As any other club in the world, Arsenal operates in the same endless circle: buy players – play the season – sell the players in order to buy again. After relying on the young crop of Arsenal academy players, with a help of a few shrewd transfer moves, coach Mikel Arteta has built up a Premier League title worth team but is already looking ahead of the 2023/2024 season. In fact, he is more focused on the remaining 10 fixtures than on the transfer window, but that’s why sporting director Edu is here to take care of that stuff. And according to the British media, the Spaniard has given the Brazilian his list: Nicolas Pepe, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Nuno Tavares, Pablo Mari, Cedric Soares and Alex Runarsson.Pepe 78m £ Arsenal’s entire attack: Saka + Martinelli + Nelson + Trossard + Nketiah + Jesus = £76m— UtdXtra Fake News (@UtdxtraFake) March 25, 2023 When you are a club’s record signing (72 million pounds), the expectations are high. And it’s safe to say that Nicolas Pepe has not fulfilled them. With 140.000 pounds a week, the French winger is too expensive, especially after he scored only 27 goals in all competitions for Arsenal over three seasons. He went back to Nice on loan, but hasn’t done anything so far to change Arteta’s mind and he will be the first to go. For how much, we shall see. Odegaard dreams about the Premier League title, Pepe about staying in NiceOther players are also on loans, and are not setting the world on fire, so to speak. Maitland-Niles is currently in the last placed Southampton, and he is not a regular in the first 11, so that says it all. He will be cheap as his contract runs in 2024. Albert Sambi Lokonga is in manager-less Crystal Palace but Arsenal plans to go hard after Declan Rice in the summer, which would shrink his first-time options even more. Nuno Tavares is having a solid season in Marseille, where he played in 24 games in Ligue1, along with 6 appearances in the Champions League, and the French club is keen to sign him, but for less than 15 million, which is the sum Arsenal gave to Benfica for his services. ##NAJAVA_MECA_7131898##Apart from these soon to be departed players, there are a few others which could command a much larger fee, which the Gunners also want to use, in order to build a competitive team worth participation in the Champions League. Kieran Tierney, Rob Holding and Folarin Balogun could also leave, as Newcastle is looking at Tierney, and various clubs in France and Italy are in for Balogun.
