According to Hull Live, Hull City are closing in on a season-long loan deal for Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand and will have an option to buy the Dutchman next summer.
The highly-rated 18-year-old attacking midfielder made the first team bench on nine occasions and was a regular for the under-23s last season scoring six goals and making three assists in 21 appearances.
While he’s yet to make his competitive debut at senior level, he did play 22 minutes in Arsenal’s first pre-season match of the summer against Nurnberg.
Salah joined the Gunners as a free agent two years ago having previously been on the books at Feyenoord.
While it’s something of a surprise to learn that the Tigers, who play in the Championship, could buy Salah outright next summer, it’s clear his pathway to regular first team minutes is blocked by talent at his age level – Charlie Patino and Miguel Azeez to name but two candidates – as well big money signings like Fabio Vieira and Martin Odegaard.
We don’t know the terms of the option to buy but we’re assuming Arsenal will insert a sell-on clause – as we’ve done with some other youngsters – in case he comes good further down the line.
Arsenal set to lose Dutch Salah successor (name wise)
This would be silly, it should at least involve a buy back clause
Seems reasonable enough if a decent sell on clause is there. If we really wanted him back we could undercut the future buying club and Hull still come out ahead.
Absolutely. Why to sell a player with a high potential, why not to wait another year?
‘Why to sell a player with a high potential, why not to wait another year?’
Cos the club presumably think it’s ok. Young players move on from big clubs all the time. I don’t understand why people get so stressed these days over a player leaving who they have probably never seen play.
if hull was to sell him in the future i believe a first option to Arsenal would be the fairest thing
Yes. Lots of young players who didn’t quite make it at Arsenal are playing at good clubs in good leagues. I don’t know of a single one of them we would want back. (Just to cut off the inevitable: Gnabry wasn’t one of those–we wanted to keep him.)
My poiny is that even if he will not make it at Arsenal but has a relatively high potential, loan spells will increase their markwt value. At this age no one will knock with a decent fee.
Buyback clauses aren’t as good as people make out. They reduce the transfer fee, as the clause means there’s less upside/value for the buying club
So the selling club gets a lower fee, and an option they probably won’t use, since they’ve already decided it’s a player they don’t want
He was the first to break up the Laca Cedric scrap. Laca needs to work on his choke holds 😂
I watched him (on YouTube though) a few times, and I had high hopes of him strutting his stuff in the first team. But I can understand the option-to-buy clause; it must have been the idea of his camp. They can also see the quality and the age profile of those ahead of him, and it is enough to make him seek alternatives.
Apart from sell-on clause, I would have wanted a buy-back clause too. Great kid he is. Barring injuries and any other unforseen circumstances, he’ll be a star in the future.
How much would you have paid for Ødegaard if Madrid wanted to add a 20% sell on clause and £50m buyback? All of these things reduce the transfer value and I’d rather have the cash up front.
Is nobody going to mention the Broken Sword connection here?
(Real question: is here anyone here as geeky as me?)
Please mention it – I have no idea what the link is, and I’ve played them.
I haven’t read anything about a buy-back clause so far. The article mentions “Hull Live” which is are reporting: “Salah’s loan deal from the Gunners includes an option to make it permanent next summer, with a fee and terms already agreed…” Make of that what you will. We’ll have to wait for more information.
*”is” is correct.
Shocked to hear it has a buy option, I thought he was super highly rated!?
You have to put it in the context of what being highly rated in the academy means. There are currently about 15 Arsenal academy graduates playing in the top 5 leagues (outside of the club), so say 1.5 per academy year group over 10 years. Realistically, if we get a couple of million for him and he makes it to the prem when he’s in his early twenties, that puts him in the top 5% of his cohort. So yeah he might be highly rated, but that doesn’t mean he’ll ever be a first team regular
An option and an obligation are different things, let’s not forget.
We desperately need to begin selling well so if he comes good we should be able to get in excess of 10m based on his potential. Every little helps.
I agree about selling, but our problem is that we need to sell players often on overly high wages and/or at transfer fees other clubs aren’t prepared to pay. That means we almost always have to take less in fees to get deals done – as we did recently with Leno, for example. The main benefit to Arsenal is getting said high wages off the books although it all helps. Hopefully though we’ve be able to negotiate something appropriate for young Salah based on his “potential”, but I guess we won’t know what it is until the end of the… Read more »
Oh no!! Does this mean I’ll not be able to have the Oulad in M’Hand this whole season?!!
Could be a tough year 😬
Vote Pedro!
I have seen a few good games that he has played and he is truly a baller. People talk about Patino, and he is easy on the eye, but from those games, if you needed someone to make something out of nothing, it would be this guy. Similar to how Omari Hutchinson can score on his own, but his moves free up the whole team.
Hope you kill it in the Championship and I expect to see his name in the top tier soon
He has no pathway to the first team. It makes no sense for him to stay at Arsenal. He’s at the age where he has to be playing regular football.
The option to buy is a little flummoxing. I guess we can just refuse in the end. I thought he was supposed to be very highly regarded so here’s hoping he really kicks on and comes back closer to a first team player for us.