A fund-raising page has been set up for long-serving Arsenal mascot Gunnersaurus after it was reported he had been released by the club.

With Arsenal supporters eager to see new arrivals at the Emirates Stadium on transfer deadline day, a shock departure appears to have stolen the headlines.

The Athletic reported Gunnersaurus, the club’s mascot for the last 27 years, has been let go, with his role no longer deemed necessary due to fans still not being able to attend matches.

As a result, a GoFundMe page for Jerry Quy, who has played the much-loved dinosaur mascot since 1993, three years before Arsene Wenger’s arrival at the club, has been set up by George Allen.

A statement on the page read: “Gunnersaurus has been the Arsenal club mascot for 27 years. He’s a club icon and we cannot let him become extinct.

“Played by lifelong fan Jerry Quy, it would be a terrible shame to lose him. The mascot league is the only one we’ve consistently been on top off, let’s keep our all time top scorer on top.

“Let’s keep him going for another 65,000,000 years and save him from twerking on OnlyFans for a living. Lets raise some money to keep Gunnersaurus going. Please give generously!”

The report of Gunnersaurus’ departure drew widespread condemnation on social media, with Arsenal fan and TV presenter Piers Morgan saying on Twitter: “WHAT? This had better not be true. Is it @Arsenal ??!”.

He added: “You’re going nowhere ⁦@Gunnersaurus⁩. I refuse to let ⁦@Arsenal⁩ sack you. Come on ⁦@m8arteta⁩ ⁦@Aubameyang7⁩ – this is not what our club is about.”

Gary Lineker tweeted: “Shouldn’t be necessary, but it might be a good move and an act of kindness for the @Arsenal players and manager to club together and sort out this absurdity.”

The PA news agency has contacted Arsenal for comment.