Arsenal loanee Krystian Bielik has enjoyed a hugely impressive season in League One with Charlton Athletic, and the campaign could end in jubilation for the Polish youngster.
Last night Bielik was on the scoresheet as Charlton took on Doncaster Rovers in the second leg of their play-off semi-final.
The game ended 4-4 on aggregate and Charlton prevailed on penalties to set up a clash with Sunderland in the play-off final at Wembley next weekend.
Bielik will inevitably be fully focused on that major occasion, but after that it will be intriguing to see what happens next in his career.
The 21-year-old has made just two competitive first-team appearances for Arsenal and is now at the stage in his development where a concrete decision surely has to be made about his future.
It will be intriguing to see whether Unai Emery includes Bielik in his plans for next season, and the youngster’s ability to impress at centre-back, or, as he has done for Charlton this campaign, in midfield, is a useful asset.
Bielik has earned much praise from Charlton supporters for his performances this season, and he certainly seems to be above League One level.
Whether he is ready to feature prominently in the Premier League is another matter entirely, but he is certainly an option that is worth considering.
If Arsenal were to send Bielik out on loan again next season then they would run the risk of losing him permanently at the end of that deal.
With just over a year remaining on his Arsenal contract, Bielik’s future at the club remains rather uncertain.
Firstly, though, he has a very important task to attend to with Charlton as he attempts to end an excellent campaign with glory.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Would like to see him and willock get in first team squads next year ahead of elneny
Totally agree, if we are going to fanny around bringing in Lichtsteiner-esque players on budget deals, let’s just promote Nelson, Smith Rowe, Bielik, Willock, Saka, Nketiah and Medley and use them as a youthful and hungry subs bench.
Fuck Elneny, Mustafi, Mkhi… We know what these players are capable of. We clearly aren’t going to spend big so let’s buy one great player (CB) and bring through all these exciting youth prospects.
When he plays well Mkhi is actually really good but he doesn’t seem to do it very often
I think Mkhi are typical Arsenal player.
Flashes of brilliance but lack of consistency.
Biggest problem for him is the high salary he has now.
If he only have like 50-70k per week, I’d like to keep him as squad player.
And I truly don’t understand the Elneny bashing. He is not creative, doesn’t add a great deal to attacking play but is decent defensively, runs around and makes no stupid mistakes whatsoever unlike some headless chickens in the squad. He doesn’t berate his lack of chances and I believe he is on reasonable squad wages. These are the players who add some depth. Adding Bielik or Willock to the mix is good, but not at Elneny’s expense please. Every good team has such players who are dependable and elneny is one. Remember we had a weaker version of Elneny starting… Read more »
I don’t hate Elneny but it’s not what he represents; he’s a last resort and it’s his capacity. Isn’t it better to give that role to a talented youth with greater potential?
Also Elneny is more expensive, take up a squad space and isn’t homegrown.
Beilik can play that role, develop beyond it, would be cheaper wage wise and gives us more squad space due to his age.
Honestly, he and Denilson are about on par the only difference is Denilson played far too many games. If Elneny left, I don’t think I’d even notice.
Other than his pay rate? Mkhi fits in just fine. 6g/4a isn’t bad. Though he could have had another half-dozen goals. IIRC he had a slew of difficult balls delivered early-on this season.
Everybody was impressed with Lich after his first three games. Fans were saying, Bellerin must learn from him. Maybe the club thought he could give such performance the entire season. Elneny did not get enough chance at Arsenal. You sit on the bench for a month then you are put in the game because of multiple injuries. He will be a better player in a smaller club where he plays all the time.
I just don’t think these sorts of players should prevent our academy from progressing. If Lichtsteiner had been ok and not awful, we never would have uncovered AMN as a solid right back and given him invaluable game time.
The same could be said of Elneny who prevents any progress of Willock.
“Everybody was impressed with Lich after his first three games.” I wasn’t and I highly doubt I’m the only one.
Bringing youngster through before they’re ready won’t be of use to us or them….
