Nicolas Pepe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Bernd Leno and Eddie Nketiah are five players who would be leaving Arsenal this January.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has vowed that his project is entering a ‘new phase’ of his rebuild so while players may survive and remain at the club, some others will face the axe.
“Now it is a new phase where we start to rebuild the team, we take a very clear direction with how we want to move forward with the club,” said the former Gunners captain last week.
Aubameyang is currently banished from Mikel Arteta’s squad as the Spaniard seeks to imprint the new identity that will lift the North London side out of the depths of mediocrity.
The club-record signing Nicolas Pepe has done little to prove that the £72 million spent to bring him to the Emirates was worth it and Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli are firmly ahead of him in the pecking order at the moment.
Aubameyang, 32, was stripped of the captaincy after being accused of disciplinary breaches and could be left out in the cold until he returns from Africa Cup of Nations duty with Gabon
For Ainsley Maitland-Niles the Arsenal attacker has been left out in the cold and has suffered greatly from a lack of regular game time, despite some promising moments earlier in the campaign and could seek an exit from the club.
Leno, the German goalkeeper has lost his no.1 position at Arsenal to Aaron Ramsdale who was signed in the summer. And while Arteta wants two top goalkeepers competing for the same spot, the reality is a player of Leno’s calibre won’t want to be the Cup keeper for long.
For Nketiah, the Ghana eligible England U21 star has rejected Arsenal’s latest contract offer and wants to leave the club with Crystal Palace as a possible destination.
Nketiah looks destined to leave Arsenal, despite helping fire the Gunners to the Carabao Cup semi-finals with his hat-trick against Sunderland.
With the 22-year-old in the final year of his contract, as things stand, he is able to negotiate with foreign clubs over a free transfer from January 1.
Although Nketiah wants more playing time, Arteta is keen on keeping the Gunners academy graduate around.
