Arsenal risk making the same mistakes all over again as two of their best youngsters touted for transfers this summer

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Everybody knows that Arsenal are in the middle of a long-term rebuild just now, but those efforts could be hampered by the shorter-term expectations that are placed on Mikel Arteta.

If the Gunners start poorly next season and they aren’t playing lovely football then it’s hard to see him keeping his job, so in many ways he might have to make decisions to save himself – even if they aren’t in the long-term interests of the club.

The classic example would be ignoring their best young players in favour of packing the team with veteran players, but they’ve done that so many times and it just doesn’t work.

Big money has been wasted on Mesut Ozil and Willian’s wages while potential playing time has also been taken from those young stars, and there are a couple of worrying reports for the fans going around just now.

There’s a lot of talk from Calciomercato about a return to the Emirates for Aaron Ramsey, and it’s a move that might work out if he stays fit and plays well, but the concern comes with the suggestion that Folarin Balogun could be sent to Juve in exchange.

He’s one of their brightest prospects and he could be the future of the club if he keeps developing, while there are also suggestions that Emile Smith Rowe could still be sold to Aston Villa this summer too:

They would be a caveat here if there were suggestions that Arsenal had plans to replace both youngsters with players who were upgrades and had the potential to become top-class for years to come but that simply isn’t the case.

The rumour about Ramsey and Balogun would be the most nonsensical as the Welshman turns 31 later this year so he’ll have no sell-on value and his wages will be huge, so there’s little chance that he contributes enough to make that worthwhile.

If the £30+ million for Smith Rowe could be turned into a permanent deal for someone like Martin Odegaard then you could understand it, but there has to be fears that Arsenal are just going to go down the same road of throwing big-money at some average veteran players again.

More Stories Emile Smith Rowe Folarin Balogun

4 Comments

  1. ESR being sold would cause a bigger backlash than ESL. They wouldn’t dare , especially to villa.
    120m to Real maybe but he has a much higher productivity now and a higher ceiling than the overrated Odegaard .
    Would be utter madness and i just can not bring myself to believe it , fingers in ears lalalala type thing 🙁

  2. Non-story. As if ESR is gonna move to Villa. He just has to look a Saka’s progress. Villa is fair size club, but nowhere the size of Arsenal.

  3. The problem at Arsenal is mainly Arteta and Edu. These 2 are novices and are not certain of things they do therefore, make a lot of sacrifices. This however, comes with risks. They are sacrificing Saliba by spending big on Brighton CB thus risking £78 by getting rid of Saliba who will get better and improve no matter where he end up. Someone should step in coz Arsenal we knew is slowly dying.

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