Arsenal's January clearout has continued with Shkodran Mustafi's exit being confirmed on transfer deadline day.
The 28-year-old, who arrived from Valencia for a fee of £35million in 2016, has completed his move to Schalke after mutually agreeing to cancel his contract at the Emirates Stadium.
A statement on Arsenal.com reads: "Shkodran Mustafi has joined Bundesliga side Schalke in a permanent transfer.
"The 28-year-old World Cup winner joined us from Valencia in August 2016 and has since been a prominent part of our backline, making 151 appearances during his time at the club.
"Shkodran won two Emirates FA Cups, one in his first season in 2016/17 and the other in 2019/20. Although he, unfortunately, missed out on both finals due to injury, he played an important part in each of the cup runs which took us to Wembley.
"The German centre-back also played six times and scored one goal in our run to the Europa League final in the 2018/19 season.
"We are also thankful to Shkodran for the part he played off the pitch.
"His donation of more than 16,000 meals helped vulnerable residents in our local borough of Islington during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, providing them with an essential food service they otherwise wouldn’t have received.
"Everyone at Arsenal thanks Musti for his contribution to the club. We wish him and his family all the best for the future."
As mentioned above, Mustafi leaves Arsenal on a free transfer despite costing the club £35m in the summer of 2016.
And as the Gunners took an identical approach with Mesut Ozil and Sokratis in order for them to join Fenerbahce and Olympiacos respectively, it means they have let almost £100m leave for free in the January transfer window.
Of course, Ozil was a club-record signing at £42.5m in 2013 while Sokratis cost £17.6m to become one of Unai Emery's first signings in the summer of 2018.
That's £95.1m worth of signings that has been allowed to leave for free.
Arteta and Edu will point to the fact that this trio of deals needed to be done in order for the club to move forward and reduce the wage bill, but the Gunners need to get better at player sales.
