Arsenal Latest News, 9th April 2014

Arsenal are ready to sell four senior
squad players this summer with
Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski,
Thomas Vermaelen and Nacho
Monreal all tipped to make moves at
the end of the season.
It’s gearing up to be a frantic
summer of transfer activity at the
Emirates with the club having
around £100m to spend on new
talent, and it seems the coffers
could be further boosted by the sale
of some valuable assets.
Reports say that striker Olivier Giroud upset Arsene
Wenger following allegations that he
invited a model to his hotel room
the night before our game with
Crystal Palace earlier in the season,
and the boss is now supposedly
ready to listen to offers for the 27-
year-old.
I’m not sure how much I buy into
this, as Arsene has been a huge
advocate of Giroud’s and clearly
rates him as he choose to go the
entire season with him as our only
‘proper’ striker. I’m sure he was
disappointed by Giroud’s actions,
and he showed it by dropping him
for a couple of key games when the
news broke about him hooking up
with the model, but I’m not
convinced the player will be sold as
a result.
However, the reports seem confident
the former Montpellier man is on
the market and could be joined out
the exit door by fellow forward Lukas
Podolski. This one isn’t such a
surprise as it’s widely expected that
the German will leave this summer
after a difficult season that’s seen
him regularly left out of the team.
I will be sad to see him go if he
does end up leaving, as I still feel
he’s a valuable member of the
squad who gives us a real threat in
attack, but he’s at an age when he
needs to be playing regularly and
I’m not sure he’ll get that next
season with us.
Thomas Vermaelen is another player
who’s likely to be off after losing his
place in the starting eleven, and it’s
going to be a difficult task to find
someone as accomplished as the
Belgian to be our third-choice
centre-back next season.
The final player reports claim will
leave this summer is surprisingly
left-back Nacho Monreal. Latest news suggests the Spaniard is
growing frustrated at playing second-
fiddle to Kieran Gibbs and could
push for a move at the end of the
season.
I’d be hugely surprised if this was to
happen as Nacho seems fairly
content at the club and we’ve not
heard a word from him moaning
about a lack of playing time or
anything like that, but we’ll have to
see what happens in the summer.
With Lukasz Fabianski, Emiliano
Viviano, Bacary Sagna (possibly) and
Nicklas Bendtner also set to leave
this summer, it looks like the squad
overhaul is going to be pretty drastic
this summer. I’m sure much will
hinge on whether Arsene stays or
goes as well, and the sooner that
situation is resolved the better for
everyone.