As is the case each season, a large contingent of Arsenal players will be spending at least part of the campaign elsewhere in the hope of receiving regular playing time, and this time around there are some significant names amongst the club’s band of loanees.
Here’s what each of them will be seeking to achieve this season.
Jack Wilshere- Bournemouth
Arsenal’s most high-profile loanee, Wilshere made a surprising switch to Bournemouth on deadline day after growing frustrated with his lack of game time with the Gunners. The midfielder will hope to avoid injuries and should feature prominently for Eddie Howe’s side as he seeks to prove that he is still capable of fulfilling his vast potential.
Wojciech Szczesny- Roma
Another experienced player who has gone out on temporary transfer, Szczesny is in his second season on loan at Roma. The Poland international made a glaring error in the Italian side’s recent Champions League qualifier against Porto, but he produced some impressive performances last season and will hope to do enough to earn a permanent deal with Roma.
Joel Campbell- Sporting Lisbon
The winger has found himself on the periphery at Arsenal and has been sent out on loan once again, this time to Sporting Lisbon. Campbell’s chances of establishing himself at Arsenal seem rather thin but he is a talented player and some good displays this season would attract potential suitors.
Calum Chambers- Middlesbrough
It isn’t quite make or break at Arsenal for Chambers, but he is now at the stage of his development where he needs to be playing regularly. The former Southampton player has potential but needs to play frequently in a set position.
Takuma Asano- Stuttgart
Of all Arsenal’s loanees, it is perhaps Asano’s progression this season that will be the most intriguing. The Japanese forward was an unexpected signing for the Gunners and impressed for his country in the Olympics. He will now seek to earn a work permit enabling him to play competitively in England.
Kelechi Nwakali- Maastricht
Another youngster who joined Arsenal this summer, talented midfielder Nwakali played a key part in Nigeria’s U17 World Cup success. The prospect has linked up with Dutch second division side Maastricht and will look to showcase his ability in a low-pressure environment.
Stefan O’Connor- Maastricht
Joining Nwakali at Maastricht is young defender Stefan O’Connor, who has made one appearance for the Arsenal senior side. O’Connor has so far mainly featured for Maastricht’s youth team as he gains valuable experience of playing in a different country.
Tafari Moore- Utrecht
Also in Holland is Tafari Moore, with the young right-back spending the season with Utrecht. Like O’Connor, Moore is set to start the season playing youth football for his loan side but will hope to progress into the senior team later in the campaign.
Glen Kamara- Colchester United
The defensive-midfielder had a spell with Southend United last season and returns to League Two with Colchester United. A Finland youth international, Kamara doesn’t appear to have a future at Arsenal and will be looking to earn a move elsewhere.
Dan Crowley- Oxford United
The highly regarded midfielder is seeking to push on after he was unable to establish himself at Barnsley last season. Crowley scored a fine goal against Brighton in the EFL Cup but hasn’t featured prominently in league games so far. This could be a crucial season for the starlet in terms of determining whether he can succeed at Arsenal.
Julio Pleguezuelo- Mallorca
A centre-back who is composed on the ball, Pleguezuelo has returned to his native Spain with Mallorca but, with Rob Holding and Krystian Bielik ahead of him, it will take something special for the youngster to salvage his Arsenal career at this point.
Jon Toral- Granada
Another player of whom big things are expected, Toral has previously impressed on loan at Birmingham City and Brentford but time is running out for him to succeed at Arsenal.
Ryan Huddart- Eastleigh
The young goalkeeper joined non-league Eastleigh in a surprising move, and, even more strangely, has mainly been a substitute so far. Huddart’s choice of loan move was rather surprising given his potential, but he’ll hope to break into the Eastleigh team soon.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
If they all work hard and show their character on the pitch, with a bit of luck, they’ll all have great careers.
We seem to have forgotten Chris Willock so soon.
Not counting jack/wojech, if we’re lucky, maybe 2-3 of those players could be seen to make the step up to the 1st team.
Here’s hoping to them proving me wrong. Good luck, lads.
I wonder if Jack will still get a medal when we win the league? Not happy with Jack leaving at all, got a bad feeling for him. Arsenal will go on to win the league and Bournemouth gets relegated. Noooooooooo
Hahaha. Even if he stayed at Arsenal and failed to get the required number of games, he would still not get a medal if we won it.
I don’t really care if Bournemouth get relegated. That in itself is immaterial. Fighting to avoid relegation can be character building though. Hopefully Eddie Howe can mould Jack so that by the time he returns he’ll have learned to control the reckless enthusiasm that sometimes gets him into situations where he gets injured.
I would happily watch Bournemouth and Jack get relegated if it meant that we won the league.
When was the last time our academy produced a proper world class player? Ashley Cole i reckon was the last world class Arsenal produced player. I dont count players whom joined at 16 from other academies like Bellerin or Fabregas since they allready developed all their core attributes elsewhere and we just made the finishing touches on them. I do hope we can revive or revitalize our academy cause we have not been able to rely on it at all to produce the types of players we need to progress the team. Chambers and the Ox both looked brilliant for… Read more »
Players who show early promise, are sometimes much further ahead in their development than other youngsters, who might mature later. It is hard to judge someone fully as a teenager, and sometimes certain players get overtaken by their peers once they hit their 20s.
