Ornstein dropped a tweet a week back, confirming Nelson wants to assess his options this summer. We have had approaches for him in January but the club rejected them. If a player wants to move, you let them go, only condition being you are paid well enough for it. Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and West Ham are among the clubs interested in him and we would probably be asking about 20m GBP for him.
I think it’s a win-win for the club and player. Here’s why…
In one of the game I watched at Emirates, which was a team filled with young 19-20 year olds (Saka, Nelson, Martinelli, Tierney, ESR) and Ozil, Nelson was too good for a 20 year old. I remember Tierney taking a throw in, Nelson commanding that midfield and I was mesmerized with his pace. Frankly, when Saka was being played at LB – a non glamourous position while Martinelli and Nelson was in the other half of the field, everyone was more excited about him that our star boy.
Things didn’t turn out great since then. In 2019-20 season, he played 17 games, starting 7 of them. Next two season were just about injuries and and a loan to Feyenoord. Nothing much to talk about it.
Under Mikel, In 2022-23 season, Nelson had 11 sub appearances for the club, scored 3 goals and assisted 2. Last season was worse, having played 15 games with no goals to his name.
Mikel has a system where the goals are distributed among the 5 players playing at the top. It’s usually Martinelli/Trossard, Jesus/Havertz, Saka, Odegaard, and the LCM. Playing Nelson fucks up this concept. When you don’t have a CF to contribute that 25 goals a season, you can’t afford to not get an output from one of your wingers. Martinelli is a much better contributor than Nelson but we have seen what happens when you don’t deliver (he is losing out his place to a 30-year old Trossard).
So, if we get 20 odd millions for him, there is no shame in accepting that money and move on. We can utilize that to strengthen other area of the pitch, preferably a CF if you ask me. We know by now, Jesus is a winger, Trossard as well. If we consider Martinelli and Saka on either side as a starter, we have 2 very good back ups to them. We also had bought Marquinhos a season back, and we have been pushing Ethan Nwaneri who played some odd minutes against our 6-0 win to West Ham and has renewed his contract with us. So, couple of players who can step up if the need be. Couple of very good back ups, who can play better than the starting ones. There’s no need of Nelson.
What it means for Nelson?
He would be sad for not making it at his boyhood club. Fans will be sad to see one of our own go. But that’s football. If he goes to West Ham, he can get 20-25 starts a season. He can get the game time he wants and at his age, it should be all about playing most minutes.
He gets what he wants – game time. We get 20 odd million to fund other areas. There’s not loss to the club and his departure is not going to affect Mikel’s set up.
Tony & Hoopah—I would strongly suggest that MA simply said whatever he felt would keep him from publicly declaring his desire to seek employment elsewhere, whether for spiteful or self-serving reasons, yet he has no real intention of providing him with significant minutes…personally I don’t see ESR as a fit here, as MA’s tactics lack the kind of urgency that his more direct approach brings to the equation…I wish it were different, but if you look at MA’s recruitment very few have been wired in a similar fashion to ESR, in that each instinctively looks sideways first with the ball at their feet…even those who had once been considerably more direct, like Zinchenko, are quickly converted/neutered…of course, it would make infinitely more sense if MA changed things up from time-to-time, even if he did so simply to keep opposing defences honest, but that clearly hasn’t materialized so far…maybe it’s major component of phase 6 or 7?!?
RVL😂
“MA’s recruitment very few have been wired in a similar fashion to ESR, in that each instinctively looks sideways first with the ball at their feet…even those who had once been considerably more direct, like Zinchenko, are quickly converted/neutered… ”
El B the Castrator……..another appropriate moniker
“Arsenal are ready to enter the race to sign Lille star Jonathan David”
as a fellow Canadian, I’ve watched a shitload of his matches, which is why I can unequivocally say he’s not the answer to our Striker woes…don’t get me wrong, I like some of the things he has on offer, but anyone opting for this player is doing so for budgetary reasons and not because he’s the best option out there
following a sluggish and ineffectual June, let’s hope July is decidely different
Are people still banging on about Sesko here?
Give it a rest. I said two months ago he wasn’t coming. You’ve seen why in this tournament.
What did I tell you about making up scenarios to get yourself angry?
Sesko certainly didn’t help his cause with his Havertz-like finishing today…we always knew he wasn’t coming here though, as he appears to have higher aspirations in mind…I guess only time will tell…regardless, no young Striker with even a modicum of self-worth would ever knowingly choose to sit behind our German faux talisman #flattertodeceive
Aitcho
I think you may be a few weeks too late with that post. Who is your choice? or should we not dip into the market for a striker?
So we’re just over 6 weeks away from the start of the season haven’t shifted any players and don’t even seem to have a defined shortlist of who our main targets are.
There’s 5 weeks between the end of the Euro’s and the start of the PL when players will need to get a couple of weeks holiday in and we need to get our shit together.
Why is my cup not running over with confidence?
Marc-I knew it wouldn’t be long before you lost patience with what appears to be a glaring lack of definitive plans…we can’t even shift those who seem to have suitors waiting in the wings…so far we were made to look foolish by a 21 year old Slovenian and beyond that we seem to be strangely focused on more Keepers and defenders…even our self-absorbed manager can’t honestly believe we can run things back and achieve greater heights without a seminal piece or two coming in
Marc/TRVL
Same shit different TW for me.
Last TW was all about Rice and losing leverage because Rice wouldn’t put in a transfer request, so we paid about £30m too much. That’s not to say he hasn’t lived up to his wages and fee, but ………
Now, El B is clearing youth decks, so he doesn’t have to play them while clearly thinking they are not good enough while other clubs feel much differently.
On evidence of the total shite buys by El B in the main (no need to list) I’d say our youth are better off somewhere else.
Guys? How many of them would you have kept?
“The 22 players who left Arsenal on June 30: Mohamed Elneny, Cedric Soares, Reuell Walters, Amario Cozier-Duberry, Kido Taylor-Hart, Arthur Okonkwo, Mauro Bandeira, Omari Benjamin, Luis Brown, Catalin Cirjan, Noah Cooper, Henry Davies, Ovie Ejeheri, Taylor Foran, Hubert Graczyk, James Hillson, Henry Jeffcott, Tyreece John-Jules, Alex Kirk, James Lannin-Sweet, Kamarni Ryan and Billy Vigar”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-released-list-elneny-cedric-33149002
Tony-I haven’t watched them enough to properly assess each and every player on the above list, but I will say this, when I conducted a bit of a deep dive into our best prospects the following names quickly emerged:
(1) Ethan Nwaneri
(2)Charlie Patino
(3)Chido Obi-Martin
(4)Reuell Walters
(5)Amario Cozier-Duberry
(6)Myles Lewis-Skelly
as of right now, Ethan looks like he might be thrown a bone or two this season, Patino and Obi-Martin appear destined to sign elsewhere, Reuell and Duberry were released and Lewis-Skelly is a talented young DM who has impressed during his time here, so the jury’s still out on him…hardly an uplifting tale, which makes perfect sense considering MA’s chequebook ways and his refusal to incorporate any academy prospect into his lineups
prospects
New post! There is some movement in the transfer window finally.