It’s becoming clear that Arsenal are operating a one in, one out system at the moment in terms of transfers, so the arrivals of Gabriel and Dani Ceballos did mean that players would need to leave.
This actually looks like some brilliant business from the club as the recent arrivals are clearly good enough to improve the first team, but it appears that it’s the fringe players who are moving on.
Lucas Torreira is set to join Fiorentina on a loan with an obligation to buy once the loan deal for Ceballos is agreed, and now it looks like Sokratis could also be on his way to Serie A:
??#Sokratis getting closer to #Napoli: total agreement on salary and duration of the contract#transfers #Arsenal
— Daniele Longo (@86_longo) September 3, 2020
The Greek defender has never lived up to expectations and he’s going to be a long way down the pecking order at the Emirates, especially after the signing of Gabriel and the return of William Saliba.
It’s not clear if this will be a loan deal to Napoli or a permanent move and the transfer could also be dependant on Kalidou Koulibaly moving on, but he’s not needed at Arsenal.
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If Mikel Arteta can find a way to balance the books by offloading fringe players to make room for quality signings then this will be a very impressive transfer window for the Gunners.
Leno
Saliba Luiz Gabriel
Bellerin xhaka ceballos Tierney
Pepe lacazette aubameyang
Martinez
Chambers mustafi Mari
Soares AMN willock Saka
Willian nketiah martinelli
Plus Macey holding elneny and Nelson
That alone means 26 players, without anymore signings. Meaning the likes of iliev kolasinac, sokratis, sheaf, guendozi, torreira and ozil are already surplus. Only If those 7 are sold and a few more loaned out will arteta be able to sign more players.
Saka, Willock and Nketiah still qualify as under 21 since the were all born after 1st January, 1999(i.e they were under the age of 21 on the 1st of January, 2020)