Summer is the right time for Arsenal to offload hugely popular Monreal, not January

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Marseille are monitoring Nacho Monreal’s dwindling contract situation at Arsenal, according to a report by France Football.

The popular Spaniard may have made his return from injury in the 1-0 win over Huddersfield on Saturday, but the Ligue 1 outfit are reportedly interested by the fact that his current Gunners deal expires in the summer and a new one has not been forthcoming.

They are apparently hoping that Unai Emery will prefer to sell in January when they might be able to get something in the way of a transfer fee for him, rather than lose him for nothing in the summer.

But losing his first-choice left back in the middle of the season would create something of a headache for Emery and the amount of money Arsenal could recoup for a 32-year-old left-back would be far less than the cost of replacing him with a new long-term, more dynamic upgrade.

Emery would likely be forced into the notoriously inflated January market to replace Monreal, which are not the ideal conditions in which to try and replace somebody who has been a consistent performer since arriving at the club in 2013.

Arsenal won’t get much for an aging defender with six months left on his deal, and they would probably be forced to overspend by more than that amount to procure a replacement mid-season.

That means that the right time for Emery to make his left-back upgrade is during the summer, when he has had more time to prepare for Monreal’s departure.