EPL: Arteta Hints at Potential Exits for Veteran Arsenal Players

Arsenal's gaffer, Mikel Arteta, has openly acknowledged that the club might be compelled to make tough calls regarding the careers of some of its long-serving footballers. He stressed the importance of approaching such discussions with "real honesty and transparency." Speaking on Thursday, just before Arsenal's Premier League campaign kicks off against Coventry City, Arteta stated that the club bears the responsibility to implement football-related decisions, even when these prove challenging for players who have dedicated many years to the club.

"It’s a really, really tough moment, you need to face that reality," the coach was quoted saying in a statement published on the club's official website. He added, "But you need to face it with real honesty and transparency because when you are on the other side, that’s exactly what you need. You might not like what you’ve been told, but if it’s truthful, if it’s the reality, if it’s honest and it’s going to help you to make better decisions and have more clarity for the next steps in your career, you have to do that."

Arteta elaborated that while these conversations are inherently difficult, they become essential when a player either feels their importance has diminished or wishes to embark on a new phase of their professional journey. "These are always very difficult conversations, but they need to be done," he stated. "It’s like when a player doesn’t feel that he belongs or he’s important, he wants to have a different chapter, I think that communication has to exist and it has to be both ways."

The Spanish manager further affirmed Arsenal's commitment to upholding respect for players, even at the point of their departure from the club. "We all know, everything has a start and has an end," he remarked. "When it comes to the end, I think our duty, our responsibility is to do it in the best possible way, maintaining the respect and admiration for the player and the relationship, but understanding that at the end, we need to make football decisions."

These remarks coincide with Arsenal's ongoing efforts to restructure their team as they aim to defend their Premier League crown. Arteta dismissed the notion that Arsenal struggles with player sales, explaining that outgoing transfers are influenced by several variables. These include the players' calibre, their contract situations, and their personal desire to move on. "It’s not bad or good. It depends on what you have relative to the options you have to sell," he explained. "Maybe we’ve been extraordinary, depending on the level of the players that we have, the ability and their contracts and their will to go."

He also highlighted a potential challenge where the club might wish to make decisions regarding players who are content to stay. "A possible issue that you can face is that maybe you want to make certain decisions with certain players, but they are happy and want to stay as well," Arteta noted, adding, "There are a lot of factors that have to be right when you have to sell a player, but it’s not that simple, in my opinion."

Furthermore, Arteta refuted claims that Arsenal must offload players before bringing in new ones, citing the club's significant advancements in market value, on-field performance, and financial revenue. "Well, it depends on the sporting success as well," he stated. "I think there isn’t any club in Europe that has had the growth that Arsenal had in terms of the value, in terms of the performances, in terms of the revenues. So that’s something very big. Some other clubs, maybe they need to sell. I think we’re taking an approach that has increased the level and the capacity of the club, big time."

Despite the prospect of making tough calls on certain squad members, Arteta emphasized his desire for Arsenal to maintain a deep squad, acknowledging the rigors of the upcoming season. "The players have to feel important and valued and in order to do that, they need to play minutes," he asserted.

The manager also highlighted the critical importance of retaining players nurtured within Arsenal's youth academy. "Certainly. I mean, the players that have been raised in our system and they feel generally that love and that connection with the club, it brings something else," Arteta explained. "There is no question about that, and we need to look after them in a really special way because they bring value that is very difficult to find." He concluded, "That’s why, when we can, we want to protect those assets as much as possible, develop them and make them extremely important for the club."

Nevertheless, Arteta confirmed that promising youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly would stay with Arsenal beyond the current transfer window, stating "100%" when queried about his future. He further revealed that the club is actively seeking to bolster its defensive options due to William Saliba's significant long-term injury. "The ambition is to improve the squad," Arteta affirmed. "We have a really specific issue in the backline, especially with the long-term injury of Wilo [Saliba] and the fact that we miss one more defender; that’s clear. So we are trying to reinforce.