Five Arsenal stars who could leave in sensational swap move for £85m lethal striker target

The longer the rumour mill turns before the transfer window opens, the more it appears that Arsenal may have settled on Sporting striker Viktor Gyökeres as their first choice to fix the gap in their front line.

Any number of reports have asserted their interest in the 25-year-old Sweden international, who has scored 27 goals in 37 games since joining from Coventry City last summer. The downside is that appear insistent that he will only be sold if the entirety of his €100m (£85.4m) release clause is met – which, in the age of the profit and sustainability rules, represents a problem even for a team as well-off as Arsenal.

That makes a recent report from The Daily Express rather more believable. They claim that the Gunners are preparing to offer players in part-exchange to make up the value and to ensure that they can sign Gyökeres without going too far into the red on the balance sheet.

The article doesn’t name the players in question, but with only a handful of plausible candidates, we look at which current squad members might be moved on to make way for the former Brighton & Hove Albion forward, and which ones would make the most sense as makeweights.

Emile Smith Rowe

Not so very long ago, Smith Rowe was seen as one of Arsenal’s brightest talents, even breaking briefly into the England squad. Sadly, injuries have blighted his career over recent seasons and although he is now fit again, he has not regained his place in Mikel Arteta’s starting side.

Now 23 and in need of minutes, there is a broad expectation that Smith Rowe will seek new pastures this summer. That doesn’t mean that he’ll be at the head of the queue to be sent to Sporting, however – as a home-grown player, Arsenal would likely benefit more under the PSR if they sold him for a fee, as it would count as pure profit. Sporting also currently play with a midfield double pivot and a front three, which may not provide him with a natural positional home, although that may well change if current head coach Rúben Amorim ends up leaving.

Thomas Partey

The Ghanaian midfielder has been blighted by injuries this season and his current contract expires next summer – if Arsenal decide to move on from the holding midfielder, then this is the summer to do it.

The issue they may have in moving him on to Sporting is financial. He is currently paid a reported £200,000 per week – according to Capology, the most they pay any of their players right now is £75,000 per week. Sufficed to say that Partey would have to take a colossal pay cut to make the move happen. That’s a big stumbling block, and makes it more likely that Partey stays for the final year of his deal, unless he is desperate to get some game time.

Eddie Nketiah

Some good form at the start of the season had raised hopes that Nketiah was finally set to establish himself as an important player at the Emirates, but that moment seems to have passed. He hasn’t started a league match in 2024 and hasn’t scored since bagging a hat-trick against Sheffield United all the way back in October.

Arteta seems to have decided that Nketiah isn’t the answer up front, and that could make him an ideal bit part in a deal for Gyökeres. He would be a like-for-like replacement in essence – he is, perhaps, a little more of a traditional, off-the-shoulder number nine compared to the Swede, but it would still be a striker for a striker, and while Nketiah may also have to accept a wage reduction (he’s on £100,000 a week right now), he may prefer the chance to get some extra game time and prove his worth. The biggest downside is that, as with Smith Rowe, he’s an academy product and Arsenal would do better to sell for cold hard cash.

Reiss Nelson

It’s only a year since Nelson inked a new four-year deal with Arsenal – but in that year, the winger has made just a single start and has largely been restricted to cameo appearances from the bench. He’s only managed one goal all campaign, against Brentford in the EFL Cup.

As with Nketiah, Arsenal may just decide to move on from a player who they plainly don’t feel is good enough for the first team – but they do need to maintain some degree of depth in the squad, so Nelson is unlikely to be their first choice to get rid of. But at 24, Nelson looks as if he is being presented with a choice – earn £100,000 warming the bench and risk squandering the best years of his career, or move on and find somewhere he can really make his name. Also, like Smith Rowe and Nketiah, a home grown player that Arsenal would prefer cash for.

Fábio Vieira

Another player who, at 23 years of age, needs to kick on to avoid becoming surplus to requirements. The Portuguese attacking midfielder made a good start to the season but after it was derailed by a groin injury, he has struggled to get back in the side and has barely been seen on the field of play.

Although his nationality makes the link to Sporting tempting, we suspect that he’d be low on Arteta’s list for this transfer. He did enough towards the end of 2023 to justify being given some more time to prove himself, cost a hefty €40m (£34.2m) and has three more years left on his contract. But he’s getting to a point at which he needs to justify that transfer fee sooner rather than later.

So, in conclusion… there really aren’t many players in the Arsenal squad who look like natural fits for this deal, unless the Gunners simply can’t find another buyer for Nketiah. If that’s the case, maybe it’s best to package him up as part of a deal rather than letting him wither away in the reserves. But our honest assessment of the Express’ article is that on balance, it’s unlikely that this is how any deal for Gyökeres shakes out.