The 2018/19 season certainly didn’t go to plan for Konstantinos Mavropanos as the talented young defender found his playing time severely limited.
Mavropanos was injured for the first half of the campaign and then upon returning to fitness ended up playing just four games in the Premier League, while he wasn’t included in the club’s Europa League squad.
Next season Mavropanos will hope for much better fortune and it will be interesting to see what is in store for the 21-year-old as he seeks to establish himself as an important part of the first-team squad.
The Greek prospect is comfortable in possession and is capable of playing some superb passes, but he is a little rash in his decision making at times.
It remains to be seen which of Arsenal’s senior centre-backs will remain at the club this summer, but regardless of what happens Mavropanos will know that pre-season is important for his development.
If he can play regularly this summer and show his quality against high-profile opponents such as Bayern Munich and Real Madrid then Mavropanos will bolster his chances of becoming increasingly involved for Unai Emery’s side next season.
There is a school of thought that it would perhaps be beneficial for Mavropanos to be sent out on loan so that he can play regularly and then return to Arsenal ready to compete for a starting berth.
Much will depend, however, on the other resources available to Emery, and pre-season will certainly go a long way towards shaping his overall opinion on Mavropanos.
Given that his current contract runs until the summer of 2023, Mavropanos still has much time to make the grade at Arsenal, but he will definitely be aiming for better fortune on the injury front.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Loan him out to a championship or league 1 team, where he can hopefully stay injury free and rack up 40+ games, no value in loaning him out in the PL to then be sat on the bench most the season. Will be interesting to see what we do with Bielik and Chambers, i’d be inclined to renew Bielik’s contract and keep him next season, and then see if we can get £20-£30mill in for Chambers. Chambers is far too slow over the first few metres like Xhaka, and also gives away a lot of silly free kicks like Mustafi,… Read more »
I do love you Jeorge but you need to add a few more article / paragraph templates to your repertoire!
Fingers crossed Mavro gets a good pre-season under his belt and we can see what he’s really about.
I agree, it is a little short on content this article and common sense that a young player having a good pre-season is beneficial.
It’s more the ‘player X is comfortable at [1] and is capable of [2] with regularity, but he can be [3] at times…’ Each article follows a very similar pattern – don’t get me wrong, the effort and knowledge are unbelievable and I appreciate it, it’s just the structure slightly grinds my gears.
Maybe that’s just me though.
Not just you, but likewise, I enjoy the content
Holding Mayropanos Chambers and Bielik. I trust them to evolve. We can’t afford an Boateng so go with them. Willock for Ramsey. Nelsson as a winger. But Invest in homegrown youth. We are f***ed no matter what. At least we can evaluate our internal prospects l. I would enjoy project youth 2 rather than ozil xhaka mustafi blenders
Yeh. We certainly are not going to spend much this summer by the looks of it, so why not give the youngsters a chance. Building a young team adds value to our team too. Chambers certainly should be given a chance after winning player of the season at Fulham. I’d go with Chambers, Holding, Papa, Mavro, Shiney new CB. Essentially just sell Mustafi and replace him with a better player and give Chambers a chance to replace Kos. I’d love if Ozil left, I was a big fan but he has lost it over the last two years. Replace with… Read more »
If you think about it, Stan will not put a penny. So we need to generate value. Our youngsters are proven and if they play a lot they gain confidence and they evolve. I dont agree with the argument that previous youngsters left and because they played at their level they shined, like Afobe or Akpom. If you give them confidence and a plan maybe they could deliver. Same thing with Nketiah, Rowe, Nelson etc. Play them what could go wrong? Lose the Europa league place?
I think investing in fullbacks should be first priority then we can think of cb and wingers. We were so defensively frail in the fb that we were forced to play 3 at the back
Something tells me Jeorge is going to become increasingly more active on this site this coming season and beyond.
VIVA LA PROJECT YOUTH 2.0
Not been convinced by anything I’ve seen of him yet, but hopefully a run of games will show his quality
Mavropanos is best served on a strong loan to accelerate his growth (at less expense to us) The other player interesting to see if he can stake claim for future is of course Chambers. He was decent for Fulham but of course its hard to judge since they were pretty rubbish even by our standards. Does he have they desire to fight for a spot/role even if a new Cback comes in with Sokrtais and Holding? Or does he get a good offer enough and leave? I think its between him and Mustafi who has the desire to stay and… Read more »
I actually really rate him, just needs a good run of game and opportunity I hope. ?