Ciaran Morrison

Sat 21 March 2026 11:00, UK

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Arsenal could face losing multiple players in the summer transfer window amid their rising wage bill.

That is according to ex-Everton, Aston Villa, and Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes any new contracts at Arsenal need to become “partially performance-related.”

The Gunners have opened talks with midfielder Declan Rice remaining at Emirates Stadium beyond 2028, just weeks after Bukayo Saka agreed a new £300,000 a week contract to keep him at the club until 2031.

Arsenal have no players whose contracts expire at the end of the season, with Mikel Arteta having kept a stable squad over the past few years.

Increasing costs at Arsenal though has put pressure on Arteta and his team to win trophies to ensure the club’s investment in the squad proves worthwhile.

Arsenal could hit ‘financial problem’

Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – states Arsenal will have no other option than to sell players if new contracts are not performance-related.

Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness thinks Myles Lewis-Skelly is one of three players who could depart.

He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “All these great contract renewals are fantastic, but if they are not at least partially performance-related, they’re going to hit themselves into a bit of a financial problem, which will probably mean offloading some of this squad as we’ve discussed before.

“We started off talking about Myles Lewis Skelly. He’s just one. There’ll be two or three that will have to go, and they’re going to hope for a core squad that is going to be really a very talented, very great squad.

“But it’s not going to be as deep as perhaps they would have had before, because there’s going to have to be a way to make these pounds and pennies add up.”

Martin Odegaard warned over Max Dowman rise

Former Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown told Football Insider that Arsenal must manage Max Dowman’s rise into the first team correctly.

Brown has warned captain Martin Odegaard, who could leave Arsenal in the summer, that Dowman could be coming for his place in the team if his performance levels drop.

Dowman made a game-changing impact when he came on against Everton recently, scoring his first ever Premier League goal to seal the three points.