As much as I agree I don’t understand the relevance. If anything Oxlade Chamberlain is a worst player than when he signed and Chambers at best has not developed. It has to do solely with their development and not with them being compared to others who overtake them
Iwobi
Definitely not world class yet but he might get there.
Agree. The academy has not been producing for a long time now. Gibbs, Jack and hopefully Iwobi in the first team since Cashley, and have done well out of a couple of sell on clauses like Afobe.
its true that our acedemy has not produced as much quality players we had hoped for . apart from wilshere , ashley cole and maybe gibbs alomst all the players were below par . but still our acedemy is still a work in progress. quality of each reserve teams are improving and the results will not be apparent at first but slowly we are seeing the results of our own academy. it is slow because it takes time to integrate a youth player into the first team. the team that akpom played was arguably the most promising reserve team we… Read more »
I suspect you’ve thought about this and have something worth saying, but the occasional use of CAPS might make your contribution easier to read…
haha…i believe you’re right. should’ve used more CAPS and space
Academies don’t produce world-class players very often. There are probably what, 50 world class players playing the game at any one moment? And that’s spread over 15 years of academy grads. So all the academies in the world only produce 3ish world class players per year. And there are hundreds of professional academies.
No Zelalem on loan.
Would be interesting to see if Wenger intends to use him as back up in midfield with Jack gone.
He has the most experience in the position of all the youngsters remaining and did perform very well on loan to the school of hard knocks with Rangers in 2nd div Scotland.
I’d say the Jeff is miles ahead of Zelalem at the moment in Wenger’s mind, he’s already said he needs to bulk up to get near the side. With Iwobi having played as both the attacking and deeper midfield (u21 and first team) too, and the theoretically versatile Ox, Ramsey & Elneny part of the squad, I doubt we’ll see much of Zelalem outside of the league cup this season.
Hoping Toral, Pleguezuelo, and Crowley play well…..could see them in the red and white some day
Is it possible to give out our No 10 shirt? Sure to Mesut Ozil
While it’d be great to see my favourite player in this team wearing God’s own number, I imagine Ozil’s 11 shirt is the most popular in the shop. It would be pretty harsh if you’d spent a fortune on one only for it to change 3 games in.
Still disappointed with the lack of patience/ fight from Wilshere, given how supportive the club was to him during his numerous injuries over the past five years
I don’t see it this way. He has constantly been injured and he really needs match time which he will hardly get at Arsenal. If he stays fit and does well it is a bonus for both him and Arsenal. If he had no love for the club he would have pushed for a permanent move, there would have been many takers.
I’m also disappointed and concerned this could be the beginning of the end of Jack as an Arsenal player. From his point of view though, I can well see the attraction. For a start, he’ll be the star man at Bournemouth and I get the feeling that will have an appeal to guy like Jack. Eddie Howe is a good up and coming manager to work with. He’ll be playing with his best mate and as a place to live, Bournemouth does have its attractions. There are plenty of clubs no ? And with his Arsenal salary, I’m sure Jack… Read more »
I don’t know about plenty of clubs, but there’s plenty of water, and some nice sandy beaches to run along.
Anyway, he’s off to a good start with the Cherries. Half a game against AC Milan isn’t a bad debut even if it was only a testimonial. Bet Cummings never expected to have Jack Wilshere play in his testimonial 🙂
More disappointed with gnabry to be honest. How many managers would throw a raw 17/18 year old in the first team in the middle of a title challenge. Clearly wenger had a lot of faith in him and after his injury and loan struggles wenger still publicly said he had big plans for gnabry.
The loan may have been bad but he wasn’t exiled by us, it was to give him playing time.
Getting to the first team requires overbearing talent. Hardly any youth player in any team makes it. Arsenal are no different.United have only Rashford,City have iheanacho,Chelsea are basically a human trafficking club with 3 squads on loan.
We had Wilshere who is unfortunately always injured, Szcz has no brain and Bellerin who is genuinely world class.
Also note, Southamptons academy may produce good players but we have no idea when they signed and from where. They maybe like Bellerin. If only 1 of this 13 make its normal.it’s elite level sport after all.
For me, it’s Asano we should be watching the most closely. He could turn out to be a real find and the striker we need, or then again he could be a disappointment. Hopefully, this time next year he will be an exciting prospect in the senior squad.
Agreed.
Asano is my main loan interest, along with Toral.
Is this a blind guess or have you actually seen him play? I for one have never seen him play.
Sure I’ve seen him play….on YouTube. But that’s my point – after a season on loan, we’ll hopefully have a bit of an idea whether might be the next Henry, or the next Park fella..
Erm, that’s exactly why we’re interested in him.
Also saw him perform for Japan at the Olympics and I like what I saw.
I will follow Asano,Toral and Wilshere. These are the 3 dearest to my heart the most. Love Wilshere’s direct runs and Asano’s speed and ghostly movements. Toral would make a great midfielder. His ‘twin’ Bellerin is already doing great
Toral will play with Sergi Samper in Granada..both used to play together in Barca Academy..Would love to see their combination at Granada heart of midfield
Ghostly movements? Isn’t that what Walcott does? Run around being a bit invisible and occasionally pop out and scare a defence before disappearing again. 😉
What about Zelelem?
Kelechi Nwakali(next Kelechi Iheanacho of Man city)
Jon Toral
Takuma Asano
Jack wishere
*they are my main Loan interest*