Bringing too many through at once is clearly a recipe for disaster, and It’s virtually a guarantee that the same people who were asking for us to give youth a chance, will be the same ones who’ll be screaming to throw Emery under a bus when he doesn’t get instant results.
I’m all for giving youth a chance, but they need to brought through in stable structures, and I struggle to find a core of players in our squad who I’d be comfortable to build around.
Agree. The academy products (Iwobi, AMN)in the team now are berated by some fans daily. Calls to sell, etc.
You are right…but a lot of these players have developed all they can by playing at their current levels. If they are to improve further then they must be thrown into the mix. And frankly, seeing Emile Smith Rowe, Joe willock, AMN, Reiss Nelson, Saka, Nketiah; I believe they are much more positive than some of the players we have on the bench. As far as providing a stable structure goes…you are right…let’s use all our transfer budget into buying a couple of good/solid/proven defenders who can protect these players from suffering heavily for the mistakes they’ll make whilst playing.… Read more »
Chambers is far too slow and lacking in agility, he continually finds himself confronted with the same types of problems Xhaka does, particularly when the games played in behind him, or when he’s up against pace and quick feet. Nelson has spend the majority of the season on the bench at Hoffenheim, and has only marginally completed more minutes there than he did last season with us, I agree that he looks a real talent, but he’s still only 19, and whilst I think we’ll keep him because Welbeck is leaving, in a ideal world I think a season in… Read more »
I would take the raw material Sterling may have been at Liverpool in our starting XI any day.
@HelderHughes Totally agree…its clear at this point we are not going to splash the cash…let’s focus on developing some from the prospects we have. And let’s use our transfer budget to buying one or two world class players/proven talents. That way, over time we could build a good squad that might challenge for the league In the near future. One can only hope.
We do not have opportunities for a big transfer budget. The owner does not want to put money into the club. He couldn’t without blatantly breaking the financial fair play rules anyways. How will a sport investment company manage to give a big advertisement contract to a club?
Infrastructure isn’t part of FFP, he could repay the bonds on the Emirates without breaching FFP
He could have paid the £30+ million invested in our training facilities over the last 3 years
If Charlton go up, extend his contract and loan him back to see what does in the Championship. If he pulls up trees, recall him at Christmas.
Spot on. If Charlton get promoted, we should extend and loan him back to the championship and see how he fares.
That is all. No dicking around with him in the first team squad next year please. For God’s sake, this is league one and he has quite a bit to prove. The kid might have a lot of potential but that’s pretty much at this stage.
He is very young in the life of a centerback.
He’s been on Arsenal’s books for 5 years and has one left on his contract. In all that time, he’s only played the odd pre-season game. Do you REALLY think that if he gets loaned out yet again, he’ll extend? As the article suggests, it’s decision time. If a 19 yo Guendouzi can step up… if Giroud and Koscielny can step up as they did when they arrived at the club… why are you so risk averse with Bielik?
We could use him, hope he makes it
Absolutely, he’s ready. I’m not saying throw him into the starting 11 but he’s certainly ready to be integrated into the first team. He’s been great this season, and Charlton have been great for him. Whilst he starts usually as a silky DM he often gets pulled back during opposition attacks to work in a back 5, and he’s capable in a back 4 also. Pretty sure he’s classed as home-grown as well – important for next season. Only concern is whether there’s room for both him and Chambers to establish themselves within the team in the same season, should… Read more »
So rare when a loan goes just right for one of ours. Recall when AW plucked him from Legia Warszawa with some fanfare at the time. Thinking that he might end up as the DM we’d all hoped for– for so long.
Could well be someday soon.
Arsenal will send him on loan two more times then release him. People say Arsenal develop young players but we’re actually not as good as many other clubs at it.
Still feel he can. At the academy he was dominant at 17 for the U23s.
His developments stunted with the desire to convert him into a CB rather then keep him as a physically dominant DM passer.
And ofcourse the arsenal injury course.
A horse is a horse of course of course?
Really don’t want to see Chambers back.
