There are five more days remaining of the January transfer window and it has been a busy one for Arsenal thus far.
Perhaps not in the way that supporters would have hoped for, but the Gunners have confirmed as many as nine deals already and that number is expected to increase before next Monday's deadline.
However, amid links to the likes of Dusan Vlahovic, Georginio Wijnaldum and Renato Sanches, every single one of those nine deals has been a player leaving rather than arriving.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Folarin Balogun and Pablo Mari are the three first-team players who have departed on loan, whilst Sead Kolasinac joined Marseille on a free transfer after his contract was mutually terminated.
The same has happened with goalkeeper Dejan Iliev, but under-23s trio Harry Clarke (loan to Hibernian), Brooke Norton-Cuffy (loan to Lincoln City) and Karl Hein (loan to Reading) have also joined the list of Arsenal departures so far this month.
And the latest confirmed January transfer came on Tuesday afternoon with Tyreece John-Jules sealing his second loan move of the campaign, this time to League One outfit Sheffield Wednesday after being recalled from a spell in the Championship with Blackpool.
"Tyreece John-Jules has joined League One side Sheffield Wednesday on loan for the remainder of the season," a statement via Arsenal.com read.
With that said, John-Jules might not be the last player to exit the Emirates Stadium this month.
As reported by football.london, Bernd Leno has been told he can leave by Mikel Arteta with Newcastle United interested in taking the 29-year-old on loan for the remainder of the season as they seek to secure their Premier League survival.
This is one of five deals Arsenal could complete before deadline day.
If Leno does depart, New England Revolution stopper Matt Turner has already been earmarked as a direct replacement so the process to wrap up a £5.5m deal could speed up.
In terms of other potential incomings, football.london understands the Gunners remain hopeful of signing a central midfielder with talks continuing to bring in Arthur Melo on loan until the end of the season.
Alternatively, if one Brazilian doesn't arrive at the Emirates, another one could as Sky Sports claim that the Gunners have not given up on signing Lyon's Bruno Guimaraes who could cost at least €30m (£25.1m).
And having missed out on signing Vlahovic, Arsenal are exploring other centre-forward options including Alexander Isak, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Jonathan David and Luka Jovic.
Meanwhile, the future of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should become clearer in the next few days.
Amid links to AC Milan, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille, Newcastle United and Barcelona, the 32-year-old's preference is to remain in one of Europe's top leagues following an offer from Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr to take him on loan and then sign him permanently in the summer for a fee in the region of €8m which is roughly £6.6m.
It has been a frustrating transfer window, in terms of incomings, for Arsenal so far but Arteta remains determined to bolster his squad before the deadline.
"Well we are certainly trying," the Spaniard said after the goalless draw with Burnley at the weekend. "But I don’t know if we are going to be able to do it. Let’s see.
"It’s not only our intention but a lot of facts that are needed to happen.
"We have to make the right decisions with players that we believe are really going to help us, and try to bring as well the ones that are going to take us to the next level," he added.
"Players that come here it has to be to take us to the next level.
"We already have a level and we want to see much better standards than we already have. That’s the standard we want to recruit."
