One of the interesting aspects of transfer deadline day is seeing who goes out, and Arsenal tend to make some young players available at this time of year.
A story which has emerged today involves Eddie Nketiah and a link to Augsburg:
Hearing Eddie Nketiah will be going to Augsburg on loan
— keith costigan (@KeithCostigan) January 30, 2019
Ordinarily you might think this unlikely, and we still do a bit, but bear in mind that the Bundesliga outfit have recently appointed a certain Jens Lehmann as one of their coaches, and you have a connection which starts to make a bit more sense.
Where it feels difficult is the fact that Nketiah is the only real back-up we have to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette up front.
With plenty remaining of the Premier League season, and Europa League still to contend with, it would be a bit surprising if Unai Emery was prepared to leave himself without any sort of a safety net. Nketiah could play if we have a big first leg lead against BATE for example, allowing the manager to rest his two main men.
Unless, of course, Danny Welbeck is way ahead of schedule when it comes to his return from a broken ankle, but that seems very unlikely.
Still, you could see the benefit to the player in going out and playing regularly, but it’s whether we decide to take the risk with a squad that is light in terms of strikers.
Eddie really needs matches against adults to continue his development. Bundesliga seems like a good environment for our younger players to continue.
But as blogs points out, who will be our back-up striker if he goes on loan? Makes a lot of sense for the player but absolutely no sense for the club to allow it.
And if he does go out on loan, maybe Emery returns to fielding only one of Aubameyang and Lacazette, which could possibly lead to better team play going forward, but will almost certainly piss off whoever becomes de facto second choice. It’s a tough call and I’m glad it’s not my job to make it.
Ha! I couldn’t agree more.
And even 2 strikers is still a very lightweight set-up, one injury and it’s squeaky bum time.
I’ve been saying that for a while, 2 strikers system should not be overused, or it can be disruptive.
Usually one striker is enough if you have the right structure behind him. When we final buy wingers, it’ll come to that.
And of course fans will booo, cause that’s what they do.
Re: booing fans at the Emirates, I’m actually kind of impressed Wenger hung around another 6 years after THAT Ox-for-Arshavin substitution vs Man Utd. It didn’t sound possible that day.
Pitiful. And Emile is maybe off too… we’ve got talented young players who have shown they are worth it and we let them go to waste money on a bench warmer…
If you’re referring to Suarez? Then I guess Emery, having seen both of them train and play at some point, must think Dennis is a better option at the moment. Smith-Rowe has showed some promise and has given us all something to get excited about but it’s way too soon to pin all out hopes on inexperienced potential.
Don’t be delusional, neither are better than the Suarez. Even if he’s underwhelming as a signing.
I don’t get this strange overrating of our youngsters. We have a 19 y.o. bossing the midfield playing week-in week-out, so age is not a factor. They would be playing too if they were near as good as him.
Guendouzi should be the standard to what we identify as a talent.
Nketiah probably needs this. The only question is if we need him to hang around (endlessly on the bench, waiting for a chance that never materializes) more than he needs to go and play regularly.
Purely from the club’s point of view, we need to keep him around for the next few months. From the players point of view, he would be far better off taking the loan to aid his development. It’s a real shame because it wouldn’t even be up for debate had welbz been fit.
Would be nice if we could (for once, please) kill some games off early and (for once, please) not suffer an injury that requires a different substitution so we can give him what I like to call Vela Minutes. At least that makes him feel he’s not just a bench mannequin and not going on loan this season doesn’t look so terrible for/to him.
Spot on! Hopefully we field slightly less conservative tactics and make that a possibility.
Emery seems to be willing take a chance with the squad
Good for him. I felt he should have gone out earlier but clearly we wanted to give him a run in the lesser competitions domestically. The one we should have kept in and around the team was Nelson. great for his development but detrimental to us. Hopefully we slot him back in next season. With Iwobi out left (or right) Carrasco (fingers crossed) there is still room for Nelson. Mhkitaryan we can keep as back up (If Ozil goes) with Suarez in an advance role. The Armenian has some back up utility out wide albeit not ideal. Whether Nketiah has… Read more »
Oh hell no. We better not loan him out right now. We need him
For what exactly? To rot on the bench and stunt his development? Even Harry Kane got a loan spell.
Simply keeping talented youngsters around for cover rather than actual development is a fruitless endeavour and just damages us in the long run.
I would understand if he were playing, but he’s not. And I can’t see how he gets ahead of Auba or Lacca.
Let him get game time and when Auba is too old, he’s out natural replacement.
Good for Eddie, a little risky for us. But we’ll probably get a much better player back.
Good, he’s not looked great this season