Arsenal sent out Henrikh Mkhitaryan on loan to AS Roma in September of last year and the player has no plans of returning in the summer.
The Armenian arrived at the Emirates in a swap deal from Manchester United but he failed to impress at his new club so finally, Unai Emery chose to send him out on loan to the Serie A side.
In Italy, the player has put in a pretty decent shift for Roma having scored six and made three assists in 13 league matches. And now the club’s head coach has made it clear that the player wants to stay in Roma permanently.
‘I want him to stay and he also wants to stay,’ Fonseca told Russian TV programme Great Football, as quoted by Metro.
‘However, it should be clear that everything is now on hiatus, and we’ll have to talk to Arsenal. I want to continue working with him because he’s a great player and a great man.’
Some experts felt Mikel Arteta might call back Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the summer in order to give him one more shot at reviving his career in England but clearly that’s not gonna happen.
Roma have been informed they can sign the playmaker for a fee of £22million and this is where the Italian are facing a bit of an issue.
While they are impressed with Mkhitaryan’s performance but right now are reluctant to spend such a big sum on a player who’s played in just 13 Serie A games this season.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has one more year left on his current contract with Arsenal so the Gunners will either have to lower their asking rate for the Armenian or risk losing him on a free transfer next summer.
Either way, the 31-year-old has no future at the Emirates so we think, Arteta will let him join Roma and use that transfer money to bring in reinforcements for the upcoming season.
