Here are three contracts Arsenal will want to get off their wage bill in the summer 2025 transfer window. All salary details are courtesy of FBRef.com.
DM Thomas Partey
Thomas Partey will be a free agent at the end of the 2024/25 season, and it’s time that Arsenal moved on from the veteran defensive midfielder instead of giving him a raise.
The 31-year-old is quietly on the decline, but he was never more than an average starter to begin with. And at 10.4 million pounds, Thomas makes considerably more money than he’s worth to the Gunners when his main assets are al traits the club could easily find elsewhere for cheaper.
Thomas is a good defender who can complete simple passes, and those kinds of players are a dime in a dozen and usually earn half that amount of money. Arsenal can let Thomas walk, save money on the wage bill, and then spend that exact salary on a better player like Martin Zubimendi.
ST Gabriel Jesus
Although Gabriel Jesus is a solid all-around striker who has the experience to step up his play in the Champions League, the Brazilian international hasn’t been part of the solution for the Gunners.
His arrival from Manchester City initially helped Arsenal compete with his former club for the Premier League club, but as time has gone on, his subpar finishing and his injury risk have made it clear that Arsenal will not be able to actually win the league with him as their main striker.
In fact, Gabriel Jesus is no longer Arsenal’s main striker, as even Kai Havertz, more of an attacking midfielder, has been preferred to Jesus in the main spot in the middle of the attack. Only Havertz earns a higher salary than Jesus’s nearly 14 million pounds per season, which doesn’t bode well for the 27-year-old’s future.
LW Gabriel Martinelli
Ever since scoring 15 goals in a breakout 2022/23 season when Arsenal first pushed Manchester City for the Premier League title, fans have been waiting for the Brazilian left winger to take the next step and become a truly world-class forward.
But instead of shining alongside Bukayo Saka as a legitimate Premier League Player of the Season candidate who leads Arsenal to title glory, Martinelli scored just six goals in the 2023/24 season and has been similarly disappointing in the 2024/25 campaign.
An injury risk who often ghosts in games, including important ones, Martinelli is no longer a nailed-on starter at the Emirates. Making nearly 10 million pounds per season, Martinelli’s salary is bigger than his goals total, which is never a positive indicator for a forward whose main responsibility it is to score goals.
Maybe moving on outright seems too harsh and Arsenal can still keep him around as a backup, but should a backup winger really be earning more than nine million pounds per season? Arsenal could get similar production for half that price, which they have literally done with Leandro Trossard and his meager 4.6 million pounds in wages.
