Yesterday I saw – and got my thoughts in too – some stuff online about Zinchenko being a target for AC Milan. And it occurred to me that with all of this chatter about incoming strikers, I haven’t really thought about exits that will happen this summer for The Arsenal. We’ve already sent Neto back, as well as Sterling from their pretty shambolic loan spells, plus there have been a flurry of players leaving at the end of their contracts including KT and Jorginho, but who are we actually going to get money for this summer?

We’ve received some money for Tavares already – around £6million if the rumours are true – which doesn’t quite recoup what we paid, but if he does go to Saudi Arabia for £30million then it’ll have turned into a profitable exercise, because we get around a third of it at circa £10million. So that sets us off for this summer. Marquinhos was a couple of million quid with a sell-on clause. If Zinchenko does have an official bid launched for him for AC Milan, I think that deal gets done pretty easily, to be honest with you. He’s fallen down the pecking order at Arsenal, he barely got any game time and we have tanked his value by Arteta not using him. The arrival of MLS was a welcome one for us, for sure, but Arteta’s refusal to give him minutes in midfield until right at the end of last season means that clubs can now come to us and say that a player who has barely played isn’t worth top dollar.

If the noises are circa £12million (I’ve seen €15million quoted as our price) then I think everyone just has to get on with it. Zinchenko would thrive in a slower league like Milan, we get a bit of a bump to our coffers, MIlan get a player who can still add tons of value to their side. If that gets done for that value, then we’re looking at coming close to around £30million in the pot.

I suspect that we’ll try to find a home for Sambi Lokonga, but we won’t get much cash for him. He had some injury problems last season with Sevilla and as a result they’re not exercising his loan option. IF they’re not willing to do that, then I think we’ll be lucky to get £10million for him. If we say it’ll be circa £5million as a conservative estimate, then we’re looking at bumping our cash to around the £35million mark. That’s a Fabio Vieira-sized signing and that’s about it. I think we’re already starting to see that there isn’t going to be a Hale End exit windfall that we’ll not be able to take advantage of like last summer I suspect. We might get some offers for Vieira himself, but it won’t be near the £35million we paid. If we got half of that I suspect Arsenal might take it. For the purposes of this game let’s go conservative again and say £15million. Now we’re up to £50million.

The other name doing the rounds is Jakub Kiwior, who is also rumoured to be interesting Italian clubs and, specifically, Milan. Now this one might be the one that brings in proper cash. He’s just come off the back of an impressive end to the season, he’ll have been seen by a lot of clubs in that Champions League run and, frankly, we shouldn’t be looking to be forced to sell. That strengthens your hand and with that in mind, Arsenal need to be telling any potential suitors that Kiwior can be theirs, but only for a princely sum. We paid around £20million for his services and I definitely think his value has gone up based on last season, so if Italian clubs want him, we need to be asking for north of £30million. If he asks Arteta to go so he can play regular game time, I think we let that happen at around £35million and we’re up to £85million in sales.

It’s not a bad haul for a collective of players – Kiwior aside – that we’re not really using any more, but it’s hardly amazing, especially given all the talk of what we’re looking to invest this summer. Zubimendi is arriving for £51million, Leipzig want £59.5million (ish – when you do the Euro conversion) for Sesko, then if Partey goes we’re gonna need a new central midfielder. If MLS is earmarked for that spot maybe he gets moved forward and you can see why we’re in for Hato, but that feels like a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. Hato has also been quoted at £40million and so if that were to happen as well as Sesko at that price, suddenly Arsenal have spent £150million whilst recouping £85million back, giving you a net spend £65million. That’s not too bad and certainly if you factor in contract renewals it feels do-able, but when you start to do that ‘back-of-a-fag-packet’ type maths, you see why Arsenal are a little more concerned with not being ripped off on their striker choice. I’m not saying we do this, but you can see why they’re keeping their options open for Watkins, because if you can get him for £30million instead of £60million for Sesko or Gyokeres, suddenly you’re looking at a net spend of around the £35million, having been pretty neutral last summer and not having spent in the January window just gone.

There’s still lots to do, the window officially opens again today, so let’s see how this week plays out.

Catch you all tomorrow.