Sokratis Papastathopoulos wants Arsenal to release him from his contract so that he can complete a move to Napoli.
The 32-year-old still has 10 months left on his contract and is clearly excess to needs for Mikel Arteta. He is due to be sold and Napoli have expressed the most interest.
Both clubs are still way apart in their valuation of the player, who joined the Gunners in 2018 for around £11 million from Borussia Dortmund. Letting him walk for free is not an ideal scenario but one Arsenal need to consider. They have a lot of dead weight lying around and it would be great to clear up Sokratis’ wages right now.
The Greek international is not in the manager’s plans and it would make no sense to keep him around for another season. It is better to get rid of now and open up the door for fresh arrivals. The Gunners could try getting something out of his sale but letting him walk is not exactly a ridiculous request either.
We will still have to wait and see how this current transfer board performs in the market this summer. Last year, a similar situation arose with Laurent Koscielny but the veteran was allowed to leave for £5 million to Bordeaux even at the age of 33. That happened while Raul Sanllehi was still on board. Without the master negotiator, can Arsenal carry out such deals still?
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