Why? He looked very good at centre half before he was mysteriously loaned out. Has also shown he is useful in midfield as he has played at Fulham.
Watched him yesterday. He really does look above League One level but boy did he turn the ball over a lot. Might’ve been the occasion as he wasn’t the only one making errors. I like him though. Let him play a lot in preseason and see what he’s got. Even if he’s not good enough for the Premier League, he still has value. Charlton may want to sign him permanently especially if they win promotion next week.
A lot? That’s a fair old overstatement. Admittedly he was tired in extra-time, like you say, as were most, but comparatively he was far more solid than most. I’d say across both legs he was arguably Charlton’s best player. There was one point where he was running into danger, looked a lost cause, then span took two Donny players out of their stride and threaded the smoothest pass to a winger that bamboozled another Donny player. The ball almost seems glued to his feet at times. I reckon with better team-mates he’ll step up well. As you say, play him… Read more »
Fans truly don’t realise just how talented this kid is. He is without a doubt one of our besties academy prospects in the same vein as Nelson and Smith-Rowe.
Just goes under the radar.
There are a few youngsters in a similar position to him now. Assuming no change to our transfer ‘warchest’ I’d say next year could be huge for the academy
Hopefully
21 is still very young for a CB. A year in the championship, followed by a year at another prem club would be an excellent education if he is playing regularly and come back at 23 is still young.
Assuming contract can be agreed and he progresses then think he should be given more time if the potential is there. Some top CB’s are not ready for big clubs until mid 20’s but then go on to have 7 or 8 years at the top level. No need to rush him to be make or break now.
I don’t want to see him as a CB. He was dominant at 16 a season a DM, and all his best performances for us at the academy was as a DM and it seems even at his loan they saw what he could do as a DM. Ramsey is gone. Elneny will likely be sold, possibly Xhaka and Ozil too, let alone the fact we probably needed an extra CM before them all anyways. I’d rather use our little money to get a certi world class CB and space for the likes of Beilik and other youth, rather than… Read more »
Why on earth would we sell Xhaka who has formed a great partnership with Torreira.
Because the partnership isn’t great and Xhaka is great on the ball (if given time and space) but average off it.
always hard to make a hard case he’s ready given the gap between League One and the Prem. To his credit, it’s a nearly 50 game slog and he’s done well. Up to him to prove it in preseason, but given he’s at least 4th choice holding MF (and that assumes Elnenny leaves), he could do with a year in the Championship.
Separately, it would be hilarious for Sunderland to spend another season in L1, so that’s another reason to hope Charlton wins.
I’m guessing he will be a ball playing center half for us and not a holding midfielder. He doesn’t look nervous with the ball at his feet for sure.
Great to hear of a loan success story – we’ve been starved of them. Apparently Martinez made the most saves in the Championship this season? If so, the Championship is great training for the EPL, because you really have to learn to command your area aerially.
Extent his contract, either loan him out to a PL team or keep him around as cover. We could use a player like him, and If, hopefully Elneny leaves (nothing against him, just would rather have a homegrown player with potential in the team with wages not too high over a player which, not bad, isn’t really exceptional) he can have his spot on the squad as defensive generalist player (CB, DM)
The step up from League One to the Premier League is a huge ask, so I’d expect a squad role at best for Bielik next campaign. Best of luck to him, and Charlton, in their bid for promotion.
I’d like to see him brought in and given a shot, but if we’re looking at loaning him, then just sell him to Charlton and be done with it.
Bielik + Chambers + Holding + Mavropanos = decent options at the back. An improvement of our already ageing defense.
This could well be the future if it all works out well. We have some good young defenders and hopefully we can transition them to first team standard. There aren’t many top class defenders in the market and the good ones go for huge sums of money. Plus Chambers, Holding and Bielik all count as homegrown. They all need a clear pathway and plan set out, which may include carefully selected loan moves, but it would be a big shame to give up on them so early in their careers. They need to feel that they are part of Arsenal,… Read more »
And we are back to the famous Wenger script: Bielik will be Like A New Signing.