Arsenal has two of England’s best youngsters in Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe.
The duo came through the ranks at the club and have developed into key members of their first-team squad.
Mikel Arteta has continued our tradition of giving chances to youngsters and has blooded them well.
Saka has done so well that he is now an important player for the senior England national team.
Smith Rowe only broke into the Arsenal first-team late last year and has now proven to be ready for regular senior action.
We have lost Dani Ceballos and Martin Odegaard after their loan spells at the club ended.
These departures will see Arsenal add new players to their squad, particularly in midfield.
We have been linked with a move for the likes of Manuel Locatelli and Houssem Aouar this summer.
These are top players that would immediately start playing if they joined.
In attack, we have been linked with some high-profile names like Ousmane Dembele.
While the Frenchman is unlikely to join the Gunners, we would almost certainly sign someone in our attack.
If we eventually finish shopping in this transfer window and have landed players who should take the club forward, do we keep Smith Rowe and Saka on the team or play our newly acquired more established players?
An article from Ime
I think it should be based on who performs in training and not who has better reputation. For example- if Saka has a bad run of form for one two games, play Pepe or any new attacker we sign. It is even more important this season as there are less buffer games for us to ‘carry’ players, so to say.
Don’t bench any of them…… Creativity runs in their vain. One love Smith and Saka
It’s natural that they are talked about together but they are completely different players at slightly different stages in their career, Saka at the moment is clearly a stand out player but still has room to improve and I don’t doubt for one moment that he will, ESR is not at Saka’s consistent level yet but also still improving, both are fantastic players to have in the squad but neither have to play every game next season whether we sign new players or not
Each team will be picked for each game from whoever is available based on Arteta’s view at the time and with consideration to the opposition, home grown or bought it really doesn’t matter
Are we stupid? No way Arsenal should sell some of the brightest stars.
No player should be “untouchable”, a mistake that our current and two previous managers have made.
Spot on that ken
For context sake Ken , I DO agree that no player is “untouchable”.
BUT neither do you sell the clubs diamonds unless you receive UNBELIEVABLE OFFERS, WHICH WILL PLAINLY NOT BE FORTHCOMING. I speak of offers of over £100k.
Saka and ESR are 2 of our present and future hopes. Very important players
Just one revision Ime: Smith Rowe, Saka and Wlliam Saliba should be “untouchable” regardless of who Arsenal sign.
Smith-Rowe, Saka and Tierney are the young British core. Their hard work, skill, seriousness and lack of prima donna attitude are something to build on. Keep them.
Don’t sell them right now but hopefully they aren’t overpressured by fans and even overrated by too them too so that they call their performances as it is. I remember when people here like two years or so ago were saying they would reject a 60m bid from PSG for Guendouzi. It was laughable to me at the time and today most will be happy with half of that. I am unsure about Smith-Rowe atm so will be watching him closely this season.
Just read that Sassuolo’s President said Arsenal has made an official bid for Locatelli?
According to Fabrizio Romano btw
I saw it too Eddie, Fab player but I doubt we can get him as the Turin Mafia have him in their grasp, probably for way less than we have offered.
I love that we are having a go though!
The Turin Mafia are not meeting Sassuolo’s valuation of Locatelli, because they are cash strapped. Arsenal can get this deal done if they meet Sassuolo’s requirements. He would be a great buy!
Exciting news! I knew we could outbid juve. The only thing stopping him joining us is if he decides against it or if sassuolo accept juve’s lower offer because of their good relationship with juve. Fingers crossed 🙏
What exactly can this guy do that Bissouma can’t Is it all about ball progression?? Seems like the Bissouma is still underrated. He even possesses superior technical ability as well as being better defensively. He is the kind of player who can play with anyone in our midfield.
I don’t know about you but I’ve always had my sights on Locatelli before the Euros started. I’ve listed him as a player I want us to have before. So I know what to expect.
Bissouma is only better than Loca more defensively, and I think that should be the least of our problems seeing we are building our defense even though it was third best last season.
Besides are we supposed to be left with who in the midfield when it’s time for AFCON? Losing Partey and Bissouma see time?
I don’t care if we don’t get Bissouma, Locatelli for Xhaka’s replacement would be huge
Agree Eddie, Locatelli is a very promising all round midfielder, with more attacking ability than Yve Bissouma.
Another one in similar vein to replace Granit Xhaka is Austrian international Marcel Sabitzer, in the last year of his contract at RB Leipzig. 27 yo, in his prime and available for €17 million.
Both these players aren’t impacted by Afcon. There is no doubt that Arsenal has plenty of good options, they just have to get the deals done!
Locatelli partey sabitzer as a midfield trio sounds tasty ozzie
That’s true …..I totally agree with you
I think ESR and Saka epitomise the hopes of the Arsenal fanbase at the moment. They are both considered “one of us” – hard working, local, intelligent, humble, with Arsenal in their veins. They have tremendous potential and we quite rightly see them as our future. But sentiment alone only has a limited place in football. We become attached to many of our home grown players while still endorsing departures if they clearly aren’t making the grade.
