Arsenal defender Sead Kolašinac is ‘toying with the idea’ of staying at Schalke next season, regardless of whether they are relegated.
Kolašinac returned to his former club on loan in the January transfer window, forfeiting a large part of his wages to help his old side in their relegation battle.
While he has had a positive impact at the club, in more ways than one, their form has remained poor, and turmoil off the pitch has not helped the situation.
They remain rooted to the bottom of the Bundesliga table and eight points from safety, although Arminia Bielefeld could increase that gap significantly if they win their two games in hand.
Relegation is almost a certainty at this point, and the prevailing belief has been that Kolašinac would return to Arsenal in such an eventuality, with the German side extremely unlikely to be able to afford his wages in the 2.Bundesliga.
However, Sport 1 report that he is ‘toying with the idea’ of staying at the club and helping them to rebuild from the ground up.
It’s explained that Schalke plan to build around their young players next season, and Kolašinac could act as the ‘leading player’ in this young squad.
The big issue, though, is his salary. He currently earns €8.5m a year at Arsenal but is receiving ‘a little more than €2m’ from them and Schalke as part of this loan.
If he were to stay, he would ‘definitely have to cut back on’ what he earns to make the move a permanent one.
There is also no mention of the Gunners stance given the player has a year left on his deal, although they showed in January they are willing to let players go just to get them off the wage bill and perhaps they would take a similar stance here.
