Ranking Arsenal’s five ‘main candidates’ for summer exit on expendable scale as Gunners ‘must sell’ | OneFootball

At some stage, Arsenal were always going to pay the price for their immense spending over recent transfer windows and they will have a difficult decision to make in the summer.

Second-placed Arsenal have moved to within a mere £9m of Manchester United in our five-year Premier League net spend table after spending around £250m on signings in the summer.

And now the Gunners need to balance the books, with a report from The Telegraph claiming they ‘must sell at least one first-team player this summer’.

Head coach Mikel Arteta has been no stranger to sanctioning brutal exits from Arsenal during his reign, with Aaron Ramsdale and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang among those to be cast aside for shiny upgrades.

And with Arsenal blessed with a stacked squad that has quality options in every department, several big-name stars are at risk of being offloaded in the summer; club chiefs are holding ‘discussions around who would yield the most lucrative sale’.

Of Arsenal’s options, there are said to be five ‘main candidates’ to be sold: Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Ben White, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.

So we have decided to do Arsenal the service of ranking these players from most indispensable to most expendable. Here we go…

5th) Ethan Nwaneri

Nwaneri was always likely to be a victim of Arsenal’s statement transfer window after his breakout season in 2025/26, with the starlet seeing his minutes significantly decreased before he joined Marseille on loan in January.

The 18-year-old appears to have stuttered after a bright start at Marseille, but that club is a mess at the moment and the teenager will return to Arsenal better for the experience elsewhere.

Nwaneri is currently quite low in the pecking order at Arsenal, though that does not mean he should be sold. He still has a huge ceiling and his parent club needs to do their utmost to ensure he remains with them for the long term. Another loan elsewhere next season could do him good, mind.

4th) Myles Lewis-Skelly

It’s a similar story with Lewis-Skelly really.

The England international’s potential is perhaps not as high as Nwaneri’s, but there is not much in it and he should be considered just as indispensable by Arsenal’s board.

Lewis-Skelly’s naivety has been on show at times this season, with it clear that he is far more comfortable going forward than in defensive situations. But he will look even better once he is moved into midfield, and like his fellow academy graduate, Arsenal should only be looking to loan out the 19-year-old if he is to leave in the summer.

3rd) Martin Odegaard

Given Odegaard’s standards, this campaign has been really disappointing as injuries have taken their toll and his performance levels have declined significantly, while he is now sharing the spotlight with summer signing Eberechi Eze.

Eze, except when he has played Spurs, has failed to grasp the opportunity gifted to him by Odegaard, so the role as Arsenal’s starting No.10 is very much up for grabs. Still, the club captain is ‘frustrated’ and there have been murmurs of an unlikely move to Manchester United.

At this stage, it would not be a shock if Odegaard and Arsenal decided to go their separate ways in the summer, but it would be equally unsurprising if he returns to form during the run-in and reclaims a starting berth under Arteta.

2nd) Ben White

Arteta’s love-in with defenders appears to have no bounds and our pals at TEAMtalk are reporting that they are set to secure another permanent centre-back, but White has been a victim of the head coach striving for back-four perfection.

Like Ramsdale with David Raya, White, through no real fault of his own, has been reduced to being a bit-part player following Jurrien Timber’s emergence as one of the world’s best full-backs.

White is very good, while Timber is elite; it really is that simple. After a suitable January move to Everton was proposed, a similar transfer in the summer is increasingly looking like the best next step for the Englishman and his current club, who will reportedly sign a young right-back to provide cover as his replacement.

1st) Gabriel Martinelli

After a move to Bayern Munich and/or the Saudi Pro League did not come off in the summer, there was a feeling that the increased competition at left-wing would be the making or breaking of Martinelli at Arsenal.

And with the Brazil international only making nine Premier League starts, scoring one league goal and sitting firmly behind Leandro Trossard in the pecking order, it’s fair to say that he has moved closer to the exit door this season.

Martinelli emerged around the same time as Bukayo Saka, but he has frustratingly plateaued in recent years and it’s time for Arsenal to sign an upgrade, which they likely will in the summer. There is little between him and White, but the forward’s exit should be more valuable.