It’s been confirmed that Jon Toral will spend the 2016/17 campaign on loan at La Liga side Granada.
The midfielder, 21, enjoyed an excellent spell with Birmingham City last year, with the Spaniard thriving in the Championship.
Building upon his good season with Brentford in the previous season, he collected the Players’ Player of the Year, Supporters’ Player of the Year and Goal of the Season awards for his efforts with the Blues.
Toral, who was signed from Barcelona at the same time as Hector Bellerin, now returns to Spain for his first taste of La Liga action.
After securing the loan deal with @Arsenal, Sporting Director Javier Torralbo welcomes Jon Toral to #GranadaCF. pic.twitter.com/Z9EBgj0BsW
— Granada C.F. (@GranadaCdeF_en) July 12, 2016
Elsewhere, our resident Arsenal Youth expert, Jeorge Bird, reports that Tafari Moore is undertaking a trial at Dutch side Utrecht ahead of a possible loan deal.
Best of luck to both.
Hope he comes back next season ready to be in the squad and show us what he’s got cos I rate him
Really think Toral has the potential to make it at Arsenal. I’d hoped he’ll get a preseason with the first team. Anyway, good luck to the lad!!
Competition is so intense in that position it’s difficult to see how he can find a place at Arsenal at the moment.
Really hope he can make it tho, one of the highlights over the past year has been watching the rise of Bellerin
In other news, is it time to panic over transfers yet?
Seems extremely quiet from an Arsenal point of view…
It’s always extremely quiet from an Arsenal Transfers point of view.
That doesn’t mean nothing is happening, although it’s certainly bad for our nerves!
Good for him to be loaned out to a league that actually tries to play football on the grass and not 5 feet up in the air. Hope he does well!
Definitely expected Toral to have earned himself a pre-season to prove himself
With this news now I really hope Zelalem, Jeff and Gnabry don’t get loaned out..
I think Toral is way ahead of Zelalem and Jeff in development and would expect them to be loaned. Gnabry will be interesting to see, he was really good before he was injured, and the loan was a strange one. The little we’ve seen of him since was encouraging, so I think it’ll be an important pre-season for him.
I’m a bit puzzled by this one, I hope it’s not just a La Liga shop window for the lad. If he’s part of Wenger’s plans I would have thought a Premier League switch would have been preferred, that being said, with all the money floating about the middle of the table I suspect we’ll see far fewer full season premier league loans this summer than compared to pervious ones.
I think he only has one year left on his contract so probably not loaned for shop window. Big step up from championship though
If he has only one year left it’s a shop window for him as opposed to the club in that case I suppose
So much competition in our midfield right now. Will be very hard for any of the young guys to break through. It’s a pity because Toral and Zelalem look to have serious ability.
Anyone else think he looks like the love child of Giroud and Fàbregas?
I am also surprised with this one. I would say that he has earned himself a place in the 1st team, to be a backup for our midfield. He has proven himself in the lower league, it should be enough. Now going to another country, it does not make sense IMO. Knowing how injury prone is Wilshere, ageing Cazorla, he would have a work to do. And we lost Rosicky, Flamini and Arteta. We only signed Xhaka. Maybe Zelalem will step up (though Toral is both more mature and looks more like a finished product), the Jeff is here (he… Read more »
Don’t forget Elneny, Ramsey, Ox, Coquelin, and Ozil. Our midfield stock is pretty full.
Doesn’t say it’s a full season loan without the option for termination, it may be one of those things were we can call him back if we get injuries, like with Coquelin.
“I stopped looking for logic in AW’s decisions long time ago”
Then you’re a plastic. Working out what Wenger was thinking with any given decision is a footballing education.
In this case, what you could work out pretty easily is that Toral’s just not that good at the moment.
I know it will be rated at least 8 poos, but french medias talk about Giroud + 60M send to Napoli for Higuain. Giroud’s agent event told the medias that his client won’t be sad about playing for Napoli.
What do you think ?
Why do we want to get rid of GIroud? He consistently scores 20 goals. Last season he scored 24 when in his best season for us Walcott scored 21. He is our most consistent goal scorer up top. Losing him will be a risk. What if you bring in Higuain and he gets injured? what is the back up? Walcott? Giroud has also a function beyond scoring, he acts as a node for the team and plays in the second line attackers brilliantly. No surprise he has scored 10 goals in 9 games for France recently plus notched 3 goals… Read more »
Bear in mind striker market is a bit heated right now. China just bought Pelle for 12m and Hulk for 47m which puts a further squeeze on supply on the lower end. It is uncertain if PSG will buy with Zlatan gone or if Real will keep or sell Morata with Cronaldo’s knock. Higuain’s price may come down closer to end of window. Meanwhile we have a bunch of clubs willing to spend ridiculous sums of money starting with United who have to as they are out of CL but also City, Chelsea. Real PSG Barca Bayern can all spend… Read more »
Dude, I always enjoy reading your comments. They are well articulated and reasoned. People like you set arseblog apart from other sites in terms of the quality of comments posted. There will be times when you get thumbed down or berated etc, but at least you are respectful and can justify your opinions with fact. Well done and keep posting. I for one will continue to look for comments by santori
Except for when he goes on about his man-crush Flamini. Hey is that you, Ozil? Lol. Otherwise, spot on about Arseblog and Santori.
