Everyone in the Football Transfer Tavern is in celebratory mood today, with another international break done and dusted!
That means everyone can now turn their attentions to a massive weekend of Premier League football, as the season enters it’s final stretch.
Arsenal fans in particular have a massive game to look forward to on Saturday, as they welcome Liverpool to the Emirates.
Arsene Wenger’s side know they can all but secure a top four finish with a victory, which would leave the fifth placed Reds trailing the Gunners by nine points. A defeat however, and the race is well and truly back on.
The international break is often a time for transfer speculation – often as a distraction from the meaningless friendlies and the qualifiers against a side that sounds as though it has been made up on the spot – and Arsenal have been heavily involved this time around.
Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling has been mentioned as a possible target for the summer, whilst Theo Walcott keeps being linked with a move away from the Emirates.
Here we have identified five more players to follow the England international out of north London.
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Click on Theo Walcott to reveal five more Arsenal players to leave in the summer.
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Wojciech Szczesny
The Pole has lost his first team place at the Emirates this season, with Colombian David Ospina having been number one during the Gunners most successful spell of the season.
Reports continue to link Arsene Wenger with a move for a new goalkeeper also, with Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas and Chelsea’a Petr Cech understood to be targets.
Szczesny is finding first team football difficult to come by as it is, and any move that would see a proven goalkeeper arrive at the Emirates would see the 23-year-old pushed further towards the exit.
Mikel Arteta
The Spaniard is clearly no longer the force he once was in the heart of Arsenal’s midfield, with his appearance record this season suggesting as much.
Arteta’s decline started last season, when he was outfought and outclassed in the middle of the park whenever Arsenal travelled to take on a top class opponent.
Athletic Bilbao offered him a return to Spain only last summer, yet Wenger was keen to keep a hold of him for another year.
But with midfield reinforcements expected in the summer, it would be a huge surprise if Arteta was given another year at the Emirates once the season comes to an end.
Jack Wilshere
After some early season promise – the goal in the home draw with Manchester City for example – Jack Wilshere has continued his usual routine of struggling to fulfill his potential, and spending most of his time on the treatment table.
Wilshere had hoped this would be the campaign in which he would turn his fortunes around, both for club and country, with Roy Hodgson putting faith in him and playing him at the base of a midfield diamond for England.
His fitness record is simply not good enough however, and there have been suggestions Arsenal will look to cash in during the summer in order to fund a move for someone more reliable, with Manchester City being mentioned as a possible destination – although their record when it comes to signing English players is dreadful to say the least.
Mathieu Flamini
The Frenchman has done okay since returning to the Emirates on a free transfer in the summer of 2013, but okay has not been good enough for those Arsenal supporters desperate to see their side mount a serious challenge for either the Premier League or Champions League.
Flamini is not the player he was six years ago, and every week there are reports linking the Gunners with a new defensive midfielder.
Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin, Real Madrid’s Sami Khedira and William Carvalho of Sporting Lisbon are all believed to be on Wenger’s radar, and a successful move for any of them would see Flamini made surplus to requirements at the Emirates, with young Francis Coquelin having now moved ahead of him in the pecking order.
Santi Cazorla
The Spaniard has been arguably Arsenal’s most impressive player this season. So wouldn’t it be just typical of Arsene Wenger to accept a mega money offer him this summer?
Wenger’s record of selling top players in the summer is worrying to say the least for Arsenal supporters, and the reports that reigning La Liga champions Atletico Madrid have identified the little playmaker as a top transfer target for the summer are a real cause for concern.
Diego Simeone’s side have a Champions League quarter final against Real Madrid to look forward to, and success in that tie would see them have extra bargaining power in the summer – especially when you consider the Gunners woeful Champions League record in recent seasons.
Whilst a return to Spain to play for a club challenging at the top end of the table may well boost Cazorla’s hopes of holding down a permanent spot in the Spanish national side.
