This summer is, by Mikel Arteta's own admission, going to be the most "crucial" yet in his time in charge of Arsenal. The Gunners have overseen a massive squad overhaul over the past two seasons which has led them to a point where they were able to push Manchester City for the Premier League title this season.
After ultimately coming up short though, Arteta has admitted that his side need to improve their level if they're going to compete in both the Premier League and Champions League next season. "I know we’re not at that level, but we have to find a way," the Spaniard said after Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest. "This is not enough."
As he seeks to do that, bringing in the right players is going to be crucial. Selling however, could be even more important for the Gunners.
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Historically Arsenal have not had the best of records when it comes to extracting value for players deemed surplus to requirements. Over the past few windows Hector Bellerin, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Calum Chambers, Willian, Sead Kolasinac, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Shkodran Mustafi, Mesut Ozil and Sokratis have all been allowed to leave for nothing before their contracts were up in one form or another.
Edu has come under particular scrutiny for this, but the Brazilian has been keen to point out that there have been mitigating circumstances. "When the player is 26-plus, (with a) big salary and he’s not performing, he’s killing you that kind of player because you don’t have a valuation to sell the player," he told football.london last summer. "The player is comfortable – Arsenal, London, beautiful, everything is fantastic – and a good salary. How do you move this player?
"So how many players with that kind of characteristics did we have in the past? 80% of the squad, that’s why I said to (the board) when I made my plan: guys, it’s not easy to clean the squad straight away because most of the players have a 2-3-4 year contract. We need a strategy, we need to try to change things."
For the most part Edu has been pretty successful at doing that. Arsenal are in a strong contractual position with most of their players, while the average age of the squad has dropped significantly in the past couple of years.
Having achieved that aim though, the onus is now on the Brazilian to start generating some decent funds from players sales. Arsenal would eventually like to get back to the self-sustaining model that is the preference of their owners KSE, and player sales, combined with regular Champions League money and matchday and commercial revenue will be a huge part of that.
One player with whom Edu could be given the chance to flex his selling muscles is Folarin Balogun. The Hale Ender has had a superb season out on loan with Stade de Reims, becoming the first American to score 20 goals in a season in one of Europe's big five leagues (after recently announcing his decision to represent the USMNT).
He quite fairly wants to be first choice somewhere next season, but with Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah, Leandro Trossard and even arguably Gabriel Martinelli ahead of him in the pecking order, there are plenty of obstacles to that. With that, and the fact that he has just two years remaining on his contract in mind, this could be the perfect time for Arsenal to cash in on the 21-year-old.
Reports have suggested he has interest from AC Milan, RB Leipzig and a host of Premier League clubs. Arsenal have been determined not to get involved in bidding wars when buying players, but they could start one for one of their own this summer. Given what young strikers with the record Balogun has this season, a £40million fee doesn't seem impossible. If Edu were to secure that, it would go a long way to helping the Gunners summer rebuild.
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