There has been much of a song and dance about Arsenal only bringing in two players this summer, and letting 12 of our senior and upcoming players leave the club, but the fact is that this just means that Arsene Wenger is sticking to his project of bringing youngsters through from the Gunners Academy.
His choices have been limited as quite a few of our top graduates decided not to renew their contracts so they could move away in search of more chances to play first team football, like Dan Crowley, Donyell Malen, Chris Willock and Kaylen Hinds. But Wenger still has some top quality youngsters to choose from and Reiss-Nelson has been promoted to the first team squad after some amazing performances in pre-season and for the Under 23s.
Another two that will get more chances, especially with the Europa League games coming up, will be Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Jeff Reine-Adelaide and maybe Joe Willock. Those four will be like new signings, and when you add Jack Wilshere’s return from long-term injury and a loan at Bournemouth, you can see why Wenger needed to cut the amount of players already on the first team roster. Obviously we would all hope that Wilshere can return to the giddy heights of talent he had before the injuries starting taking toll, and his performance last week for the U23’s against Man City was extremely promising so maybe we will see more of him as well…
Most Arsenal fans have usually praised Wenger for promoting our talented youngsters, and with the current crazy transfer prices, the academy graduates are going to become even more and more important in the future. Surely we should be pleased that Wenger has disposed of players that are simply not good enough for the first team to make room for some of our promising youngsters?
Sam P