Footie Central | Football Blog Blogging the football world
Earlier this week it was reported that Arsenal had agreed with Roma to extend the loan of Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan until the end of the Italian league season, with suggestions that an agreement may be in place for the next campaign as well.
Now though have come reports that the Gunners have agreed to cancel his contract altogether, allowing him to make the move to the Italian side permanent.
Question marks may not be raised over the Gunners transfer strategy, given that they turned down an offer of £10 million from the Serie A side in January for the 31-year old.
However, it does mean that they get his £190,000 a week wages off their books, which, given their financial struggles, will be a boost to the bottom-line.
If the news is true it brings down the curtain on Mkhitaryan’s unhappy career as an Arsenal player. Arriving as part of the swap deal that took Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United, he failed to settle or make any meaningful impact in North London and was surplus to requirements once Mikel Arteta took charge.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.