Our View: Edu may be about to greenlight a £7m shocker at Arsenal

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Arsenal are going to have their pants pulled down quite a bit this summer, by the look of things.

The Gunners could sell Granit Xhaka for as little as £18 million to Roma [Gazzetta] and that’s half of what they paid to sign him five years ago.

Elsewhere, fans of the Emirates Stadium club were also up in arms after hearing that they could sell Matteo Guendouzi for less than £13 million – a player with a price-tag of over £50 million a few years ago.

If both deals go through, neither makes Arsenal look particularly good in terms of negotiations.

But there’s another, less written-about deal that the supporters should also be questioning.

According to Football London, Arsenal are set to sell Konstantinos Mavropanos to Stuttgart for £7 million.

Now, Mavropanos isn’t as high-profile as Xhaka or Guendouzi, but he is a very talented centre-back nonetheless and he could be worth far more over the coming years.

Mistake

Sven Mislintat, who brought him to Arsenal in 2018, said in March that he has all the attributes needed to be a ‘great defender‘ and selling him for that is a serious risk.

It’s no secret that he hasn’t exactly been a success in North London, having only managed seven Premier League appearances in three years.

But Mikel Arteta doesn’t seem to rate William Saliba either and just watch as he proves himself a fine centre-back over the coming years, if he also leaves the Emirates.

Just because Arteta has reservations about you, it doesn’t mean much.

Arsene Wenger started him at Old Trafford – his second start in the Premier League – and he was arguably Arsenal’s best defender on the day, while Unai Emery also praised him in 2019.

This is a 23-year-old who stands at 6’4, a supreme physical presence, and if Mislintat, Wenger and Emery rated him, then that’s a good indication that there’s probably something about him.

If and when Arsenal sell him for only £7 million, it’s a bit of a shocker and could haunt the club far more than being lowballed on Guendouzi and Xhaka.