Arsenal are set to bid farewell to two out-of-favour strikers.
Lucas Perez is wanted by Italian sides Lazio and Frosinone with the Gunners after a £7m fee.
Academy product Chuba Akpom is also off, with a £890,000 fee for his services agreed with Green side PAOK.
Arsenal are now giving serious consideration to the potential loss of chief executive Ivan Gazidis to AC Milan but remain confident they would have the time and personnel to make a seamless transition.
Gazidis has formally informed the Arsenal board of an offer from the seven-times European Champions and, although a definite decision has not yet been made or confirmed, the departure of the club’s most influential executive has become a very real possibility.
Having overseen a comprehensive restructure of the club over recent years, most notably with the departure of manager Arsène Wenger, there is a sense inside Arsenal that Gazidis may now feel that the time is right for a different challenge.
There have been reports in Italy that Gazidis could even start in a new executive director’s role as early as next month, but it is understood that his potential notice period at Arsenal would rule out that sort of timescale and there is confidence that he would not push to leave suddenly and risk a damaging void.
Arsenal also feel confident that their off-field set-up – thanks largely to the revolution that Gazidis has overseen – is well equipped to deal with and adapt to his potential departure.It is, however, an increasingly serious situation ahead of a Premier League season that begins in only 11 days with the visit of reigning champions Manchester City.
Since the departure of Wenger as manager, Gazidis has been the leading day-to-day influence at the Emirates. He was the driving force behind a series of key recent appointments, notably Unai Emery as head coach, head of football relations Raul Sanllehi, head of recruitment Sven Mislintat, lawyer Huss Fahmy and director of high performance Darren Burgess.
A final decision has not yet been made – and Arsenal’s board do still hope that Gazidis will stay – but the club’s current inability to offer any clarity over what has been a firm offer from the Italian giants is significant.
Arsenal did release a statement last week in which they pointed out that Gazidis has always been committed and which stressed that he was working hard in collaboration with Emery but they could not give any assurances about him staying.
Milan were recently taken over by hedge fund Elliot Management after former owner Li Yonghong failed to repay a debt to the American company.
Paolo Scaroni, who was deputy chairman of investment bank Rothschild, is the club’s interim chief executive but Gazidis is understood to know Paul Singer, who runs Elliot Management.
Gazidis previously worked in the United States as the deputy commissioner of Major League Soccer, a competition for which he was part of the founding committee.
There would still be considerable surprise inside football that Gazidis may now leave at a moment of maximum power and influence. The counter-argument, however, is that a task he always described as Arsenal’s greatest challenge – replacing and restructuring post-Wenger – is now basically complete.
The challenge at Milan is certainly huge. They finished only sixth in Serie A last season and were trounced 5-1 by Arsenal in the Europa League. They have won only one league title since 2004 but are a major ‘sleeping giant’ in European football at a time when many of the leading Italian clubs have been pushing for serious reform of the Champions League and a potential European Super League.