Mikel Arteta says the club are weighing up proposals from clubs wanting to take three Arsenal youngsters on loan in the second half of the season.
Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe and Tyreece John-Jules are understood to have attracted interest from a wide array of clubs at home and abroad but final decisions on their future are yet to be made.
Nketiah was recalled from his loan with Leeds and is wanted by Bristol City, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday. John-Jules is being tipped to join Lincoln City and Smith Rowe could return to Germany where he spent the second half of last season with RB Leipzig.
“We are assessing the situation with three of them [young players],” Arteta told his pre-Crystal Palace press conference.
“We are evaluating all the offers that they have from different clubs, where would suit them more and if it’s the right time for them to make that step. In the next few days, we will tell you exactly what will happen.
Arteta said last week that he’d look to chat with Eddie Nketiah to get a feel for his short term ambitions. It sounds as though the meeting went well.
“I sat down with him and was very impressed with him,” said the boss.
“I think it was a great challenge for him to work in that environment in Leeds. I think he’s become a much better player, a much more competitive player.
“Then the decision to make now is whether it’s better to send him out for another five months to realise his potential and have him ready for next season, or keep him here. It’s something we have to discuss in the next few days.”
All exciting players that need more experience and playing time. Get them out there until the summer and hope they come back ready for next season.
There’s a need for careful evaluation of every potential loan club to ensure we don’t end up with another Gnabry to Westbrom situation. We equally need to avoid a loan that turns out to be a waste of the player’s time. If there’s any doubt about the suitability of the club, I’d rather we keep them and give them few minutes at the end of games while they train and get used to the high intensity of Arteta’s methods
All great prospects and they should go out to clubs that can give them competitive regular playing time.
Ditto IMO Mavropanos if possible, particularly if we can engineer taking in Saliba early (prviso he is recovered from injury)
And I would even contemplate Willock on loan IF we get in a good midfielder on loan in return for the deeper roles.