Arteta reveals Arsenal’s January transfer priority; all but confirms one departure

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta says the club’s January priority is to offload “a lot of players” with defender Sead Kolasinac one of the players likely to be shipped out.

Sky in Germany have reported that Schalke 04 are working on a deal to try to bring Kolasinac back to the club. The 27-year-old defender has made just one Premier League appearance this season and looks certain to move on.

Arteta refused to confirm as much, but he hinted the left-back looks like one player who will be leaving.

“I cannot confirm anything yet,” said Arteta, when asked about Kolasinac. “We are working on a couple of things.

“Obviously the window is going to bring a lot of news. Some are true some are not. Whenever we have something to say we will announce it.

“We have had some conversations around a few players and whether we can find some loans because the numbers we have in the squad at the moment are really big. But again, we cannot confirm anything at the moment.”

The Gunners boss, who is hoping to have Bukayo Saka fit to face West Brom on Saturday, admitted that the size of his squad is unsustainable.

The club tried to offload a number of fringe players in the summer, with Arteta admitting deals were hard to complete.

Arteta added: “Well, we have a large squad. We knew that. A lot of things that should have happened in the summer we could not accomplish them for different reasons.

“There are a lot of players that are going to go on loan. They are going to leave. And that’s the priority at the moment because we cannot sustain the numbers that we have in certain positions.

“We are looking to do that. And then we will see if we have the right opportunities in the positions that we need some more help we are working with the club to try to address them.”

Loans the way forward

Whether Arsenal use the loan system to recruit players is also a consideration for Arteta, who is well aware of the financial impact of Covid-19.

“Obviously financially, it’s not only us, it’s every club in the Premier League that have been in hit with big numbers,” added the Gunners boss.

“We know that this is not going to change in the last year or so. That we are going to have to add somehow if we’re going to improve the team in different ways financially with some support.

“And we will decide whether this is with loans or buying players in relation to the opportunities we will have in the market.”

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