Mikel Arteta has admitted Arsenal mutually terminating players’ contracts is not ideal or sustainable, but he hopes the squad he is building will look “completely different” in the future.
Arsenal agreed to mutually terminated Sead Kolasinac’s contract this week, six months before it was due to end in the summer. The left-back has since agreed to join Marseille, signing an 18-month contract with the French club.
In doing so, Kolasinac became the fifth player to leave Arsenal by mutually terminating his contract since Arteta was appointed in December 2019.
And asked if it was not an ideal or sustainable approach, Arteta said: “100 per cent. We don’t want to allow our players to terminate the contract in the last year when they are not playing. 100 per cent.
“And what we are trying to build, and the squad we are trying to assemble, is going to be looking completely different hopefully.
“The contract situation we had with some of the players were putting the club in a really difficult position, because the longer we leave them with months to finish their deals and with players that were not playing a lot of minutes, obviously the situation is not ideal.
“And then it becomes in the interests of the player and club to finalise it in the best possible way, so everybody can terminate their obligation in the best possible way.”
