There have been some recent reports in the mainstream media saying that Arsenal are in talks with the German defender Shkodran Mustafi to allow him to terminate his contract with the Gunners despite the defender having six months to go on his present deal.
Personally I can see no chance of this happening whatsoever, as Arteta has already managed to slim down our bloated squad, especially in defence, so why let a player that is being paid and could be useful to the squad in the second half of the season.
As Arteta said just a couple of weeks ago in The Mail: ‘His future right now is here,’
‘I’m trying to help. We have Papa that probably is going to leave the club in this window.
‘William (Saliba) that has already gone on loan, so we don’t have many right now.
‘Gabriel’s been out for a period, David (Luiz) has been injured, so the situation is completely different to before.’
It is true that we now have Gabriel and Luiz back in the squad, but now Pablo Mari is out for an unknown period. Rob Holding is back and also in fine form, but I cannot see that we can get through the rest of the season without Mustafi as cover for any other injuries and suspensions to come.
I think we can forget about this rumour, don’t you?