Home grown players are commonly overrated by fans due to sentiment, in the same way a father might overvalue his son’s contribution in a team sport. It is difficult to stay objective when sentiment is involved. But we should try to.
Another important consideration is to understand that selling players does not necessarily make us a “selling club”. It is a financial, professional sport and every club sells players they would like to keep – either because they are made a huge offer, or because the player wants to leave. Every player at every club is for sale at the right price. That includes ESR and Saka, although that price would be very high.
Fans are fickle and we create new heroes – Tierney for example.
Everybody should be chosen on form in recent matches and training, not sentimentality, historical performance or loyalty.
These articles are meant to provoke fans at a time when nothing much is really happening outside of a European competition which gave us France vs Switzerland a game that allows us football fans put the middle finger up to anyone who doubted and didn’t know that sports does not get better than this. However I wish they would stop. Arsenal might want to cash in on two of their few saleable assets, but the end result would be Loser Cub.
A TOP CLUB DOES NOT SELL ITS FUTURE!
Saka and ESR are the present and future soul of Arsenal, the Arsenal DNA runs through them, they epitomise what a gunner is and should be. However, there will be times when they are either low on form, injured, need rest and it is during those times that MA will need to bench them, but otherwise they are both indispensable. Irrespective of whom we sign, the team will have to be built and designed keeping these 2 gems in mind. BTW the Locatelli rumour,if it comes true, should be good for Arsenal, but one cannot trust the Turin mafia and whether Locatelli would be willing to come to Arsenal, Bissouma seems to be a more realistic proposition, considering he has PL experience and wants to play for Arsenal. The AFCON wont be much of a concern as the African players will miss one PL game of importance and the rest are cu~p games.
No one should be an untouchable in any team. You have got to earn your place in the team all the time.
We suffered with this problem from the later wenger years. Players got too complacent because they knew their place in the team was guaranteed.
Goonster, no one is arguing that they should always be on the team sheet, because that depends on form which may fluctuate. What I would argue against is Saka or ESR being sold prematurely, for short term financial gain.
OT, Nuno Tavares of Benfica is about to have his medical with Arsenal, after the clubs agreed a 7 m pound deal. A attacking young left back, a good back up for Tierney. Looks like he will be the first Arsenal signing of the season.
Good competition for Joel Lopez.
Yes they should.
Talking about Saliba”Arteta hates youngsters. Gives them no chance”
Talking about Saka”Arteta continues tradition.”
Saka and ESR need to go beyond sentiment next season. As it stands, Saka shouldn’t be the primary starter on the right. Pepe scored more and assisted more. ESR could start at CAM, but if we have to play a better player, we should.
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Pepe, is not a better player than Saka, and this is not sentiment.
Saka is more effective in the game play and build-up.
Players should get game time based on merit. If you are not Messi or Ronaldo, you cannot be a guaranteed starter. Yes they are the future of Arsenal and i have no doubt in my mind that they will work hard to play every single game, but players should only be given game time based on merit. This is how you get the best out of players. Trust me, even seemingly humble players like Saka and ESR can turn into something else if for any reason they feel they should be guaranteed starters no matter what.
But of course, we should not even think about selling these guys.
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In terms of their roles in the squad, no, no one should be untouchable – if they keep doing what they’re doing, they should earn plenty of opportunities.
In terms of whether they should be sold in the near future, absolutely not under any circumstances.
I agree Ogaraku Ben, to a degree that is what might have happened with Guendouzi, he was bought as one for the future but because he showed so much early on he got in earlier than expected, then played well to keep his spot but possibly started to believe he had cracked it and was impossible to drop, maybe stopped doing what he was doing to get there in the first place
I must admit I haven’t read anything in the article to suggest these two guys should be sold but agree again that should not even be considered right now
In my opinion the elephant in the room on this subject at the moment is Auba
I appreciate that he had his personal problems last season but it seemed like he was the only one of our players that was on the team sheet regardless, probably because of the way he finished the season before, when he was sensational
I’m not sure his style of play suits the type of team Arteta is trying to put together, he did the press and stuff when Arteta first arrived but I didn’t see so much of that from him last season, if we didn’t already have him is he a player we would want to go and buy
He didn’t appear so effective down the middle and I think Premier League managers have rumbled how to play him when he is wide left, plus he doesn’t always complement Tierney’s style and we have Martinelli waiting for his chance in that position
He doesn’t do the hard yards and hold up play of Laca, not strong in the air if we go long from goalkeeper or defence and he may have lost a bit of pace connected to the malaria scare, in short my view from last term was if he doesn’t score he doesn’t bring much else to the party
If we don’t sell him this window it will be interesting to see where and how he performs in this coming season and whether he gets picked on game to game merit only
Obviously I hope he stays, plays and scores millions of goals for us!