It’s safe to say that this transfer window has been an entertaining one.

From PSG setting a new bar for how much a player can be bought for, to Kyle Walker somehow going to Man City for a reported fee of £50 million, the 2017/18 season is shaped to be one of the best football seasons in both the Premier League and leagues across Europe.

And out of the 20 competing Premier League teams this season, 12 of them have already broken their club transfer records on a single player, with Arsenal being one of those 12 teams.

Alexandre Lacazette joined the Gunners for a reported fee of £52 million, potentially ending Arsenal’s long search for a reliable striker, and whilst Lacazette and Sead Kolašinac remain Arsenal’s only signings so far, and likely the only signings of this transfer window, there is still some business Arsene Wenger can deal with in the Arsenal squad.

The North London side have sold during the window, with club favourite Wojciech Szczęsny leaving the Gunners for Juventus for a reported fee of £11 million, and more recently Gabriel Paulista departing the Emirates Stadium for Valencia.

And although these moves seem reasonable, Wenger still has some work to do to remove more of the dead wood in the squad, and with under a week before the transfer window slams shut until January, the Frenchman is running out of time, and fast.

But who to sell? It’s a question that has been debated about by Arsenal fans and football fans across the globe since the start of the window, but once you look into the Arsenal squad, you can see some notable players who would be better off somewhere else for good.

A forgotten man

We’ll start off with a player who you might have forgotten was even at the club, Mathieu Debuchy. The 32-year-old joined the club back in 2014 to replace club icon Bacary Sagna, and whilst the former Newcastle defender was consistent in the first half of the 2014/15 season, injuries and the rise of Hector Bellerin saw Debuchy fall down the peeking order at Arsenal.

Debuchy only played seven times during the 2015/16 season, and only an incredible 93 minutes in the last. What good is a player of Debuchy’s age in the reserves? Not to mention the Frenchman is on a reported wage of £70,000-a-week.

Selling for the good of the player

Next up in the Arsenal summer sale, Lucas Perez. Perez joined Arsenal only last season for a fee of £16 million, and after a season that saw the Spaniard make only two Premier League starts and one Premier League goal, Perez could already be on his way out of North London.

And you have to feel sorry for the guy. Perez was and still is adored by the Arsenal fans despite his limited game time, putting in 110% and sometimes being a game changer as a late substitute last season.

But despite some memorable moments, the move as a whole has been a disaster for both player and club. Perez’s development as a player has been hindered greatly during his time at Arsenal, and the club invested a large sum of money on a player the club didn’t need, and for those reasons alone, it would be the right move to sell Perez on.

A lost cause

The final player who should be cleared out of Arsenal before the end of the transfer window is Jack Wilshere. Oh Jack, what happened to you? One time you were considered the future of both Arsenal and England, and now, you’re in the Arsenal reserves starting on kids who have just received their GSCE results.

Wilshere is a player that has divided the English football fan base unlike anybody, and whilst it is now clear that the Stevenage-born midfielder won’t become the next England captain, it doesn’t mean that his career is over.

But the signs are pretty clear, in order for Wilshere to progress as a player, he has to make the bold decision and leave his boyhood club for good. It will be something that neither Wenger or Wilshere would want to do, but with the 25-year-old still facing his injury demons despite a season at Bournemouth were he played 27 Premier League games. Wilshere just won’t hit the same number of games this season in a stacked and changing Arsenal team.

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About the author
Dylan Walsh
Student at the University of Brighton, 20-years-old, Twitter: @dylanwalsh_