Arsenal has been in talks with AS Roma over a possible swap deal that would see Henrikh Mkhitaryan join the Italians while Justin Kluivert moves the other way.
Mkhitaryan has been on loan at the Italian side since the start of this season after the Gunners deemed him surplus to requirements.
He has, however, become a better player in the Italian capital and they are keen to sign him up permanently.
They had been struggling to meet Arsenal’s asking price for his permanent signature, before the idea of a swap deal was brought into the mix.
The Gunners wanted to use the Armenian as a sweetener in a move to land Kluivert, but Roma aren’t looking to lower their asking price for the Dutch winger.
Reports in Italy via Sun Sports now claim that talk of any swap deal has now been quashed.
Mkhitaryan has just extended his stay until the end of the prolonged Italian league season and according to the official Roma Twitter account, a preliminary agreement is in place for him to remain in Rome next season.
🙌 MICKI STAYS 🙌
We've agreed a deal that will see @HenrikhMkh stay until the end of the current season, with a preliminary agreement for the 2020-21 campaign too! ⚡️
#ASRoma— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) June 30, 2020
This is good news for Arsenal because being brutally honest, Mkhitaryan was a waste of space and his wages were a drain on the club’s finances.
It will be good if there is a clause for Roma to sign him at the end of his loan spell.
You guys don’t really know what’s going on do you?
Arsenal are terminating Mhiki’s contract so Roma will sign him for free.
His preliminary contract with Roma is free.
Just so we can get him off our wage bill.
Very poor and terrible business.. We rejected Roma’s 10 million pounds bid in January only for us to hand him over to them freely.
Typical Arsenal, Typical clowns as board
Got a link to that Eddie?
He said Arsenal would cancel Mhiki’s contract in the summer… They have an agreement to cancel it this summer so he signs for Roma.
All of this just so we get him off our wage list.
I tried getting the other link for the report but I couldn’t find it as it’s lost in my browser’s history but I could get the tweet from Charles.
I think I read it on Arseblog also or somewhere
https://twitter.com/charles_watts/status/1278075678500454404?s=19
I sent you the link to his tweet, I don’t know if you saw it
Really Eddie ?in December when we were dealing with Roma no one could have predicted the repercussions of the pandemic,had it not happened we would have got closed to the asking price so you cannot blame this one on the board sorry man!anyway like I said before we need to move a lot of players even if it means getting small or no fees for some like Mikhi,Elneny…it will free up spaces and wages ,a better option than being stuck with them don’t you think?
If we wanted 10 it sounds really strange if we now give him away for free.
Only makes sense if Roma decided to take all of the cost for Mikis salary if they did not want to before.
But I highly doubt Arsenal wanted 10 million and then “oh, nevermind you can have him for free. Enjoy!”
I doubt it too, let’s wait for Eddie confirmation because it doesn’t make any sense
Guys Arsenal basically rejected 10million for Mhki.
Also they’re planning to cancel the contract this summer.
He’s meant to have a year left, but it will be cancelled.
It was tweeted by Charles Watts, we all know just like David Ornstein he gives reliable news, only difference is he normally reports it when it’s all already done
And what sense does this make Eddie, let me pretend it’s not real, no matter how little, we can still get clubs who are willing to buy him, why cancell his contract?
Why cancel his contract?
Simple, Arsenal are freeing up wages.
It’s like if they decide to cancel Ozil’s contract. It’ll only happen if Ozil agrees to it
I beg to differ @Eddie. I read an article that says Mikhi’s agent made the move for his contract to be terminated in which Arsenal will be paid 2.5m pounds plus additional 8.5m pounds (Annual salary) which gives a total of 11m pounds. That would be after expiration of his extended loan so it wasn’t Arsenal that terminated hid contract. However, it’s good to free up his wage bill so we can get another player.
I hope this is the case, Eddie case makes no sense to me, am not saying Eddie is wrong, he told us what he read, but it’s reasoning elude common sense, I’ll wait for a better confirmation, I have 2 stories from Eddie and you Inni, thanks guys for the updates
My point is the contract is getting cancelled… Thank God even you read it, it doesn’t have to be initiated by the club.
It’s getting cancelled and the club accepted to it. It’ll be cancelled this summer.
My main issue why TF did we reject 10Million during January and we’re letting him go for free now.
You talk as though 2.5 million is money.
The only positive here is the fact his wage will be taken off
And Hold up, Mhki ain’t paying us 11million pounds. I don’t know where you read yours from but Charles Watts is a reliable Arsenal reporter just like Ornstein and he only said Arsenal would be cancelling it this summer and Roma already have an agreement with Mhki to sign for free.
I know the reporter who I’m believing.
Also, what sense does it make for Mhki to pay us 11million? What player have you seen done that when he can stay and earn his wage? 200k per week.
The only common fact here is, both parties agreed the contract will be cancelled.
Don’t expect any player to pay you up to 5 not to mention 11 million
The good news is , one way or another, Mik will no longer be a drain on our resources.Before too long I hope a number of other mediocre performers follow suit.If what you say is correct Eddie, it does make you wonder about the competence of our Executives.Or to put it another way it is merely another example of their incompetence.
To me cancelling his contract and freeing up the salaray cost is good buisness.
If we could have received 10 million as well that would be better. On the other hand we do not know if there are any other clauses in there.
Good, I think it was 170K/Week, done and gone.Good work by the club.One more to go. Guess who? The only difference is that one player wants to sweat it out earning his daily bread in Rome while the other prefers not to.
You never know, but Mhki might be taking a pay cut to stay and play at Roma.
The world is now a different place to what it was in January and getting him off the wage bill is good news for Arsenal.
Not many clubs, I imagine, will be splashing the cash