Opinion: The 11 Gunners Who Had Their Contracts Ripped Up Under Mikel Arteta

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·07 de julho de 2025

Opinion: The 11 Gunners Who Had Their Contracts Ripped Up Under Mikel Arteta

Takehiro Tomiyasu only played 6 minutes of football last season, so Gooners knew his injury was serious. The fact that, at the age of 26, he would agree to rip up his contract makes you fear whether he will ever be able to physically return to his previous levels.Recovering from his second knee surgery in just over two years, the defender will not be fit to play most likely until 2026.With his deal likely to expire at the end of the next campaign, it was unlikely to be renewed.The right back deserves credit for not being motivated solely by money.He was legally entitled to continue getting paid for another 12 months while using Arsenal’s world-class facilities to rehabilitate.The Gunners would have most likely agreed to pay him less overall, but the player will now get paid quicker while he can recover how he wishes, even returning to Japan if he chooses. Incredibly, the full back is the 11th Gunner to be released during Mikel Arteta’s reign.

It is natural for a player to leave as a free agent, but it is less common for a manager to so regularly just wash his hands of a talent.In his only management job, the Spaniard has, on average, released two players every year.It is a combination of his employers encouraging the wage bill to be slashed at various points, but also allowing the 43-year-old to believe it is normal practice to give up on anyone the moment they do not suit his ethos.

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We are not referring to anyone from the academy, as it is natural for youngsters to be deemed not good enough for the highest level, but it is less common that your first team squad contains individuals you would prefer to pay to leave.

Based on that, this list includes only names who played for us in the Premiership and were released by Mikel Arteta, ranked worst to best…

Willian

Willian has never been specific about why he could not settle into life at the Emirates.It is worth stressing that before and after, at other London clubs, there were zero issues.It could be that, during Covid, he never got to play in front of Gooners, with some players struggling in empty stadiums.I always think the Brazilian simply struggled entering such a young dressing room, having come from an environment with so many leaders and experienced players.The 36-year-old has earned respect from fans for not just agreeing to his release but waiving any future payments, essentially walking away from 12 million pounds.

Pepe

Let me stress, Pepe was and is a better footballer than many on this list but has to be near the bottom simply because, at the time, he was our record signing.The player himself has since suggested that if it was not for the size of that fee hanging around his neck, things could have worked out differently.Arteta’s management of him was strange at times. I remember moments when the attacker would do well but still not start the next week.In hindsight, you sense the decision had long been made to get his salary off the wage bill.A loan spell in France was surely good enough to prove that the Ivorian could have been a better impact sub than Reiss Nelson or Eddie Nketiah?Yet the decision had already been made on an expensive resource.Instead of finding a way to get the best out of the talent, the Gunners preferred to cut their losses, ripping up his contract.They were paying someone to leave who had cost them 72 million just four years ago.Worse, this was to little shock.It was now accepted how we did business.

Pepe insists he only sees the positives from his Arsenal spell.

Pepe

Kolasinac

Kolasinac was one of several players under Mikel Arteta fully aware that, if his employers had their way, he would have left North London sooner than he did.It is a compliment to the 32-year-old’s professionalism that Mikel Arteta kept trusting him around the squad once it became clear no one was going to match the left back’s current salary.The original plan was for the defender to return on loan to Schalke as captain, and they would re-sign him full time if they escaped relegation.When they could not, they could not afford the deal.So, in January 2022, a full year since first trying to get him off their wage bill, the Gunners agreed to rip up his contract so Marseille could continue paying him the same wage, due to there being zero transfer fee.

Callum Chambers

Some might forget there was a spell as a Gunner where Callum Chambers was playing well enough to get three international caps.Yet it always felt like just as he was gaining some momentum at the Emirates, he would suffer a serious injury.Loans to Middlesbrough and Fulham were a success, and I remember thinking, with Mikel Arteta’s reputation at the Etihad of getting the best out of talent one-on-one, the Englishman could really progress under the Spaniard’s coaching.Yet you could argue the 30-year-old has never recovered from a cruciate ligament injury that kept him out for a year, so in 2022, the Gunners essentially let Aston Villa take over the final months of his contract.What could have been?

