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The Arsenal players who could leave and the realistic teams who could sign them in summer
ONE Arsenal departure would make all the difference to Unai Emery as he sets about trying to put more of his own imprint on the squad he inherited from Arsene Wenger.
But sadly, nobody will pay the £350,000 a week needed for Arsenal to wash their hands of Mesut Ozil – arguably the most un-Emery-like player in the Premier League.
Instead, then, the Spaniard is having to continue shuffling resources around him – not that there is not plenty of business to be done removing the dead wood that he has inherited from a hierarchy whose recruitment process has been questionable for years.
The Gunners have been left with plenty of players who were either never up to standard or have failed to deliver what’s expected of them in north London.
Express Sport is on hand to run through four men who could be shown the door by Arsenal, as well as where they could end up, during the summer transfer window.
David Ospina
Position: Goalkeeper
Possible destination: Napoli
Arsenal will be keeping their fingers crossed that Carlo Ancelotti delivers on hints that he may make the loan signing of the Spain goalkeeper a permanent £3m signing in the summer.
A full-time deal would end the saga of another mis-step into the transfer market.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Positiion: Winger / playmaker
Possible destinations: Borussia Dortmund, Everton, China, Turkey, Japan
Both ingredients of quite possibly the worst swap deal in the history of football could quite possibly find themselves in the same Far Eastern league playing out their days now that Mkhitaryan has fallen as badly out of favour at his new club as Alexis Sanchez at Manchester United.
He may still have something to offer the Bundesliga and Everton have been mentioned, but nothing he has shown at the Emirates suggests he is ready for much more than semi-retirement.
Shkodran Mustafi
Positiion: Centre-back
Possible destinations: Juventus
The multiple Serie A champions could be the perfect place for Mustafi as there will be hardly any need for him to do any defending.
With Calum Chambers back at the club and Rob Holding soon to be fit again, his place at Arsenal is completely redundant.
One thing is sure, though – nobody will be going anywhere near the £35m Arsene Wenger paid for his services from Valencia.
Mohamed Elneny
Position: Central midfielder
Possible destinations: Besiktas, Leicester
The Turkish club are the strong favourites to end an unconvincing spell at the Emirates during which the Egypt international has never really settled into Premier League football.
Otherwise, Leicester were monitoring his situation earlier in the season in the hope that a change on environment could be the key to him finally cracking English football.