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Arsenal should trade Oleksandar Zinchenko to sign £50m Champions League attacker this summer

Lucas Arnold

Wed 16 April 2025 12:45, UK

In the past, Arsenal have shown a willingness to execute swap deals, even with their biggest rivals.

Back in 2018, Arsene Wenger oversaw a switch that involved Henrik Mkhitaryan arriving at the Emirates Stadium as Alexis Sanchez left for Manchester United.

That deal arguably ended up transpiring as better for Arsenal given that Sanchez found it tough at United, a player Wenger would have admittedly much rather kept in north London.

But when it comes to any swap deals that Arsenal might execute in the future under Mikel Arteta, they are unlikely to involve any of the Spaniard’s top performers.

And given that Oleksandr Zinchenko seems likely to leave Arsenal in the summer, perhaps he could help unlock a deal for one of Europe’s most exciting young forwards.

Oleksandr Zinchenko can help Arsenal sign Jamie Gittens

In their quest to find a new left-sided, right-footed winger, Arsenal are interested in Jamie Gittens at Borussia Dortmund.

The London-born 20-year-old made the switch to the Bundesliga from Manchester City back in 2020, a talented youngster who was also previously on Chelsea’s books. 

READ MORE: Andrea Berta is already ‘confident’ that £50m star will be Arsenal’s first summer signing

Andrea Berta has identified Arsenal’s left flank as an area for improvement and Gittens has been showing a ton of potential at Dortmund.

And fortunately for Arsenal, Dortmund are interested in Zinchenko too, a player who is largely surplus to requirements in north London.

Both Jakub Kiwior and Zinchenko are expected to follow Kieran Tierney out of the door this summer, inspiring further changes on Arsenal’s left.

And perhaps Zinchenko could actually be used in a deal to recruit Gittens from Dortmund.

Gittens won’t come cheap for Arsenal

Of course, any deal that swapped Zinchenko for Gittens would also require a significant fee too.

Dortmund valued Gittens at £50m previously, a figure that is only going to continue to increase as he starts for the German club.

In 44 appearances this season the English winger has scored 12 goals and provided five assists, a winger who is following in the footsteps of Jadon Sancho.

Sancho obviously didn’t have the best of experiences after leaving Dortmund to return to England himself, but there’s no need to imagine that Gittens would suffer a similar fate.

Arsenal still want Nico Williams as their first choice but the Spanish winger could easily be unavailable for more than one reason.

And as a clever alternative, Arsenal could offload Zinchenko to Dortmund whilst securing one of Europe’s top young talents.