According to The Athletic, Reiss Nelson has informed Arsenal that he’s open to leaving the club this summer.
The winger, 24, was set to be a free agent this time last year only to sign a new contract on significantly improved terms having impressed on several occasions as a substitute during the 22/23 campaign.
While Nelson featured more regularly last season (639 minutes across 23 appearances), the fact he was competing with Bukayo Saka for a starting place meant he spent the majority of his time on the bench.
As he reaches the peak years of his career, he must have realised that to progress in his career he needs a change of environment.
Having already spent time on loan at Hoffenheim and Feyenoord, he’s no stranger to that, but this time the umbilical cord may have to be cut permanently.
🚨 Reiss Nelson informs Arsenal he wants to asses options for potential transfer this summer. #AFC rejected approaches in January + would want ~£20m including add-ons if decide to sell. #CPFC, #FFC, #NFFC & #WHUFC among 24yo winger’s suitors @TheAthleticFC https://t.co/8tWdun34v0
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) June 14, 2024
It’s reported that the Gunners want a fee in the region of £20 million for Nelson and that he’s of interest to Crystal Palace, Fulham, Nottingham Forest and West Ham.
If Edu achieves anywhere near that figure, you could easily argue the decision to retain his services for 12 months was savvy business. Let’s see what happens.
Question marks also remain over the future of Thomas Partey, Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira, Eddie Nketiah, Jakub Kiwior, Aaron Ramsdale and to a lesser extent Gabriel Jesus and Alex Zinchenko. Several players returning from loan spells, including Kieran Tierney, Nuno Tavares and Sambi Lokonga are also expected to depart.
If we can sell all the players we need to I’d be surprised and very happy. It would allow some serious upgrades to come in. Hope Edu has his BBQ heating up.
I just wonder if being a top two club in England might raise the value of our periphery players. I remember Liverpool and Chelsea used to extract really decent fees for their young players when they were in their pomp.
I don’t think Reiss is worth anything close to £20m and, given his wages, I’d happily take £8m.
But it’s really encouraging for our other no longer needed players if we get a good fee for him. If we get £15m for Reiss then suddenly Eddie is £30m and ESR is £40m.
Is there a deliberate strategy to move towards a smaller, higher quality squad composed of versatile players?
The purchases at the top end of the market in recent seasons, plus the links that have been out there do have some themes:
-Size/strength
-Technical excellence
-Team first attitude
-Age 22-24
-Positionally versatile
Exceptions are made for some players but in general I think this is the template we’ve trended toward, especially last summer and it looked like continuing with the Hato and Sesko links. Ideally you have two such guys for every position but in reality it becomes more like 15 with injuries and such, even for the best teams.
Go to forest or palace, both decent teams that he would add something positive to
Clearly time for him to move on. He’s a good player and is undoubtedly good enough to be a starter in the PL; albeit somewhat further down the league.
I have a sneaky feeling he’ll go on to have a good career. I think there was a world where if he hadn’t gotten so good so quickly he would’ve played more and maybe thing would be different. Palace seems like a good place for him hope he does well.
We*
I’ve got a sneaky feeling he won’t.
He’ll probably turn up in America within two years.
How do you use what you have in the locker if you don’t get opportunities? However, where players like Nelson are not defendable is the way, they perform in Carabao and FA Cup.
Forest would be a mistake- will their check even clear?
I can’t see every fringe player leaving the same window. Some listedvhere will go
Package deal, 3-5-1wingbacks:
Ramsdale
Partey – Kiwior – Tierney
Nelson – Vieira – Smith Rowe – Zinchenko – Jesus
Nketiah
Always liked Nelson. His loan spells abroad showed that he can perform at a very high level, and that he is not afraid of a challenge. I wish him well. On a more controversial note – if we can get £20m for Reiss, then would it be worth spending the £40m reported asking price and trying to do an odegaard/ havertz on Jadon Sancho? I kind of feel with the right manager, there’s a serious player there. £40m, homegrown – not really heard anything negative about his attitude – granted he’s fallen out with ten hag, but I’ve not seen… Read more »
On the one hand, that’s *exactly* the sort of thing we did with Martin and Havertz, a player who’s still young, who was a highly rated talent and actually did perform for a bit before making a big move and slipping through the cracks in the chaos of a big and perhaps not very stably run club (with Odegaard it’s a bit more complex but still more or less the gist of it). The only thing is I think Mikel will probably be looking for someone who can play across the forward line and I don’t think Sancho can play… Read more »
I kind of want the path left open for Nwaneri – ideally he’s the benefactor if reiss does leave. I’m currently sweating on these Chido obi martins Bayern rumours, and it would be a big blow to the likes of him and nawneri if we do sign big name players in their positions this summer (it didn’t stop a young Saka superseding a £72m Pepe pretty quickly, but that young man is of rare character and most would have just thought what’s the point of even trying when they have just spent £72m on a player who will hold that… Read more »
Sancho is misunderstood, type cast as a player he never was. Guy’s a possession, creativiey oriented player, much more Cole Palmer than the flying winger people at United apparently wanted him to be. He would be competing with Saka for minutes, so you could think of him as “Saka depth” but Sancho wouldn’t want to be second fiddle and his wages would be an issue too. Good player but needs the right situation, not versatile/adaptable, question marks over team ethic. Not a Mikel player at all.
My view is quite simplistic – we need a top class option to compete with Saka on the right. Currently he is in the scenario of a first choice keeper – the replacement is only there for one reason and it is not to provide competition
Jesus is a good option there, when fit. He can do about 90% of the Saka stuff. We’re not likey to find better than him on the market, but his health needs an honest assessment and quick action if he is not going to be consistently available. If he cannot be counted on then I would definitely make signing a new wide player a priority. Leverkusen’s Frimpong is a hybrid RW/RWB who can create off the dribble a lot like Saka, but isn’t positionally versatile. I think we should go for a player like Eze who can move into any… Read more »
Thanks for everything Reiss, we’ll never forget your goal at Bournemouth….
Against B . The game was in London
Send him and some cash to Palace for Eze and I think everybody’s happy