Arsenal may well have had an active January transfer window in terms of incomings, but they did not quite complete a clear-out of the club that some may have expected.
Leandro Trossard and Jorginho both arrived at Arsenal to bolster the club's senior squad immediately, while Jakub Kiwior will no doubt be given time to settle following his £21m move from Spezia. Even Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand, who was recalled after a frustrating time out on loan in the Championship with Hull City, has been spotted in first-team training in recent days.
While in terms of outgoings more than a dozen players did leave the club during January, just one of them won't be coming back at the end of this season. Hale End graduate Harry Clarke was the only player to move permanently away from north London by signing for Ipswich Town after being recalled from a loan spell at Stoke City.
That meant the Gunners missed out on the opportunity to sell two players for a transfer fee and will now need to negotiate a contract extension with them or lose both for free at the end of the season. Here are the two players that, as it stands, won't be at the club next season.
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The winger has made just seven appearances so far this season after being beset by injuries. Nelson has now returned to training in the latest step to recovering from a hamstring that has kept the player out since December. Promise has been shown during those rare runs of fitness, most notably when coming on as a first-half substitute to replace Bukayo Saka against Nottingham Forest before scoring twice and assisting another in the 5-0 win.
Nelson made it clear to football.london during the club's training camp in Dubai that he would "love to stay" beyond this season when his current contract expires, but whether the club see it the same way remains to be seen. Since those comments, due to the hamstring injury picked up just days later in a mid-season friendly against Juventus, the player has seen Trossard sign from Brighton and Hove Albion to only add to the competition for places out wide that already included Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira and Gabriel Martinelli.
Another player in the far from ideal position of being both injured and out of contract in the summer is Elneny. Like Nelson, the midfielder has only played sporadically this season, nine times in all competitions, due to a serious hamstring issue.
That was compounded by suffering what the club have described as a 'significant' knee injury during a training session last month. Jorginho was recruited as a replacement in the centre of the park, but that arrival could now lead to an exit at the end of this season.
Arsenal do have the option to extend Elneny's contract by 12 months, but it remains to be seen whether Edu will activate this clause in his contract, especially with his latest injury issues.
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