Arsenal quintet Arteta wants to sell in summer to net £120m

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta will revamp his squad this summer and at least five players will be axed to fund new arrivals, claims a report.

Spanish boss Arteta is facing a huge summer at The Emirates and will have to generate funds for transfers with Arsenal’s place in Europe next season in jeopardy.

Football.London reports that five Arsenal players look likely to be offloaded at the end of the season with Arteta possibly earning around £120million to put into his transfer coffers.

The report claims Shkodran Mustafi, who was close to leaving the club in January, seems likely to move on this summer. Arteta did decide to keep the German until the end of the season, but with William Saliba set to return from his loan spell at Saint-Etienne next term, the 27-year-old centre-back could be sold.

Mustafi could command a fee of around £13.5million, according to his valuation on TransferMarkt, while fellow defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos is also a potential candidate to be moved on, given his age.

Arteta is likely to try and turn Pablo Mari’s loan deal into a permanent one, which could leave the Greece international, who turns 32 in June,  out in the cold. At the start of the month Sokratis warned he would not “sit on his contract” if he was unhappy.

“I have one more year here but me, I never sit on my contract,” said Sokratis, who is valued at £16.2million.

“I don’t care. If I’m not happy, I don’t play enough or the coach doesn’t like me, I don’t care about the contract.”

Sead Kolasinac (market value £18m) is another defender who could leave in the summer with his high wages a consideration for Arteta, who will hope to have Kieran Tierney fit next term, as well as rising star Bukayo Saka.

Two of Arsenal’s loan players Mohamed Elneny (£5.67m) and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£22.5m) are both prime candidates for summer sales with the respective loan clubs Besiktas and Roma potential buyers.

The big decision for Arsenal this summer though will be the future of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose contract expires in 2021.

Head of football Raul Sanllehi has said that key players will not be allowed to leave the club for free, so the Gunners could be forced to sell their top-scorer this summer if a new deal is not agreed.