Bellerin needs to move on from Arsenal but who can afford him?

The Spanish right-back Hector Bellerin was a target to return to Barcelona for many years, and has also been linked with the moneybags PSG for the last few transfer windows, but they have just bought Achraf Hakimi instead. It appears that Arsenal are now happy to let him leave there don’t seem to be any big clubs interested any more!

The Spaniard has been with us for ten years now and until a few years ago was considered to be a world-class wing-back, but injuries have slowed him down, and he has only made 25 League starts in the last two seasons. The Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit definitely thinks it is time for Hector to leave. “It’s time for Hector Bellerin to move on from Arsenal,” he told Paddy Power (as reported in the Mirror).

“His time there has been very complicated because of injuries. I don’t remember the last time he played a whole season without injuries, that’s been the main problem for him.

“He needs to improve his capacity. When you play at a high level, you need to play every three days. This is not the case with him, and I haven’t seen improvement in terms of his play.”

But who is going to take him off our hands, given the transfer fee we expect and the big wage that he gets from the Gunners. There was talk of Real Betis taking him back to Spain, but I really don’t think they could afford him even if they wanted to. Most rumours have been concerning the Italian Champions Inter Milan, but they themselves are also suffering from financial hardship and are only interested in a one year loan. Their Chinese owners are losing money hand over fist and have recently had their shares frozen due to a mountain of debts.

Arsenal desperately need funds themselves to pay for their own targets, and with none of our sales or loans earning much in the way in capital, it looks like Arsenal may have to hold on to Bellerin unless we get a big cash offer, but if he is only used as a backup, his value will drop even further I imagine.

Have we waited one year too long in off-loading Bellerin?