Arsenal transfer news: Shkodran Mustafi to stay at Gunners
Shkodran Mustafi wants to leave Arsenal on deadline day.
The defender has struggled to hold down a place in the Gunners defence and is expected to join the Emirates exodus this summer.
He only signed for Arsenal last summer in a £34million deal from Valencia.
Arsenal have offloaded one player already today and more are expected to leave before 11pm.
But why does Mustafi want to leave Arsenal? Let’s take a look at the current situation.
Why Mustafi wants to leave Arsenal
Mustafi has not settled well in London by all accounts. The Germany international spent an early part of his career at Everton before being shipped out there.
Mustafi is keen to move abroad, which adds a strain to his transfer situation because he’s pretty well paid at the Emirates.
On the pitch it’s not going well either. Arsene Wenger has switched to three at the back, squeezing the options for his players to get game time.
Laurent Koscielny is a guaranteed starter, with Seed Kolasinac, Nacho Monreal and Rob Holding all ahead of the 25-year-old in the pecking order.
Wenger appears to have come to the realisation that Mustafi isn’t good enough for his first team.
But worryingly for the Gunners they are already short on defenders.
Arsenal's Shkodran Mustafi shows off his workout regime
Arsenal in defensive crisis
Arsenal’s defence looked woeful as they went down 4-0 at Liverpool on Sunday. They’re yet to keep a clean sheet and have conceded eight goals in their first three Premier League games of the campaign.
Gabriel has been sold, while Per Mertesacker isn’t getting any younger.
And wing-back Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has today signed for Liverpool.
The desire to offloaded Mustafi, therefore, may be a financial one, rather than a tactical one.
Arsenal still have a debt to pay Valencia over Mustafi’s signing last summer.
If they could cancel out that transfer fee Wenger may be happy to forge the signing ever existed.
Mustafi to Inter Milan
One big blow for Arsenal was Inter Milan’s withdrawal of interest in Mustafi.
Inter seemed keen on a loan deal with an option to buy next summer.
Mustafi has a long-term contract at the Gunners which makes it tough for Inter to agree a bargain deal.
They would have wanted Arsenal to contribute to his wages were a loan move to have been struck.
That is now not going to happen and Mustafi is in limbo.
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Where could Mustafi go?
With Inter not keen on Mustafi it looks as though he’s staying.
But that’s a big problem for the manager and player now.
It will be interesting to see how committed Mustafi is to the Arsenal cause, considering they wanted to offload him.
