Three realistic sales Arsenal can make as they seek to raise £45m to sign long term midfield target

A lot of transfer stories this summer are based on the premise that all the big teams can simply offload a few fringe players to finance a bigger signing, but we’re starting to see that it’s not as simple as that.

There isn’t a lot of money going around so it’s often a case of waiting for one transfer to happen and trigger a domino effect, but Arsenal have started to make some handy additions to the squad.

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Willian will add quality and experience to the attack, Gabriel Magalhaes should be the future of the defence for years and Sky Sports have suggested that Dani Ceballos is closing in on a return to the club.

There is still a need for a solid midfielder who will help shield the back four and bring a physical presence to the midfield, and it sounds like Arsenal’s long held interest in Thomas Partey could still go somewhere:

Arsenal remain interested in Atletico Madrid's Thomas Partey but would need to sanction at least one sale in order to activate the midfielder's £45m release clause.

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 2, 2020

Naturally the fans will hope that fringe players like Sokratis, Callum Chambers, Mesut Ozil, Lucas Torreira or Sead Kolasinac could be sold for decent money to finance the move for Partey but it’s just not realistic.

It’s also possible that the money will need to be raised by selling two or more players, but here’s three potential sales that have some logic in them and would raise the necessary funds:

Hector Bellerin – £25m+

The Spanish full back is a popular player and he’s been a vital part of the team in the past, but he keeps getting injured and can’t be relied upon for a whole season.

Arteta would need to fully trust Maitland-Niles to play a starting role for this to happen and he would always have Cedric to fall back on, while a recent report from The Guardian suggested that PSG have made a bid of £25m+ bonuses for Bellerin, so this would raise a bulk of the fee and the squad should be strong enough to deal with the loss.

Alexandre Lacazette – £30m +

The Football Manager player in you is screaming to say if Atletico Madrid want Lacazette they should just swap him for Thomas Partey, but it just doesn’t seem to be that simple.

This story has dragged on and on while The Daily Mail even suggested that Atletico were set to sign the French striker for £30m when Aubameyang signed his new deal, it still hasn’t gone anywhere.

The valuation of £30m probably shows why a swap deal won’t happen but it should be possible for Arsenal to pay a fee and swap Lacazette for Partey if they could raise £15m from somewhere else.

Matteo Guendouzi – £15m +

It’s pretty much impossible to tell what Guendouzi’s market value is due to the financial uncertainty in the world and the fact that he had a very public falling out with Mikel Arteta.

It’s not a total stretch to say if everything was normal and he continued to play at a high level without falling out of favour last season he could even be worth as much as £50m, but it’s clear that Arsenal don’t want him and they have no leverage when it comes to selling him.

He’s still young, his energy can get a team going and he’s a genuinely good all-round midfielder, but his attitude is an issue so it could be difficult to offload him.

The most likely exits would be Lacazette and Bellerin purely because the interest is there and Arsenal should have the squad depth to deal with their loss, but it would leave them one Aubameyang injury away from disaster.