Arsenal transfer news: Arteta hints at more departures to come

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:09 BST
• 2 min read

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that the club are working to facilitate moves for players that wish to leave the club before the end of the January transfer window. 

The Premier League side have already seen big-money earners depart this month, with Mesut Ozil leaving for Fenerbahce, Sokratis returning to his native Greece and William Saliba and Sead Kolasinac moving on loan to Nice and Schalke respectively. 

Contrastingly, the London club have been relatively frugal when it comes to buying players, with just one important arrival at Arsenal in the form of Real Madrid midfielder Martin Odegaard on loan. 

Following Arsenal’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United on Saturday, Arteta was asked if the club plan on reducing the club’s wage bill even further by allowing some more players to leave. 

And as such, Arteta admitted that there were still some players that hoped to depart for game time before the window shut on February 1. 

“There are some conversations that are going on,” Arteta told the media on Saturday evening.

“They want to improve their situation and we need to help some of them. I don’t know whether that’s going to be the case or not.”

Arteta was unwilling to say which players had asked to either leave the club or move on loan, but plenty of reports have filled in the gaps as to who could leave the Emirates this month. 

Perhaps the most obvious player is Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who has been linked with a loan move to Southampton and West Brom recently. 

Similarly, Reiss Nelson has also been reportedly garnering interest from clubs in the English Championship and Bundesliga. 

Lucas Torreira may also be another player seeking help from the club to get a new move in January, after struggling for game time at Atletico Madrid this season.