It might seem pre-emptive to look ahead beyond a title winning season for Arsenal but there are players in this squad who will reach the end of their shelf life.
While playing in a successful team is what all players yearn for, the sad reality of life as a top footballer is that the ever revolving door of squad improvement continues.
That’s no different at Arsenal. We’ve seen in the last few windows how the club has backed Mikel Arteta to the tune of 100s of millions and now, we are seeing the fruits of that labour.
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However, come the summer transfer window, it’s important Arsenal don’t stagnate.
All the best teams continually freshen things up and keep improving. And unfortunately for THREE Arsenal players, that means being sold on to accommodate.
Ben White
It might seem an extreme to sell Ben White, given he is still an important squad player.
However, White has lost his place as the first-choice right-back and he barely gets a look in at all when it comes to playing in the middle.
Ultimately, there’ll come a point where White himself wants to play and he surely can’t be content with being on the bench as much as he is right now.
For Arsenal, with White being 28, it might be the last time they can reasonably recoup a chunk of that £50m fee back that they paid Brighton.
We can expect plenty of interest in White and ultimately, it would be no surprise to see him move on.
Gabriel Jesus
This one is arguably more predictable and for the last few windows it’s looked like we might have seen the last of Gabriel Jesus.
For now, he remains an important cog in the machine and comes on and does his bit when needed.
However, Arsenal have got Viktor Gyokeres as their main striker now, and with a returning Kai Havertz very much one of Arteta’s favourites, Jesus finds his chances even more limited.
Couple that with the never-ending search to add yet more firepower up top and Jesus could find himself out in the wilderness completely.
Like Ben White, Jesus is 28 and holds good resale value for now. The Brazilian has been a successful signing but his time is going to come this summer.
Christian Norgaard
Sometimes, a signing just doesn’t work out or have the impact you might expect.
Nobody in their right mind expected Norgaard to come in and be a game-changer for Arsenal and few can begrudge him moving from Brentford to test himself.
However, Norgaard hasn’t started once in the Premier League for Arsenal this season and has just three starts to his name in Europe.
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Norgaard has played just a single minute in the last six games in the league and at 31, he doesn’t really have the time to be sitting around and not playing.
The Dane is clearly a committed and top professional. But he will want to and need to be playing come next season and there are countless Premier League teams who’d take him.
With Norgaard, it’s going to be a case of ‘thank you, but goodbye’.
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