Arsenal will leave both Mesut Ozil and Sokratis out of their Europa League after failing to get both players out of the club this summer.

Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos (R) argues with German midfielder Mesut Oezil during the Euro 2012 football championships quarter-final match Germany vs Greece on June 22, 2012 at the Gdansk Arena. Germany won 4 to 2. AFP PHOTO / CHRISTOF STACHE
Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos (R) argues with German midfielder Mesut Oezil during the Euro 2012 football championships quarter-final match Germany vs Greece on June 22, 2012 at the Gdansk Arena. Germany won 4 to 2. AFP PHOTO / CHRISTOF STACHE

Arsenal have been trying to get Mesut Ozil out of the club for a while now and despite it being very clear that he’s going nowhere, they have obviously taken the decision to not use him at all, regardless of the fact the club are still paying him £350kpw.

The club had also hoped they’d be able to get Sokratis and his wages off the books this summer before his contract expires in 2021 but that didn’t happen either. A deal was said to be in place between Arsenal and Napoli, as well as Napoli and Sokratis, that the defender would move to Naples, but only if they sold Koulibaly, which they didn’t.

While Arsenal’s 25-man Europa League squad has yet to be announced, the media have clearly been briefed about this story with it being widely reported across multiple outlets.

The list is expected to be published today (Thursday). Arsenal were only allowed to include 17 players who were not trained locally and they had 19 to choose from.