Reasons why Arsenal might let Sokratis go for free

Arsenal appear ready to cut ties with one of their most senior defenders, Sokratis, according to Gazzetta dello Sport. The Italian paper reports that the centre-back "has found and agreement with Arsenal" and the Gunners are willing to let him go "at no cost".

That would mean Sokratis will be free to join Napoli for a £2.8m after tax annual salary. While Arsenal charging no fee for the Greek looks like a dubious type of charity, we think it still makes a lot of sense. Here's why.

🔴 The centre-back exodus has to start somewhere

We simply have too many of those defenders right now. 4 are available right now, 3 more are on the mend and then there's Sokratis and Mavropanos (on loan). That's a total of 9 and some departures are like Thanos - inevitable. Sokratis is a perfect place to start.

🔴 He is not in Arteta's plans anyway

The Greek fell by the wayside pretty quickly when the Spaniard took charge and doesn't seem like mounting a comeback. Sokratis hasn't been involved at all after the restart, despite being fit, available and with no attitude issues. He's just not the type Arteta is looking for and at 32 that's not going to change.

🔴 We'll free up the wage bill

The Greek is on £100k-per-week, give or take. That's quite big for someone whose role is minimal and we now have to shoulder Willian's, Ceballos' and Gabriel's wages - plus have aspirations for Aouar and Partey.

🔴 Any fee we'd get would be negligible

Which is probably better than no fee at all but the figures touted around (roughly £4m) still don't fill our hearts with warm confidence. It would represent a pittance of the original £13m we paid for him too.

£4 will get us nowhere in terms of player acquisitions, so doing the sensible thing and letting Sokratis go for nothing to free up roughly £5m in wages is not that bad an idea.