Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and technical director Edu are on course to continue a recurring theme over the past year of reducing the club's wage bill even further when the summer transfer window opens.
This week football.london have reported on two deals that are expected to go through at the end of the season. The first being midfielder Lucas Torreira turning his loan move at Fiorentina into a permanent one with both teams in negotiations over a potential £13million deal.
Furthermore, Bernd Leno - who lost his status as the Gunners' first-choice goalkeeper to Aaron Ramsdale back in September - is likely to depart this summer too with Bundesliga clubs as well as fellow Premier League side Newcastle United said to be holding a strong interest in the 30-year-old.
Of course, Arsenal will receive a transfer fee for selling both players which could boost Arteta's transfer budget by £20million, but perhaps more importantly, Leno and Torreira's departures will enable the club to save £9.1million based on their annual salaries, as per Spotrac's figures.
Furthermore, with Matteo Guendouzi and Konstantinos Mavropanos set to join Marseille and Stuttgart respectively at the end of the season following successful loan spells, that allows the Gunners to save a further £3.3million on wages and there are several other deals in the pipeline that will have even more of an impact on the club's finances.
With football.london taking a look at the 12 players who are likely to depart this summer (11 on a permanent basis) if Hector Bellerin, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Alex Runarsson and Pablo Mari were all to move on then Arsenal will save another £14.8million on that quartet alone and that figure can increase by a further £14.4million if Alexandre Lacazette, Mohamed Elneny and Eddie Nketiah leave when their contracts expire at the end of June.
Not including any transfer fees, as things stand right now - taking the Guendouzi, Torreira, Mavropanos deals and Leno's expected exit into consideration - the Gunners are set to save around £12.4million in wages. They will be in a position to save another £29.2million if the other seven moves come to fruition which in total works out to be a yearly sum of £41.6million which can only help towards future investment in the first-team squad.
This will only serve to highlight the great progress made in less than a year in terms of reducing the wage bill. Back in November, Arsenal were spending £99.8million on player wages, but following six first-team departures in the January transfer window - albeit three being temporary - that figure now stands at £80.9million.
