Monday brought a couple different Arsenal FC transfer news items of note. The first is winger/attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan essentially tearing up his deal with the north London club in order to join AS Roma permanently.
The second is Dani Ceballos close to returning to the Emirates for a second season on loan from Real Madrid. Let’s go in-depth on both, starting with Mkhitaryan.
I‘m delighted to announce that I’ve permanently joined the #giallorossi ?????? I‘d like to thank @arsenal , its personnel & the millions of #gunners all whom supported me over the past 1,5Y. A special thanks to A. Wenger for having brought me to the club and for his trust in me pic.twitter.com/KD8QJuhAbT
— Henrikh Mkhitaryan (@HenrikhMkh) August 31, 2020
This is really the best for all involved, as the Armenian national team captain just never clicked at Arsenal. He arrived as part of a swap deal with Manchester United for Alexis Sanchez in the 2018 January transfer window, and unfortunately, it just didn’t work out for either player.
Now both have escaped bad fit situations to find new homes in Italy, via the loan route first, before then making those loan deals permanent. Sanchez joined Inter Milan permanently earlier this summer.
“Micki leaves us following his season-long loan in Italy. We have agreed to terminate his contract with us by mutual consent to allow him to join Roma in a permanent move,” Arsenal announcd in a club statement.
Mkhitaryan scored nine goals and registered six assists this past season for Roma. Moving on to Ceballos, a new deal for the upcoming season is close to being finalized, but it will not include an option to buy on a permanent basis.
According to Marca, Madrid “still want to keep the midfielder on their books and the player himself doesn’t want to give up on his dream of making it at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.”
Right now, there really isn’t a place for the 24-year-old Spaniard in the capital of his native country, and so he must ply his trade elsewhere and prove that he belongs in Zinedine Zidane’s first team.
Ceballos scored twice and grabbed two assists this season with the Gunners, and he did assert himself as a solid role player, who seems to work well under his countryman Mikel Arteta.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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