Transfer rumor: Mathieu Debuchy to St. Etienne?

It’s not the transfer we’re all waiting for, but this afternoon brings news of another Arsenal transfer, this time out the door not in. Mathieu Debuchy, who was an Arsenal player by all accounts, is reportedly on his way to St. Etienne in the French league if this tweet is to be believed:

Spiro’s usually pretty solid on these things, so while there’s no other attribution or source for this rumor, I give it a rating of 7/10 on an imaginary scale I just made up. Debuchy is one of those players that I really hoped would come good at Arsenal, after signing with the club in 2014 from Newcastle, but a combination of bad injuries (who can forget Marko Arnautovic shoving him into the advertising boards, ruining his shoulder for three months?) and a subsequent dropping down of the depth chart meant that he never got the run in the team that he needed in order to establish himself.

He’s so far down the depth chart now, in fact, that Arsenal are probably letting him walk for nothing. I hope he does well at St. Etienne, and I hope he can stay healthy.