Arsenal are said to be looking to offload some of their top earners
Arsenal are reportedly open to selling Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Mesut Ozil in a bid to reduce the club’s wage bill.
Mkhitaryan joined the club as part of a swap deal that saw Alexis Sanchez join Manchester United 14 months ago and is said to be one of the top earners at the Emirates – taking home £180,000 per week.
According to the Mirror, Unai Emery is willing to offload the Armenian in an attempt to free up funds in order to reshape his squad.
Ozil, whose future has been the subject of speculation over the course of this season, inked a £350,000-a-week extension to his deal the same month that Mkhitaryan arrived at the club. Emery is also said to be happy to let the German international depart in the summer.
Arsenal’s finances have been so stretched in recent months that they were restricted to making loan signings in the January transfer window.
Should the club miss out on Champions League qualification again this season, the same report says they could start the summer with a transfer budget of just £45m. With Aaron Ramsey departing for Juventus, such an amount is unlikely to help Emery rebuild the squad.
Arsenal’s last league outing saw them beat Manchester United 2-0 at home, enough for them to leapfrog Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men to move back into the top four.