There’s not enough poo in Kroenke’s cow patch to rate this one.
Does anyone know if he’s getting a new deal before his loan?
People say this is weird because we lost roscicky, arteta and flamini. Well roscicky and arteta played next to nothing and good old flamini is replaced by xhaka. Also we have Wilshire back from injury until he gets injured again..
Hopefully young toral impresses again and gets a chance at arsenal
I imagine an “emergency” recall in case of an injury crisis, Coquelin-style *knocks on wood*
They played nothing because they were injured.
Not sure what point you were trying to make.
Sometimes it makes one wonder what exactly some prospects need to do to be given a chance. If having to successful loans (his Birmingham one probably one of the best academy loan successes we’ve had in a long time), then I don’t know what some players need to do to break in.
Meanwhile, Sanogo and Theo be chilling.
“Sometimes it makes one wonder what exactly some prospects need to do to be given a chance. If having to successful loans (his Birmingham one probably one of the best academy loan successes we’ve had in a long time), then I don’t know what some players need to do to break in.” >95% of Arsenal trainees don’t make it to the level needed to play for Arsenal at their peaks, let alone as youngsters just starting out in the senior game. Look at Vela, for an example of how very good still isn’t good enough. The question to ask here… Read more »
Our midfield is packed, even a pre-season, I don’t see the point of.
In that Centre Mid role we have
Cazorla
Xhaka
Elneny
Wilshere
Ramsey
I hope we give this guy a contract and he proves himself with the step-up to La Liga. I see Cazorla leaving after this season and Wilshere probably crocked or ending up leaving.
Anyway, I hope Arsene inserted a recall clause if too many CM’s get injured.
You forgot the coq
I was talking about box to box guys or central playmakers not dm
What happened to good old competition?
How about rather than just handing out spots, you say “here guys, 2 spots available, whoever impressed the most in preseason get their chance”
Who knows, maybe the opportunity could lead to Toral stepping up even more so and being better than both Jack and Ramsey.
Never know unless you give them a shot.
At this point i dont think we have the luxury of giving a player a chance in an overstocked area,
Its best for squad harmony and his development if he gets top flight experie ce
When there’s that many players ahead of you then you lose heart.
I’m disappointed as I would have liked him to stay but he’d only get a game in the Tinpot Cup (maybe FA Cup if we get a real good draw… so unlikely) or if we had a spectacularly bad number of injuries.
Hopefully He’ll have such an amazing season that he’ll be a shoe-in for the 1st team in 17/18.
Doesn’t seem like there is a lot more the lad could have done. Best of luck to him.
Could we make a signing already?
I’ll take anyone, im dying here!!
Yes if we want to spend over the odds for TGSTEL and then take a huge loss plus have a very hard time off loading him whilst he spends time on our bench enjoying the largesse of his earnings doing well, nothing.:D
Well…I won’t say wrapping a car around a tree or courting a countess is nothing of course but footballing terms at least.;)
That’s because you took your helmet off, silly. Not enough oxygen at your lofty heights.
Midfield : DefensiveMid – Granit Coquelin Central/linkMid – Santi Jack AattackingMid – Ozil Ramsey UtilityMid – Elneny (?) I think there is space for one more in the first team. Ox should frankly stay wide which means he is competing with Iwobi Campbell (possibly Gnabry) for other flank to Alexis. I think there is a spot for an academy player to get some exposure in deep midfield as a utility. Possibly Zelalem who had an excellent spell with Rangers or Jeff who has been played centrally in midfield with Academy. Toral has his work cut out frankly. He’ll need a… Read more »
This being wenger’s final year at arsenal me thinks it’s the last of toral we are seeing. His best opportunity at breaking through at arsenal was always going to come under wenger
I’m sorry to go off topic. I’m an Aussie gooner who will hopefully get to see Arsenal in person for the first time next year when they come down under for pre season.
Do you all think there’d be a difference between the first and second game of the tour?
Would one have more first team players? While I enjoy watching our young guns, especially that Carling cup performance against Sheffield a while back, but if I’m going to pay my hard earned money I’d like to see the top guns.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
There’s no way of knowing which game will have more 1st teamers.
It’ll probably end up as 2 games where all 11 are changed at half time, but it depends on fitness levels and injuries as well as who’s available.
Shame, I thought he’s going to feature for Arsenal, this season!