An important summer is on the horizon for Arsenal as the main task is to ensure Mikel Arteta has a squad capable of winning major silverware next season.
Of course, the summer transfer window will be used to aid the Gunners manager in completing this particular mission. His priority signing, as football.london understands is West Ham United captain Declan Rice, and a formal bid is expected to be submitted shortly now that the Europa Conference League final has taken place.
Other names being linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium include Brighton & Hove Albion's Moises Caicedo, Real Valladolid wonderkid Ivan Fresneda as well as Manchester City pair Joao Cancelo and Ilkay Gundogan, with the latter potentially available for a free transfer with his contract expiring at the end of the month.
Having sealed a return to the Champions League for next season and looking well-placed to challenge for major trophies, enticing wage packages can go a long way towards Arsenal signing their priority targets and fending off interest from the likes of Manchester United and Bayern Munich for Rice.
But recent history shows they've had trouble with the wage bill. In fact, when Arteta took over from Unai Emery in December 2019, the club's annual wage salary was £128million, as per Spotrac. This was partly due to Mesut Ozil being the highest earner at a reported £350,000-per-week, a figure later matched by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang whilst the likes of Willian, Alexandre Lacazette and David Luiz were earning at least £100,000-per-week.
Today, that figure stands at £103.5million as Lacazette, Bernd Leno, Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Hector Bellerin were the senior players to leave permanently last summer.
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But it's not just incomings that are the focus for Arsenal this summer. In fact, football.london have revealed that Auston Trusty, Folarin Balogun and Nicolas Pepe are expected to depart permanently at some point between the transfer window officially opening later this month and closing on September 1, 2023.
Whilst the north London outfit are likely to receive a transfer fee for the USMNT pair which could boost Arteta's transfer budget significantly, it's understood that plans have been made for the termination of Pepe's contract - which expires next summer - if there aren't any forthcoming cash offers.
Having said that, the Ivorian's departure alone will enable the club to save £7.2million based on his annual salary, as per Spotrac's estimated figures for next season.
Furthermore, with Pablo Mari set to join Monza in a permanent £5.9million transfer following a successful loan spell that allows the Gunners to save a further £4.2million on wages and there are two more deals in the pipeline that will have even more of an impact on the club's finances.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles is to become a free agent when his contract expires at the end of June and as football.london understands Granit Xhaka is in advanced talks over a £13million move to Bayer Leverkusen; once these deals are made official, Arsenal will save another £8million.
Excluding any transfer fees and solely focusing on Pepe's expected exit in addition to Maitland-Niles leaving as well as the Mari and Xhaka deals, the Gunners are set to save around £19.4million in wages which can only help towards future investment in the first-team squad. Then when factoring in that Kieran Tierney, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Runar Runarsson could also depart the aforementioned figure will increase as the summer unfolds.
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