Perhaps more than any other club, Arsenal have a number of high profile players out on loan this season.
In part this is due to the Covid-19 impacted market last year, and certain deals which probably would have been permanent could only be done on a temporary basis.
The reasons for the loans have been varied too, but Mikel Arteta says that at the end of the current campaign, he and his staff will look at how those players performed, and make decisions about what happens next.
“That will be the thing that we have to address at the end of the season,” said the manager.
“We loaned them out because we wanted to give them some game time and see the level that they can perform at away from here, try to develop them and then bring them back here to try to use them.
“That’s the first idea. After, we will evaluate what they’ve done, the level that they’ve shown and how much they can accomplish with the way that we want to play and the squad that we have in our hands.”
Asked if he was happy with what he’s seen so far, Arteta continued, “I am happier with some than others. You want to see your players play regularly and with some that has not been the case.”
ARSENAL’S LOAN RANGERS
Matteo Guendouzi
Club: Hertha Berlin
Period: 2020-21 season
Appearances in all competitions: 20
Minutes: 1519
Goals: 2
Assists: 2
Lucas Torreira
Club: Atletico Madrid
Period: 2020-21 season
Appearances in all competitions: 22
Minutes: 629
Goals: 1
Assists: 1
William Saliba
Club: Nice
Period: Jan-May 2021
Appearances in all competitions: 14
Minutes: 1232
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Dinos Mavropanos
Club: Stuttgart
Period: 2020-21 season
Appearances in all competitions: 16
Minutes: 1139
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Sead Kolasinac
Club: Schalke 04
Period: Jan-May 2021
Appearances in all competitions: 12
Minutes: 1021
Goals: 1
Assists: 0
Joe Willock
Club: Newcastle United
Period: Jan-May 2021
Appearances in all competitions: 7
Minutes: 591
Goals: 1
Assists: 0
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Club: West Bromwich Albion
Period: Jan-May 2021
Appearances in all competitions: 7
Minutes: 630
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Only Saliba worth keeping in my.opinion. hope we can get good money from the sales
Mavropanos is also performing really well. I think we should loan him to a premier league side this season, given the amount of CBs we have rn and assess what to do with him at the end of next season
Renew Mavropanos’s contract, and send him to the championship on loan It’s better for our loan players to excel at a slightly lower level, than to struggle and risk being benched at a higher level Look at Matt Smith who was playing regularly and reportedly doing well at Swindon, and now he’s sat on the bench at Charlton after changing in January The cream will always rise to the top anyway, the main thing is our loan players actually start competitive football games consistently A young player excelling at a lower level, will increase their value further than them struggling… Read more »
Yes, but will he want to stay with us I wonder? Aside from that, money is likely to be tight in the summer window. A lot of clubs will have a lot of players up for sale as they try and cut their “running costs” (post Covid, hopefully). We’ll have to be very canny in the market to offload the players we want/need to.
I think the metric for defenders should be clean sheets rather than goals and assists, that way we could better judge them.
Absolutely
Good point. The assists metric is useful for full-backs though.
The only data worth looking at is minutes played. As for judgements, the only way is to watch them.
Or how many bullets they have in their feet
Exactly. Was about to say this. Even tackles would be better. Anything but the ridiculous goals and assists.
I read that as evacuate to start with. Christ, I thought, that is serious.
Would keep Saliba and Guendouzi, future world beaters. The can get evacuated.
I agree about Saliba but there’s a question mark over whether he’ll want to return to The Emirates. I don’t see us pushing to get Guendouzi back – his loan club don’t want him because of “attitude” problems and I’m not sure MA and co. will take the risk of bringing him back. Whether we’ll be able to sell him for a reasonable fee with that “baggage” is a little problematic. There’s hardly been a stampede of clubs showing interest in him (so far, anyway).
Its odd that the same Guendouzi with attitude problems is being picked to play every week. His attitude problems resulted in him being made captain of the French u21 national team.
Guendouzi world beater? Oh, right, it’s April 1.
I guess Daniel Ballard is too far down the pecking order to be mentioned in the article, but fair play to him for helping Northern Ireland keep a clean sheet last night in their World Cup qualifier. Played 74 minutes.
Am I the onlu
Am I the only one who thinks Torreira could do a really important job next to Partey? Surely worth a go
Not a good enough passer unfortunately. Decent player though
He’s so, so average.
Reports today suggest that he could be on his way home, literally, to Boca Juniors.
I doubt Boca could afford the transfer fee. Their record signing ever was £10.8m, and we’re probably looking for double that.
I think he could, but I also think he never properly settled in this country and he probably never will. I think it could be a good fit otherwise though.
I wonder if Madrid would consider Saliba as part of a deal for Odergard, with money tight need to use what assets we have, and we don’t have many of value.
Or Guendouzi. His ego would be a good fit there.
Saliba is the only one that I think is a must-keep, though Willock would make sense as well and Mavropanos might if not for the fact that we have so many CBs on our books. IMO the rest should be moved on:
Nice have a pretty nice kit, except for the Ineos logo. Very stylish.
What could we raise by selling that lot, all except Saliba? Close to 50 million?
Closer to 60 million I reckon. Torreira 18m, Maitland Niles 10m, Guendouzi 10m, Mavrapanos 7.5m, Kolasinac 7.5m, Willock 5m.
But I think we may keep AMN to make up the home-grown quota numbers.
Torreira 10
Guendo 5
Mav 5
Kola 3
AMN 15
Willock 10
I was thinking about 48 million. It’s a slow market but I’d rather take a loss on some players who are square pegs, and take a profit on some not-quite-good-enough Englishmen.
We have so many needs (left back cover, CM, No. 10 ish cover if Ode leaves, backup keeper, striker) that we must realistically accept the market’s valuation of our outgoing players and get on with it.
Add:
Laca 25
Eddie 15
Nelson 5
That’s a decent list of players to be moved on but about right. The only issue is ensuring we have enough home grown players in the squad
Do u really want to sell laca ? Who do u buy that’s better n mind u arsenal price considering we are gonna make 10 priority…we should be glad we ve him n not looking to offload him,yeah martinelli but is injury prone on top u sell Eddie leaving only auba n martinelli as d top strikers…in Jan auba is off to afcon n who us left to strike ? mind u I don’t see martinelli playing quick games in succession cos of injuries….think about that…
I don’t think we’d get that much for Laca or Eddie in current climate unfortunately. Also dad that we could have got over £20mil for AMN last summer, his stock has fallen.
*sad
Promote more young players, let AMN and Willock leave along with Nelson.
Matteo and Lucas to sell
Saliba to integrate into the first team next season
Mavropanos, depending on his contract, loan to premier league if possible, or sell with a sell-on clause
Willock to play squad player. He could be an useful rotation player, especially with home grown status.
AMN to be sold for a decent fee, considering he’s an England international.
Kola, sell for whatever we can manage to.
Just noticed that Kolasinac is now playing at the center of the midfield. Interesting choice.
Frozen?
Arteta needs to attempt a Gabriel Saliba CB pairing next season. Saliba has proven that he is good each provided he’s given a chance.