.
If the club were hoping two spells in the Bundesliga would get him up to speed for the Premier League then they are likely feeling very disappointed. Well, they would be if anyone involved in signing him was still at the club.
Asano has 15 appearances for Hannover this season, totalling 851 minutes but he won’t be getting any more as the order has been given to stop using him lest they reach the obligatory threshold for purchase.
Injuries have disrupted his season but it’s hard to see how he has a future at Arsenal.
He will have one year left on his Arsenal contract when he returns in the summer.
Shkodran Mustafi
Not long after Arsenal signed Shkodran Mustafi, Gary Neville reportedly said that Valencia couldn’t give the defender away before the Gunners arrived with an offer of £36.9m that no rational human could refuse.
While he’s had his moments, most of them have been bad and with just two years left on his deal the club have to look at selling or renewing.
They won’t make their money back but, similarly, freeing up his £90kpw wages would allow us to sign a player that knows how to defend.
Mohamed Elneny
A decent, 7-out-of-10 player, Elneny has never done anything spectacularly good or bad since he arrived at the start of 2016 for £11.25m.
His current contract runs until 2022 after he was handed a new deal by the club a month before Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving.
Since Emery arrived, Elneny has played just 813 minutes and you have to think the Spaniard is eyeing up another player for Elneny’s £55kpw wages.