Arteta ready to sell three first-team stars to finance £36.5m transfer

Arsenal are reportedly willing to sell three members of the first-team squad in order to get Houssem Aouar.

The Gunners are plotting to battle Juventus and Manchester City for the 22-year-old Lyon midfielder.

Now Sky Sports reporter Dharmesh Sheth claims a further trio could be flogged to raise the £36.5m needed for Aouar.

Lucas Torreira, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Sead Kolasinac all look like they could be on their way out of North London before next month’s deadline.

Uruguayan midfielder Torreira is locked in talks with Torino over a loan move that could turn permanent for an eventual £22m.

Greek defender Sokratis is wanted by Italian side Napoli.

Left-back Sead Kolasinac has West Ham, Roma and Bayer Leverkusen chasing his signature.

And Arteta is willing to offload all three to help his pursuit Aouar, with keeper Akex Runarsson also set to arrive in the coming days.

Sheth told the Transfer Show: “There’s quite a few [leaving] potentially.

“Lucas Torreira to Torino, that one is edging closer we’re told.

“He would join initially on loan and then that loan would be a permanent deal next summer and the fee would be in the region of about £22m.

“Napoli, they still want the defender Sokratis. Talks are continuing over a fee but Napoli don’t want to pay a transfer fee for a player who is now into the final year of his contract.

“Another player to keep an eye on is the left-back Sead Kolasinac because he is another one that could leave.

“West Ham we’re told are interested, they’re keeping an eye on his situation.”

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He added: “Now look, if Arsenal can release Torreira, Sokratis and Kolasinac, then they would not only bring in funds to help out Mikel Arteta in the transfer market, but then they would have 15 non-homegrown players over the age of 21 on their books.

“Now the maximum you can have in a squad is 17.

“That would make it easier to bring in the likes of the Icelandic keeper Runarsson and perhaps another overseas signing.”