Arsenal are expected to make plenty of changes to their squad this summer.
The Gunners have all but missed out on the Premier League title, but there is hope within the club that they could go all the way in the Champions League after battering Real Madrid.
The focus, for now, is on the pitch, but new sporting director Andrea Berta will surely be planning ahead for the summer transfer window.
All eyes will be on incomings, but there will be quite a few players leaving the Emirates Stadium too once the window opens.
One player Martin Odegaard rates very highly is likely to be pushed out the door.
Martin Odegaard’s one-word description of Oleksandr Zinchenko is now very interesting
Arsenal signed Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City in the summer of 2022.
The Ukraine international played a massive part in helping the Gunners become title contenders in his debut season at the Emirates.
Zinchenko played really well for large parts of that campaign as well, but then, the former City man started to make several mistakes.
Slowly, Zinchenko fell down the pecking order at Arsenal, and he has managed just six starts in all competitions this season.
Despite that, the Ukrainian is rated very highly among his teammates – even his captain, Odegaard, paid a huge compliment to him a few months ago.
In August 2024, when asked to describe Zinchenko using just one word, Odegaard replied: “Messi!”
Oleksandr Zinchenko’s time at Arsenal is up
Zinchenko has played a total of 623 minutes of football for Arsenal in all competitions this season.
The likes of Riccardo Calafiori and Myles Lewis-Skelly are ahead of him in the pecking order, while Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jurrien Timber have been used in his position too by Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal would like to sell Zinchenko this summer when he enters the final year of his contract, and it is very likely that the player would want to move on as well.
Berta will know that selling Zinchenko is a priority because if the Ukrainian stays beyond the next window, Arsenal will lose him for nothing in 2026.
We expect Berta to sell Zinchenko before the summer window shuts.
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