Charlie Patino’s time at Arsenal looks to be moving toward a close. Despite the club activating a two-year option in the player’s contract, it appears this will very much be a tactic to protect the club financially from an exit in the near future.
The Athletic’s David Ornstein initially reported that the club was open to facilitating the current Blackpool loanee’s summer departure with Patino unwilling to settle for another loan spell and instead seek stability with a permanent role elsewhere. Having spent time on the north-west coast, the 19-year-old hasn’t been able to do enough to convince Mikel Arteta to include him in next season’s senior plans.
football.london has come to learn that it is very much a timing issue that has befallen Patino. With Arsenal looking to strengthen significantly for their foray back into the Champions League next season whilst maintaining their hunt to compete with Manchester City, they cannot offer Patino the minutes needed.
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The club's ambition is to focus on the midfield, which continues from their work done in the previous January transfer window. Several sizeable bids for Moises Caicedo were rejected by Brighton and West Ham United’s Declan Rice is understood by football.london to be the priority target for the summer.
Add Rice or Caicedo with the potential to even more midfield reinforcement to Thomas Partey, Jorginho, Granit Xhaka, Fabio Vieira, Martin Odegaard and Mohamed Elneny and it seems far too congested for Patino to get the valuable game time he needs. Where the youngster will go remains unclear but interest is growing significantly both in the UK and abroad.
The aforementioned two-year option has protected Arsenal financially. They could aim to include a buy-back or first-refusal clause in any sale with work in recent seasons improving on the inclusion of sell-on clauses that will likely be repeated in any Patino departure.
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