Speaking on the Que Golazo Podcast, Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos will make a decision on which club he wants to join this week.
The Greek defender was left out of Mikel Arteta’s 25-man Premier League squad for this season, so it’s no surprise to see him on his way out of the Emirates this month.
The 90-cap international has been linked heavily to Genoa, and he reportedly held a meeting with the Italian outfit on Monday to decide his future.
However, the Italians aren’t the only team in the race, with Real Betis and Fenerbahce also supposedly keen on him.
“Selling Mesut Ozil is so important to Arsenal, and as you mentioned also, Sokratis Papastathopoulos is the next player who is going to leave Arsenal,” Romano said.
“There is Genoa here in Italy, also Betis in La Liga, so many clubs involved in the race, also the same with Fenerbahce, Sokratis will decide this week, so I think after this week Arsenal hope to sell these two players and then to move on new signings.”
We’ve bene able to assume for a while that Sokratis would be moving on from Arsenal, but it seems as though he’s finally going to actually be leaving in the very near future.
Sokratis isn’t a terrible player, and we hope he can rebuild his career wherever he goes, but it has to be said that this is a good thing for Arsenal, as it creates more room on their wage budget for these new signings that Romano alludes to.
These new signings remain to be seen, but it seems as though the ball is well and truly rolling for Arsenal in this window.
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