Arsenal are internally worried that technical director Edu Gaspar has complicated their plans to complete numerous transfer sales in the final month of the transfer window.
According to the Sun, a recent interview involving the Brazilian saw the Arsenal transfer figure reveal that it was an investment to the Gunners to pay-off high-earning but under-performing players to leave the club, with this strategy being heavily used by the north London side to offload some many names.
Whilst most clubs would sanction transfer sales for actual fees, Arsenal’s highest-paid players have, since the arrival of Mikel Arteta, been paid off by the club to leave for free, with Mesut Ozil, Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang just a few examples of this method.
Although the Gunners are attracting interest for some of their players they wish to sell this summer, finding an actual buyer is proving challenging, though this week will reportedly see Bernd Leno sign for Fulham whilst Lucas Torreira is now on the verge of joining Galatasaray, with Arsenal receiving actual transfer fees for these sales.
As per the Sun, Arsenal hope to raise at least £50m in players sales this summer, but Edu’s latest transfer comments could throw a spanner into the works for the Gunners, with interested clubs now more likely to approach certain players at the end of the window in an attempt to sign them for free.
Indeed, after the departures of Leno and Torreira, Arsenal still have as many as nine players they wish to offload this summer, with Hector Bellerin and Nicolas Pepe the biggest earners out of the bunch, with other names such as Pablo Mari and Ainsley Maitland-Niles also proving hard to move on.
Arsenal will have to push through transfer sales amid Edu’s comments
Arsenal and transfer sales have never been a perfect match, with the Gunners only managing one £20m+ outgoing in the last two summer windows, yet despite Edu’s comments, the north London side have to keep pushing to get unwanted players off the squad and off the payroll.
After all, Arteta is close to fully revamping the entire Arsenal squad from when he first joined in December 2019, and if the Gunners can manage a few more sales, there’s a good chance another signing can be made in the final days of the summer transfer window.
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