Arsenal have confirmed the sale of Emiliano Martinez to Aston Villa. The Gunners earned £17 million (BBC) through that, but they need to raise more money if they want to secure the signings of one of their top targets.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan was allowed to leave for free which has relaxed the wage bill. Lucas Torreira will likely be Arsenal’s biggest sale this summer while Sokratis Papastathopoulos will increase their earnings as well if he is sold.
Sead Kolasinac is another player who Arsenal are trying to move on. The Bosnian joined Arsene Wenger’s side on a free transfer in the summer of 2017, but he is now clearly surplus to requirements.
Kieran Tierney is the club’s first-choice left-back while Ainsley Maitland-Niles has done incredibly well there as well. Kolasinac will fetch a decent fee this summer and there are a few clubs interested.
His former club Schalke and AS Roma have been linked with a move for the Bosnian this summer, and it looks like another club has joined the race now.
German outlet Bild claim that Bayer Leverkusen are interested in signing Kolasinac this summer. Die Werkself are looking for a left-footed defender before the window ends and the Arsenal man is high on their list.
The report says that Peter Bosz’s side will begin specific talks with Arsenal to sign the defender this week. Kolasinac wants to return to Germany and he even owns a house fairly close to Leverkusen.
Arsenal are open to letting him leave for a fee in the region of £9 million, a relatively low amount due to his high salary. Leverkusen believe they can convince him to agree lower wages by offering him a longer contract, which would be brilliant news for the Gunners.
If Arsenal can move Kolasinac, Torreira and Sokratis on this summer, their transfer income should realistically reach the £50 million mark, which will potentially help them sign someone like Thomas Partey before the window closes next month.
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