Arsenal Transfer Deadline Day Deals and Rumors

The transfer window closes at 11 pm BT (6 pm ET) on Friday, September 1st. Arsenal have business to do, and there are some rumors worth tracking. The Gunners’ brass are still working to trim down the roster and ship out players on the fringes of the roster.

• UPDATE: Rob Holding is undergoing a medical with Crystal Palace ahead of a £3M move across London. He’s expected to sign a three year contract with the club.
• UPDATE: Albert Sambi Lokonga joins Luton Town on loan.
• UPDATE: Keeper Arthur Okonkwo joins Wrexham (!?) on loan.

The big Arsenal transfer rumors on Deadline Day:

• Nicolas Pépé - a mutual agreement to terminate his contract seems the mostly likely course of action at this point, which would save Arsenal more than £7M in wages. There had been some links to Saudi clubs but nothing concrete has materialized. Talks are reportedly ongoing, but without any breakthroughs as of yet.
• Rob Holding - Crystal Palace have come in for the veteran defender, reportedly offering a permanent move.
• Albert Sambi Lokonga - Luton Town are interested in a loan for the midfielder after what seemed a likely move to Burnley didn’t happen.
• Cedric Soares - not much happening with the Portuguese defender at the moment. He’d been linked with various and sundry moves this summer, but none of them seemed to progress beyond speculation. Arsenal would like to clear his wages, however.

As far as incoming moves are concerned, don’t get your hopes up. Mikel Arteta gave a familiar response when asked about it earlier this week, that the club would be monitoring any opportunities that might arise. To me, that reads “we’re probably done” with purchases this window. That said, I wouldn’t put it past Edu & Mikel to pull a shocker. They’ve made a name for themselves not conducting all of their business in public — they might have something cooking behind the scenes.

A summary of Arsenal’s business so far this window:

• Bought Declan Rice from West Ham for £100M + £5M in add-ons
• Bought Kai Havertz from Chelsea for £65M
• Bought Jurrien Timber from Ajax for £38.5M (get well soon, Jurrien)
• Loaned David Raya in for £3M with a £27M option to buy from Brentford
• Sold Folarin Balogun to Monaco for ~£35M with a “significant” sell-on clause
• Sold Granit Xhaka to Bayer Leverkusen for £21.5M
• Sold Matt Turner to Nottingham Forest for £7M + £3M in add-ons
• Sold Auston Trusty to Sheffield United for £5M
• Sold Pablo Mari to AC Monza for £6M
• Loaned Kieran Tierney to Real Sociedad for £1.2M
• Loaned Nuno Tavares to Nottingham Forest for £1M with an option to buy for £12M
• Loaned Marquinhos to FC Nantes for a nominal fee
• Loaned Runar Alex Runarsson to Cardiff City FC
• Released Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who signed with Olympique Lyon