Henrikh Mkhitaryan to remain at Roma

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has played his last match for Arsenal. The midfielder, who spent almost all of this season on loan at Roma, has extended his stay at the Italian side through the end of this season. He also has a preliminary agreement in place to remain at the Serie A side next season. Reports are that Mkhitaryan and Arsenal have basically agreed to terminate his contract a year early — the mechanics of exactly how that will work aren’t yet known.

Roma were reportedly seeking Mkhitaryan + cash in any transfer deal. There had been rumors of Justin Kluivert possibly coming to North London in a swap but apparently that wasn’t ever really discussed between the two clubs.

At 31 years old, Mkhitaryan wasn’t ever going to be part of the rebuild at Arsenal. But he’s a useful player; he made 58 appearances for the club, scoring 9 goals and adding 12 assists. He provided something of value in return for Alexis Sanchez, who looked to be leaving the Gunners for free in 2018. While that deal wasn’t great for either side, I think Arsenal came out slightly ahead on that one, for whatever that’s worth.

It would have been nice to get something in return for him, but Arsenal should be happy to settle for clearing his hefty wages off the books for next season. Mkhitaryan was due to make nearly £8M that can now be spent elsewhere. I think everybody wins here. He wanted to be at Roma next year, and Arsenal likely aren’t upset at letting him go.