Transfer News: Arsenal keeping busy

Arsenal has officially secured the service of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the January transfer window. Whilst all of the focus at Arsenal has been on acquiring his services, the club has also been busy elsewhere.

Olivier Giroud has made a big move to Chelsea and four other players have also left the club after they narrowly missed out on West Brom captain Johnny Evans.

Giroud’s £18 million move to Chelsea has helped to earn back some of the fee payed for Aubameyang. Arsenal paid a huge £56 million for Aubameyang and he is set to be the clubs highest earner, at least until Mesut Ozil requests a higher wage.

The club has also loaned Mathieu Debuchy to St Etienne for a smaller fee and Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Chuba Akpom have been loaned to Angers and Sint-Truidense, respectively.

Both of the loaned out players are highly regarded at the Emirates only leaving in search of first team opportunities. Both are set to return to the club in the summer.

Debuchy has struggled for game time at Arsenal following a bright start having only appeared 30 times for the North London club. He has previously left on loan in the 2015-16 season in search of first team opportunities.

The French international is in the final six months of his contract and looks set to be released by Arsenal at the end of the season given the 32 year olds age.

Arsenal’s main drive behind the sales of Giroud and Debuchy is to free up their wage bill in order to stay in line with the new Premier League guidelines.

The North London club has also loaned out Krystian Bielick who has joined Walsall until the end of the season.

Arsenal was also in search of a quality defender in need of consolidating their defence and went in search of West Brom’s Johnny Evans.

Unfortunately for the Gunners, the money they spent on Aubameyang and the funds required for Ozil’s new deal meant that they were unable to match the demands of West Brom.

Arsenal is currently struggling in the Premier League sitting in 6th place and a notable way behind a Champions League place. They will be hoping that the addition of Aubameyang will help to propel them back into a Champions League place having missed out last season as well.

The Premier League winter transfer window closed on January 31 and won’t open again until July.

 

Zac Fyffe
Zac Fyffe
Passionate about writing and sharing my experiences with others. Zac has a keen interest in sport and politics in particular. Contact: [email protected]
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