Arsenal will look to axe ELEVEN flops including record transfer Nicolas Pepe and Bernd Leno to fund Arteta’s spree
MIKEL ARTETA’s Arsenal cull is gathering pace as he looks to offload 11 players who were part of last week’s pre-season tour of America.
But club officials fear that the recent comments of technical director Edu might complicate their attempts to sell their unwanted stars.
Edu claimed that it was “an investment” to pay high-earning but under-performing players to leave the club.
And those words have been noted by a number of European teams who are hoping to cash in on Arsenal’s generosity.
Goalkeeper Bernd Leno will be next out of the Emirates door after agreeing an £8million move to newly-promoted Fulham.
Nuno Tavares and young keeper Arthur Okonwko have already been loaned out to Marseille and Crewe respectively.
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And Flo Balogun is set to spend a season on loan in France with Reims.
But Arsenal have still not found any buyers for former first team regulars Hector Bellerin, Pablo Mari, Lucas Torreira, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson.
The club were hoping to raise as much as £50million for that unwanted quintet but have yet to receive any firm offers.
And now they fear that interested clubs are waiting until the final days of the transfer window in the expectation that Arsenal will allow them to leave for next to nothing just to get them off their wage bill.
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Record signing Nicolas Pepe will also be shifted to the departure lounge if Arteta can achieve his ambition of signing another winger after missing out on £55million Raphinha.
And Icelandic keeper Alex Runarsson is also up for grabs despite offering potential Europa League back-up to Aaron Ramsdale and new signing Matt Turner.
Arsenal begin their Premier League campaign away at Crystal Palace on Friday night.