How much money did Arsenal remove from their wage bill this summer? | OneFootball

Arsenal went into this summer hoping to clear a load of wages from their books and they’ve managed to do that to the tune of an astonishing £46m-a-year.

For years we watched as Arsenal struggled to get rid of average and poor players from the squad. No matter what they seemed to do, the driftwood just kept bobbing back to us.

Enter Raul Sanllehi and his no-nonsense style and within a couple of windows the decks have been cleared and the wage bill drastically reduced.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck, Petr Cech, Nacho Monreal, Mohamed Elneny, David Ospina, Laurent Koscileny, Alex Iwobi, Carl Jenkinson, Stephan Lichtsteiner, plus a load of youngsters were all shown the door this summer alone.

It’s hard to look at that list and think Arsenal would be better if we’d kept them all. Laurent Koscielny for another season, perhaps, and Aaron Ramsey, of course. Iwobi at a push. But for the most part, the players we’ve got rid of are ones we’ll struggle to remember in 10 years time.

How much of that £46m will be re-invested in new players is hard to say. Josh Kroenke has made all sorts of promises and has so far delivered.

Still, I doubt we will see in all go back into the budget but we should see a large chunk of it assigned to renew Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s contracts while a new offer is on it’s way to Matteo Guendouzi.