Darren Bent has claimed he’d let go of Calum Chambers and Sokratis Papastathopolous amid claims the duo could be headed for the exit door this month.
Sorkatis is thought to have a number of offers from clubs around Europe, meanwhile, Mikel Arteta is open to letting the former Southampton man leave on a loan deal to find regular first-team football.
Bent said: “Yes, I would be [in favour of them leaving]. Not so much for me. There were times when he was playing well and he was in the team. But him and Sokratis, I would let them go. They are not going to feature. We are still quite centre-back heavy.” (via talkSPORT)
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The duo have rarely featured for the Gunners this season with Chambers playing just 110 first-team minutes, whilst the Greek defender was left out of the Premier League and Europa League squads at the start of the campaign.
A bloated squad has been a problem in N5 for a few years, however, it reached the tipping point last summer as Mesut Ozil and the former Borussia Dortmund ace were left out of the squad due to too many foreign players.
Along with the high player count comes an increase in costs, namely wages and boy do Arsenal have quite the wage bill. The likes of Chambers and Sokratis are on a combined £142k-p/w in terms of weekly wage, and moving them on would work wonders in terms of allowing incomings this month.
And if wages weren’t enough of a problem, the Gunners entered the season with as many as eight centre-backs. Now, I know the Reds had problems in defence last season, however, eight central defenders are too much even for Mikel Arteta’s side.
Getting rid of deadwood is the start of a very long squad overhaul. You’d imagine with the likes of Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes set to be mainstays at the club for years to come, there seems to be no space for Chamber and Sokratis making transfers all the more likely.
In other news, Arsenal are interested in a Super Lig youngster.
