Considering the amount of problems we have keeping defenders fit, and their performances when the are fit, it seems a bit strange that the Gunners let our most promising young defender from the academy leave this summer. Ktystian Bielik had had a great year out on loan at Charlton last season and was in demand from many clubs, especially after an more impressive performances at the Under 21’s European Championship with Poland.
Bielik made it clear that he didn’t want to leave, but Emery decided he had better defensive options. As Bielik himself told Sport Poland (as translated in the DerbyTelegraph): “I was hoping that I would get a chance under (Arsenal boss) Unai Emery but it turned out that he couldn’t see me in his plans.
“At the Euros, I wanted to show myself well and hoped that I was watched by the club and I could do a lot with good performances. Then, before the Championships, Milan’s offer appeared, but ultimately nothing came of it.
“I don’t want to say it’s a shame now. I love Arsenal and playing for this club was my dream. However, it was necessary to stray from this path. I came to the club from the Championship, where I will play and gain experience.
“I think that after the next season, if I play regularly, I will be ready for the Premier League.
“I didn’t expect to cost so much,” he added. “Some say that this amount should be even greater but I never thought that I could be worth so much.
“I played a nice season in League One (on loan at Charlton Athletic) and a good European championship.
“There were several interested clubs from the Championship but only Derby had a budget that allowed me to be bought from Arsenal.”
Considering his age and promise, the reported sale price of 7m to 10m could easily be seen as a bad sale by Arsenal when we are crying out for top class defenders. We could easily have given him a new contract and loaned him out for this season to see if he improved even further. He could easily be worth 5 times that price in a few years, but more importantly, we could have had a top class player in an important position on the books.
Were Arsenal wrong to sell the 20 year-old?
Admin
YES.
I was looking forward to seeing him play for us. He would have been useful defensively and has time to develop
Oh well!
It’s part of the new ruthless approach by Raul. He won’t give much time for youngsters who only deemed good enough and rather take the money. It happened with Bojan in the past and Iwobi recently. This serves as a warning to Willock, Nelson, AMN, etc to show some result or shipped next year.
It’s cold but I think it’s a refreshing change because for some time Wenger was guilty to give too much time for academy players and reluctant to even consider selling them.
350oz what you say is true , it makes sense. Think of a situ where you keep everyone .We would stagnate giving players 3-4 yrs where 1yr would keep everyone motivated to give their best
Yes, it was a very bad decision to sell instead of loaning him out. It would have bee a better decision to sell, Mustaff and Xhaka and bring in better reinforcements. We have Saliba for Mustaff
and we need a defensive midfielder who is capable of using 2 legs and not one, fast and not slow, a DM who is capable of winning aerial duals unlike XHAKA
Totally wrong to sell him. He’s another one we’ll see in the near future a success.
We have bought a young CB in Saliba.
Holding is still young and we also have mavropanos and Medley as potential future CB’s.
We can’t keep every young player, loan them out and hope they become good.
No of course not but Bielik could be playing now or at least be back up to Luiz and Sokratis, instead of Mustafi.
Holding and Mavropanos are injured.
Saliba won’t be available until next year.
Chambers was left out like not exist lol
Bielek would get the same treatment Xhaka does now. His lack of pace would have been exploited in the premier league. At 10 million don’t you think another premier league would have a punt if he was world class defender you guys are making him out to be ? Out of our current crop of youngsters only Martinelli Saku and ESR have a chance of making it as top premier league players. Nelson and Niles can make it the premier league just don’t think they will set it alight.
In Mustafi, Sokratis and Luiz we have a trio of centre backs who quite rightly have been criticised by fans and punters because they are consistently poor.To sell Beleik, who like Chambers can play as a DM seems to me untimely to say the least.I hope Beilik has a successful career and I wish him well.Like many other Arsenal fans I feel the treatment of Chambers is a disgrace.He and Holding should be given an opportunity to forge a partnership , which along with Bellerin and Tierney could go some way towards resolving our back four deficiences .
For me the key question is why does Emery see David Luiz as a better option than Bielik? I’m not qualified to assess the two side by side, but it seems that paying 8m for Luiz who has at most two seasons in him, and accepting 10m for Bielik who could have played now and had ten seasons in him looks like strange business. Maybe the pace issue swung it.
Next season
Leno
Bellerin Holding Saliba Tierney
Willock Torriera Guendouzi
Pepe Lacazette Aubameyang
Martinez SmithRowe Maitland-Niles
Nelson Saka Nketiah Chambers as back up
Where’s Messi in your team for next year as he’s available on a free?
A very youthful and exciting squad Les.My only doubt concerns Torreria who after a decent start has found the physical demands of the EPL too much for him.A powerful DM would be on my shopping list next season if we are to compete with Liverpool and MAN City who are both strong in this area.
I think Torriera is good DM Grandad (could be a bit more beefy as you say) but Emery decided for some stupid reason to start him as the B2B mid in the final games of last season which didn’t work.
No doubt YES. But time will tell. I’ve just always been so excited about him. Anyone know if we have a buyback clause?
Yes it was a mistake in my opinion,Arsenal look to have a plan of using young talent and building a side which can dominate in hopefully the near future, so I am surprised that Emery let him go,especially that the defensive players that he was using last season were not up to the job,I accept that maybe Emery’s tactics and tinkering never helped but he would have surely got into that defence under another coach.
Another player that I fear may lose out is Chambers,he has been out on loan playing in defence and midfield giving impressive enough displays to win Fulham’s player of the season award,has an outstanding an influential game at the back for us against Newcastle away and has sat on the bench ever since,while the likes of Luiz and Sokratis carry on making mistake after mistake.The mind boggles.
The Arsenal chiefs know Bielik better so I believe they made the right call. Currently we have Luiz, Sokratis, Chambers, Mustafi, Holding and Mavropanos. The last two are returning from injury soon.Six centre backs is a lot even for Arsenal.Some of us haven’t considered Bielik’s injury record. We do have some injury prone players so it was a good decision to get rid of another such player