Reiss Nelson says he wants to break into Unai Emery’s first team when he’s done at this summer’s Under-21 European Championships.
After a year on loan with Bundesliga side Hoffenheim, for whom he scored seven goals in 29 appearances, the 19-year-old winger is expected to be brought back into the fold at Arsenal where he’ll challenge for a starting berth on the wing.
Given Nelson will miss a big chunk of pre-season due to England duty he’ll have his work cut out, but he’s looking forward to the challenge.
“Arsenal is my main goal,” he told Sky Sports. “After the Euros I’ll look to go back to pre-season, do that very strong and hopefully play for the team I love.
“I haven’t spoken to him [Unai Emery] yet. The recruitment team said I need to concentrate on the Euros and then we’ll get back into Arsenal later on.”
On his time in Germany, he added: “I learnt a lot on the pitch and I’ve had to deal with a lot off the pitch as well – the culture, the German [language] barrier, but I thought all in it has been a good experience and I’m ready to come back.”
Aidy Bothroyd’s England under-21s face France, Romania and Croatia in the Group stages in Italy and San Marino and could finish as late 30th June if they make the final.
It’s an experience that should stand Nelson in good stead and he’s eager to make an impression on the international stage with a highly-fancied squad.
“We have a great team – a lot of players that are playing regularly for first teams, a lot of older lads and I think everyone has got high expectations.
“I think it’s good going into such a big tournament and there’s a lot of big teams so I think we need to have confidence going into it.
“There’s a great atmosphere and I think we’re ready for the tournament. We want to go out to win but we want to play our style and bring the trophy back to England.”
Hear, hear!
Hope he does great at the Euros too, good luck Reiss!!
If he was playing for Lorient in french Ligue 2, he would be the hot talent we are after.
Grass is always greener, my friend.
He’ll play, every forward will play. I think it’s defense we’ll be not working on and build all these guys that will be worth 70-80 million in a year. Buy a Van Dijk next year with some heartbreaking money
This is probably not fair, but I’m pinning a lot of hope on this guy (and hopefully another young winger acquisition). Its nice to have players who are performing coming in, of course, but I’m mostly hoping wingers could actually make Ozil a threat again. It might be the least disruptive way out of cold war between Emery and him. And Emery needs to play these kinds of players, whatever the limitations. There are going to be moments of frustration etc etc, but if we can’t take a player who loves the club and who’s put together a decent season… Read more »
I really hope Arsenal starts playing more youngsters and groom them for the future ala Monaco, Ajax. Minus selling most of them to bigger teams regularly of course.
Since we won’t be contending the title for some time this is the most sensible thing to do.
He sounds great, I like him me! 🙂
Stats can be misleading …
Seven goals in five Bundesliga starts (plus 18 appearances as a sub, most at the very end of the game) – just 630 minutes total playing time …
I still don’t think he was managed particularly well.
I said he wasn’t being well managed and some fans said Nagelsmann knew what he was doing. Nagelsmann is all that.
He still managed to score 7. Cut him some.slacks dude
“the recruitment team”
I wonder who that is? Interesting…
Ghost of Mislintant’s Past.
The ’29’ appearances stats is a little misleading. Just 5 of those were starts. We all want him to do well but need to be careful not to expect too much : if we bought a player this summer who made 5 starts for Hoffenheim last season would anyone expect him to make a significant first team impact in the coming season ?
That’s some perspective but it’s not impossible to imagine why that gametime was limited to sub appearances.
1) Hoffenheim have an interest in developing their own long term contracted players.
2) Reiss’ age and different country adjustments.
Furthermore, he played well during his starts. So that suggests something positive.
He’s not instantly going to be a starter for us either.
He looks like a player, clocked a speed of 34.44km last season as well. Being back in the Europa will hopefully give him plenty of opportunities to stake a claim for more first team minutes, could be an internal solution for Welbeck’s departure? I don’t quite understand the links to the French lad and the young Brazilian lad we’re supposed to be signing? with our limited budget, I’d like to see a Left back, right back, centre back and an established quality wide player heading up our transfer to do list. I certainly wouldn’t be against giving either Smith-Rowe or… Read more »
You will Reiss, you gotta give the team 10 goals and 10 assists. You know you can do it. Be the new Walcott!!
I hope he doesn’t become the next Walcott!
Well one can always hope.
Eh, no, be better than that.
Can he not be a bit better than that? Please…
What’s wrong with him aspiring to have the same impact as Theo when he first burst onto the scene. He still scored over 100 goals for Arsenal and was one of the few guys who cared about the Club. Theo was phenomenal at the beginning too bad he couldn’t carry on after those two career defining injuries. Jeez, y’all are so ignorant when it comes to treating our ex players.
Some serious revisionism always happens with football fans.
So now Walcotts tailed carrier were because of a couple of carrier defining injuries?
Yes it came after that season when he was our highest goal scorer, after Van persie left- Theo stood up the next season and got injured in the season after for like 8months. I think that was against Tottenham with his iconic celebration. We got 20m for him. Whenever you listen to him, he fondly talks of Arsenal.
Walcott was mad underrated, for a winger his stats more than hold up. He couldn’t do 15 stepovers a game like some wanted, but he could get you 15 goals a season if you could keep him fit. And he liked a goal against the top sides too. Prime Theo would walk into this team sharpish.
And he won’t whine for clouds in the sky…
Give it a rest Alex ffs.
Actually ran into him when on holiday a couple weeks ago. Lovely fella, has a good head on his shoulders and understands what it takes to make it at the highest level. Hope it works out for him here, he’s a real talent.
Did you give him a career talk?
Haha not really but we did joke about Emery shipping him off but keeping Mhki! He’s a good lad though.
We are waiting for u ,young gun???
“The recruitment team” needs to lock him down.
Even with a new wide player (assuming hopefully its not an unknown from Lorient and we show a bit more ambition), we should have a third option in Reiss along with Iwobi.
Mhkitaryan (ghost of Mslintat past) is not good enough for a winger and is a waning player. Maybe some function in middle as an AM but to me a waste of time last January.
Nelson and Belik must give opportunity .this two guys are great ???