The London-born Reiss Nelson joined Arsenal at the tender age of just nine years old, but despite working his way through the ranks he has still not managed to nail down a regular place in the Gunners first team.
He did have a very successful loan at Hoffenheim in the 2018/19 season making 23 appearances, but in all his years with the Gunners he only made 22, and 17 of those were under Unai Emery. Once Mikel Arteta was made boss, Nelson’s chances dried up and he only made two League starts in the whole of last season.
Arteta himself apologised him not having enough room for the 21 year-old towards the end of last season. He told Football London: “I would like to give him more. He’s a boy who tries really hard, he trains every day. It’s very difficult at the moment with the players we have to be able to fit in. I feel sorry because he deserves more. He doesn’t play more and that’s my fault.”
But that doesn’t help Nelson and it now looks like he has given up waiting for his chances and is prepared to move on to find first team football.
Fabrizio Romano tweeted….
So, yet another academy graduate that we thought was going to be a superstar of the future bites the dust. I have a feeling we won’t get much of a transfer fee for him either, even though he has two years left on his contracy…