Henrikh Mkhitaryan joined Arsenal in a swap deal from Manchester United in January of 2018 but since then the Armenian has not been able to settle down at the Emirates.
Last season, the playmaker featured in 25 Premier League games and most of these appearances came as a substitute in the second half.
And now that Unai Emery has brought in Dani Ceballos on loan from Real Madrid, the Gunners chose to let Henrikh Mkhitaryan join AS Roma on a similar arrangement until the end of the 2019-20 season.
Arsenal released an official statement which read: “Henrikh Mkhitaryan has joined Serie A side AS Roma on loan for the rest of the season.
“Everyone at Arsenal wishes Micki all the best for his season with Roma.”
And now speaking about the Armenian, Roma sporting director Gianluca Petrachi has revealed that Mkhitaryan decided to take a massive pay-cut in order to join the Serie A giants.
Petrachi said(as quoted by Calciomercato): “The idea was to invest in important young people. In situations where we found ourselves at the end of the market, or we made investments in young people or operations like those for Micky.
“He is a top player with very high costs and costs, the boy has given up on lots of money to come to Rome. Time will tell if we have the chance to keep players like that.”
VERDICT:
At Arsenal, Henrikh Mkhitaryan was earning around £180,000 per week(as reported) meaning he took a massive wage cut just so that he could play regular football this season.
And while many people have claimed that this is the end of the player at Arsenal but we believe he will return back to the Emirates next season primarily because Dani Ceballos would be heading back to Real Madrid.
If Ceballos can prove his worth at Arsenal then surely Zidane will waste no time in calling him back to Spain meaning Unai Emery will have no other option but to recall Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Arsenal next summer.