Sokratis

As a compliment to the defender’s professionalism, despite him dropping down the pecking order under Mikel Arteta, the Greek was still trusted to be involved in the squad, a luxury not afforded to other talent our manager had lost faith in.Yet in the Spaniard’s first pre-season, the centre back joined Ozil in not being registered for the domestic and European squads.Here were Arsenal about to finish their second consecutive eighth-place finish, and they were paying two international footballers thousands of pounds to sit at home.You are telling me Sokratis could not have at least done a job in the Europa League group stages?Like Ozil, the idea was to make him feel so unwanted in North London that he would eventually agree to ripping up his contract early.

Mustafi

Became a scapegoat for a section of our fanbase.Do not get me wrong, he always had a mistake in him and did not come close to justifying his transfer fee, but he was not the only poor defender at the time.Would be able to put a run of strong performances together, but there would always be that moment of lost concentration.The German has since spoken about how his perception among Gooners impacted him mentally.Arsenal agreed with Mustafi (and Kolasinac) to end their contracts early so they could both join Schalke until the end of the season.Neither could save the club from relegation.

Mkhitaryan

In many ways, hard to know where to rank the 36-year-old because his time as a Gunner was not offensive.He did not do a lot wrong but ultimately was never great in his only full season at the Emirates.Given that Alexis Sanchez only had a few months left on his contract, swapping him for Mkhitaryan seemed the best solution out of a poor situation to be in.Yet we never got the version of the Armenian from Germany, Manchester or Italy.In his defence, there was a lot going on at Arsenal off the pitch at the time.By the time Mikel Arteta returned as manager, the midfielder was on loan at Roma and did not want to come back.The only issue was that the Italians could not afford to justify a transfer fee and his big wages.So, guess what the Gunners did?Made the player a free agent just to reduce the wage bill.He has since won five trophies in Serie A.A player we released.

Bellerin

For someone who spent a decade in North London, growing from a teenager into a man and lifting three FA Cups, Bellerin deserved to leave to more fanfare than having his deal ripped up.Some Gooners had started to run out of patience with the right back, mocking him for his love of fashion and caring about the environment.The 30-year-old was also outspoken about how fan abuse had impacted his mental health.The Spaniard’s biggest crime?Too many injuries, which robbed him of his pace.A loan to Real Betis was designed for the defender to prove his fitness. Despite winning the Copa del Rey with his boyhood club, he quickly learnt that the loan was never going to change his manager’s mind, and he was paid to leave early.

Aubameyang

For the second year running, Arsenal got buyer’s remorse, regretting paying a player over the age of 30 with zero resale value over the odds to stay.Of course, they could not publicly admit that, due to Covid, the priority was to slash the wage bill, so for the second season running, they paid our highest earner to sit at home.Our captain was not innocent. Clearly his timekeeping was an issue, but if his employers really wanted to, the priority could have been what was best for the team on the pitch.A short-term compromise could have been reached where our skipper helped us until the end of the campaign before all parties went their separate ways.Instead, the striker was simply given to Barcelona for nothing, without being replaced.While we failed to finish in the top four due to relying on Eddie Nketiah for our firepower, Auba was scoring goals for fun in Spain.

Ozil

Little did anyone know it at the time, but Ozil’s final game as a Gunner was assisting the only goal against West Ham.It is unusual for a midfielder to assist the winner (literally his job) yet be rewarded by never being selected for another squad by your manager. Especially at a time when teams could now make five subs.Mikel Arteta insisted this decision was for sporting reasons, but it is almost offensive to fans’ intelligence to suggest a World Cup winner could not at least make the bench of the worst Arsenal team in a quarter of a century.It is almost like something had happened off the pitch before the pandemic and during lockdown.We know the German was one of the players to refuse a pay cut, wanting clarification on what his billionaire employers planned to do to support the club during Covid.With clubs losing matchday revenue and not sure when stadiums would be full again, the Kroenke family needed the wage bill cut. Ozil was one of our top earners and had publicly embarrassed our owners by correctly predicting that players giving up part of their wages would not save staff from being made redundant.While the Gunners will never publicly admit it, months were spent trying to make Ozil feel so miserable that he would accept having his contract ripped up.This included not being invited to celebrate winning the FA Cup (which he qualified for a medal for), being paid to sit at home, and eventually not even being registered to play.

I look forward too your thoughts in the comments.

Dan Smith

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