Oleksandr Zinchenko is set to leave Arsenal (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Arsenal left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko will reportedly fly out today to complete a move to Ajax, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The Ukraine international has been on loan at Nottingham Forest this season but hasn’t featured, and now looks set to leave the Emirates Stadium again.
Despite being a key player when he joined Arsenal from Manchester City in the summer of 2022, Zinchenko has fallen far short of Mikel Arteta’s side.
See below as Romano writes in X about Zinchenko set to move to Ajax on a permanent deal…
??? Oleksandr Zinchenko will fly to Amsterdam on Friday to sign as a new Ajax player.
The deal becomes permanent at Arsenal for €1.5m plus add-ons linked to the UCL. pic.twitter.com/7wXuyIDuUe
– Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 29, 2026
“Oleksandr Zinchenko will fly to Amsterdam on Friday to sign as a new Ajax player. The deal is permanent with Arsenal for €1.5m plus add-ons linked to the UCL,” said Romano.
Why Oleksandr Zinchenko no longer likes Arsenal
Zinchenko initially looked like a good signing for Arsenal, helping them become serious title contenders against his former club Man City in 2022/23.
However, for all his qualities in football, Zinchenko started to show some weaknesses in the defensive side of his game in his second season.
This led to Arteta’s preference for stronger left-backs, with Takehiro Tomiyasu playing ahead of him for most of 2023/24, before Riccardo Calafiori was signed for the 2024/25 season.
The emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly will also have an impact on Zinchenko, with the young Englishman rising through the club’s academy and quickly establishing himself as one of the country’s biggest prospects.
Zinchenko has been unlucky not to feature often for Forest, but will no doubt be hoping to renew his career with Ajax.
This is what Oleksandr Zinchenko said about Arsenal’s struggle
Writing in his autobiography, as quoted by Athletic, Zinchenko made it clear how much life on the Arsenal bench bothered him.
“I was completely out of the starting XI, I stopped a few isolated games,” he said.
“Personally, it was the worst season I’ve ever had as a professional.”
He added: “Going from one of the best-known players in the side to an unused sub is very difficult to deal with. The feeling of rejection you feel when your manager no longer believes in you can overwhelm you, even if you are a resilient person in the world.
“Sitting on the bench in the Premier League and receiving a generous wage package is obviously still a privilege, the kind of problem that billions of people on this planet can change their difficult lives in a heartbeat. Trust me, as a Ukrainian, I know that. Every single minute.
“But every footballer started playing because he loves to play, a big part of your life is missing without it.
“Think about this little boy who has devoted his whole life to doing something and then finds out at the age of 28 that he is not really needed anymore, there are others who can do this work for him. That is not a good feeling.”
