Arsenal technical director Edu has been busy over the last couple of months.
The Brazilian transfer chief has brought in Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner and Marquinhos this window for over £110 million combined. However, Matteo Guendozui and Kostas Mavropanos are the only two players the Gunners have sold this summer, and both of those players had already agreed to leave prior to the current window.
Speaking to football.london about the need to sell additional players, Edu said: "For me, there are three elements which in my role I have to be really prepared to be strong on the message to the players. 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.
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"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? Eighty per cent 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."
Edu is keen to trim Mikel Arteta's squad over the next few weeks, and several players that spent last season out on loan have been heavily linked with a move away from the Emirates Stadium. One of those is tough-tackling midfielder Lucas Torreira, who failed to make his temporary move to Fiorentina permanent.
The diminutive Uruguayan continues to be linked with a return to Serie A, and he has made it no secret of his admiration for AS Roma boss Jose Mourinho. In an interview with Uruguayan media, via the Mirror, Torreira said: "Roma? Yes, there is a possibility. I spoke to Mourinho a while ago. I admire him as a coach. It's an opportunity that tempts me a lot, but it's not easy."
Another player who spent last season out on loan was defender Hector Bellerin, enjoying his time with La Liga club Real Betis, where he won the Copa del Rey. A permanent return to Betis has been mooted as a potential option for the Spaniard, who, like Torreira, is into the final 12 months of his contract in north London.
Backup goalkeeper Bernd Leno started just four Premier League matches last season, and the arrival of the aforementioned Turner means a departure appears extremely likely. football.london understands that newly-promoted Fulham are keen on Leno, and Arsenal will hope to get a good price for the German international, who joined for £24 million back in the summer of 2018.
One squad player that the Gunners will have to take a huge loss on is club-record signing Nicolas Pepe. Pepe joined from Lille three years ago for a whopping £72million, but the Ivorian netted just one league goal last term, meaning any move away will likely be for considerably less than half of what Arsenal paid for him.
football.london reported back in May that the 27-year-olds wants to leave Arteta's side this summer and has instructed his agent to find him a new club. Spanish centre-back Pablo Mari, who enjoyed a productive short-term loan with Serie A outfit Udinese in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign, has attracted interest from Galatasaray, according to some reports from Turkey.
Mari has slipped down the pecking order under Arteta's stewardship, falling behind the likes of Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba and Rob Holding in the young coach's plans for centre-back. Ainsley Maitland-Niles also spent the second half of last season on loan in the English top-flight.
Maitland-Niles has operated as a fullback as well as a central midfielder during his time with Arsenal, but the Hale End academy graduate doesn't appear to be in Arteta's thinking for either role and football.london reported last month that Maitland-Niles is attracting interest from Nottingham Forest over a permanent transfer. Forest made an enquiry to Arsenal about the 24-year-old, although it is thought that any deal is still in its early stages.
If the Gunners were able to shift all six of these players for their current Transfermarkt value, they would pocket £80.1 million - money that could be used to finance additional incoming during the remainder of the window.
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