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Unai Emery has been told Arsenal must cut their wage bill - and that could impact on his rebuilding plans.

Arsenal spent £70m on new signings last summer but the bigger issue is player contracts and making sure they fall into line with Premier League rules.

That explains why they are open to allowing Mohamed Elneny to join Marseille with that deal a strong possibility before August 31.

Calum Chambers went out on loan to Fulham and David Ospina and Carl Jenkinson could also go before the end of the month.

Mesut Ozil signed a deal in excess of £300,000-a-week and they are desperately trying to get Aaron Ramsey to sign but he holds all the aces as he is into the final year.

(Image: REUTERS) (Image: REUTERS)

It means they will have to balance the books carefully especially as Emery is likely to want to bring in more of his own players while re-signing Ramsey.

Arsenal got Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla and Lucas Perez off the wage bill but Bernd Leno, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira and Stefan Lichsteiner joined this summer.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan arrived last January and they both earn around the £200,000-a-week mark and that is another strain on the wage bill.

Arsenal are having a purge on contracts which is likely to carry on for at least the next two windows and, while there will be money to spend, they must trim back the squad and wage bill to make sure they can accommodate new faces.