Andrea Berta has a lot of work to do regarding incomings at Arsenal this summer, but selling players to fund this transfer activity may be equally as important.
The Gunners were notoriously poor sellers under their previous sporting director, Edu Gaspar, often failing to bring in significant fees for relatively valuable players.
Edu’s successor has already got off to a promising start on this front, as Cruzeiro have paid Arsenal £2.5 million for forgotten man Marquinhos.
Meanwhile, the North Londoners received £800,000 for allowing Jorginho to play for Flamengo at the Club World Cup.
However, a more substantial sale for a player Arsenal may not necessarily want to sell may need to be sanctioned this summer, to maximise what they can spend on incoming players.
Arsenal rejected AC Milan’s enquiry about Riccardo Calafiori
Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko appear to be two players in Mikel Arteta’s squad who could leave and command reasonable fees this summer.
AC Milan are looking to sign Kiwior and Zinchenko, with a representative of the Italian club flying to London last week to negotiate with the Arsenal hierarchy.
Interestingly, according to the Mirror, Milan’s pursuit of the Gunners duo has been sparked by their failed pursuit of Riccardo Calafiori.
The publication reports that the Serie A giants enquired about the possibility of signing Calafiori this summer, but Berta and the player himself swiftly rebuffed the move.
Calafiori fell behind Myles Lewis-Skelly in the pecking order at left-back at the Emirates last season, with the Hale End graduate making himself undroppable by producing consistently impressive performances.
The Italian defender also persistently struggled with injury issues, seemingly suffering a setback every time he looked to have found a way into the team.
Finishing the campaign having made just 11 Premier League starts, there was some talk that the former Bologna man could return to his home country this summer.
However, Calafiori ruled out a summer exit back in May, and it seems as though the Arsenal higher-ups felt similarly eager not to end the player’s spell in North London prematurely with the way they shut down Milan’s approach.
Arsenal could’ve sold Riccardo Calafiori for big money
Calafiori signed for Arsenal in a deal worth upwards of £38 million with add-ons.
While not selling him this summer was probably the right decision, as the Gunners need depth at the back and Calafiori remains an extremely talented player, it certainly could’ve been a lucrative deal for Berta.
Given the fee Arsenal paid just a year ago, and the fact that they aren’t particularly keen on selling, they quite easily could’ve extracted somewhere in the region of £40 million from Milan.
A starter when fit for the Azzurri, Calafiori’s stock is high in Italy and the Rossoneri likely would’ve been willing to fork out a substantial amount of money to land his services.
That said, Arsenal will need Calafiori next season, particularly if Lewis-Skelly starts being deployed in midfield by Arteta.
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