Arsenal will let Mathieu Debuchy join Ligue 1 side Saint Etienne for free, coming to a mutual agreement to terminate the defender’s contract in North London.
RMC (via GFFN) report that Debuchy and the French side have agreed terms over a six month contract.
Wednesday’s L’Equipe claims the Frenchman only had six months left on his Arsenal deal anyway, although transfermarkt.co.uk has 2019 as his contract expiry date.
Whether he had a year-and-a-half or six months left, Debuchy’s time with the Gunners was clearly up. He was expected to arrive at the French club this morning and is reportedly undergoing his medical.
Mathieu #Debuchy est en train de passer la visite médicale à Saint Étienne. Arsenal a accepté de résilié son contrat à l’amiable. Contrat de 6 mois pour l’ancien lillois à Sainté ! #RMCsport
— Mohamed Bouhafsi (@mohamedbouhafsi) January 31, 2018
Mathieu # Debuchy is in the process of passing to Saint Etienne. Arsenal has agreed to terminate his amicable contract. 6 month contract for the old Lille in Saintes! # RMCsport
This season, the former Newcastle man made seven appearances for the Arsenal first team. That was actually a big improvement on the last campaign, when injury problems meant he only appeared once.
Over the summer, Arsenal offered Debuchy to Brighton for free, but they ended up turning the deal down. At the time, even just paying his wages was too much of a risk, given all those injuries. Now he’s stayed fit and played a few matches, Saint Etienne are clearly willing to take the gamble.
Hopefully this means everyone can finally move on. It feels like Debuchy’s been here for many years now, asking to leave every transfer window. The only slight worry is how Arsenal plan to replace the right-back when Hector Bellerin is out.
Most likely, we’ll see Calum Chambers pushed out onto the right again, which isn’t ideal. Still, it seems Arsenal have successfully pushed another player off the wage bill, so that’s progress.