Revealed: Arsenal ready to offload five senior players in the summer

Founder & Managing Director AUTHORITY Former chief correspondent at Evening Standard, Goal and Press Association with nearly three decades in national, regional and digital news and sports journalism. Wayne directs the network’s news strategy and high-level operations. FOCUS Editorial direction for the 11-site network and newsroom management. THE BRIEF Wayne oversees the network’s editorial standards across the network. He provides the final sign-off on all headline scoops, ensuring content across all platforms meets the standards required for a high-velocity newsroom.

Published on:

03 Mar 2016, 5:21 am

By Editor Wayne Veysey | Former Evening Standard, Press Association and Goal chief correspondent with 17 years experience of breaking big stories, including exclusives like this

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Arsenal are preparing to offload five senior players at the end of the season, Football Insider sources understand.

The Premier League giants will listen to offers for full-backs Kieran Gibbs and Mathieu Debuchy as well as allow Mathieu Flamini, Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky to leave when their contracts expire in the summer.

Gibbs, 26, and Debuchy, 30, have lost their status as first-choice full-backs and the Gunners are ready to cash in on the pair while they can still command high transfer fees.

Academy graduate Gibbs is contracted to Arsenal until 2018, while Debuchy, who is on loan at French club Bordeaux for the rest of this campaign, has a deal that runs until 2019.

Arsene Wenger and his scouting network are eyeing Leicester left-back Ben Chilwell and Fulham youngster Ryan Sessegnon as possible successors to Gibbs, although neither club are willing to sell. Football Insider revealed in January that Arsenal tried to loan Serge Gnabry to Fulham in part-exchange for highly rated Sessegnon moving to Emirates Stadium.

Fulham youngster Ryan Sessegnon has been targeted by Arsenal

Target man: Arsenal used Gnabry as bait in an attempt to land Ryan Sessegnon

Wenger has vowed to further strengthen the London club's central midfield after signing Mohamed Elneny from Basle in the January window.

Flamini, 31, is keen to land a new contract after playing regularly in recent months, but he is facing an uphill battle to change the manager's mind.

In other Arsenal transfer news, veteran pair Arteta and Rosicky will end their lengthy associations with the Londoners at the end of the season after spending most of the campaign sidelined through injury.

Arsenal

Mathieu Flamini

Mathieu Debuchy

Kieran Gibbs

Mikel Arteta

Tomas Rosicky