2021 has been a busy one for Arsenal, especially in both transfer windows. Manager Mikel Arteta was able to bolster his first-team squad by splashing over £140million in the summer to sign Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Martin Odegaard. But before getting those six deals over the line, the Spaniard had to make sure phase one of his Arsenal rebuild was successful. A few days before the January transfer window officially opened, Arteta confirmed that the Gunners’ main priority was to focus on outgoings rather than incomings – despite eventually signing Odegaard and Mat Ryan on loan.
Mikel Arteta said: “Well, we have a large squad. We knew that. A lot of things that should have happened in the summer we could not accomplish them for different reasons. There are a lot of players that are going to go on loan. They are going to leave. And that’s the priority at the moment because we cannot sustain the numbers that we have in certain positions. We are looking to do that.”
This transfer promise was fulfilled by Arteta along with the club’s technical director Edu with Sead Kolasinac, William Saliba, Matt Macey, Mesut Ozil and Sokratis all leaving either on loan or permanently. Another player that departed was Shkodran Mustafi.
