Arsenal have eleven players currently out on loan, and as fans we would love them all to be lighting up the lower divisions with brilliant football and proving themselves good enough to fight for a place in the Gunners first team next season, but alas the truth is that there are very few impressing at all.
Yaya Sanogo was meant to be an Arsene Wenger gem when he was plucked from the French Second Division, but after a disastrous six months at Ajax, he was brought back to London and sent to Charlton. He was recently banned for three games for a reckless elbow and on his second game back he has suffered a muscular injury after just 34 minutes of their derby against QPR. Can anyone see him ever playing for Arsenal?
Two youngsters I really believed would be good enough one day were Isaac Hayden and Chuba Akpom. Hayden has shown flashes of skill this year at Hull City, but Akpom has had disciplinary problems. But neither of them was deemed worthy enough to play in Hull’s draw with Huddersfield this weekend. Also Glen Kamara (at Southend), Wellington Silva (at Bolton), Emiliano Martinez (at Wolves) and Jon Toral (at Birmingham) were all left on the bench. Even the much-praised Gedion Zelalem was left out at Rangers. In fact, other than Sanogo, Ainsley Maitland-Niles was the only other loanee to get game time in England, playing 46 minutes for Ipswich.
The last loanee, which doesn’t really interest me, was Matthieu Debuchy who returned from injury to play 90 minutes for Bordeaux.
So it has hardly been a successful season for our young hopefuls, and I would struggle to see any of them ever lining up at the Emirates in the next few years, except maybe Maitland-Niles or Zelalem. Who thinks any of these have got a real chance?