Arsenal winger Reiss Nelson is linked with a move to Newcastle after his contract with the Gunners expired.
The 23-year-old recently turned down a contract offer from the Gunners, signaling a possible departure from the North London club.
Having risen through the ranks of the Arsenal academy, Nelson has struggled to secure regular playing time in the first team, unlike his peers Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka.
With Arsenal’s recent signings of Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard, opportunities for Nelson to start games would become even scarcer, prompting his potential move.
According to Football Transfers, Newcastle have expressed keen interest in bringing the promising winger to St. James’ Park.
The Magpies have reportedly reached out to Nelson’s representatives, and the chance to reunite with former teammate Joe Willock could be a factor in persuading him to join.
He has scored 7 goals and assisted 7 others in 66 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions. If Newcastle manage to sign him, he will be a decent addition to the team who are looking to strengthen their squad ahead of the new campaign.
If Reiss Nelson wants to play football, the last thing he should do is sign a new deal with Arsenal.
He plays the same position as Bukayo Saka, who played 3,000 league minutes. Kai Havertz also plays as a wide attacker, and Leandro Trossard also plays on both wings.
Arsenal might have Champions League football, but that’s a gauranteed six more games than last year, when Arteta could not find minutes for Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson Rob Holding (until William Saliba was injured) or Eddie Nketiah (until Gabriel Jesus was injured). Kieran Tierney couldn’t buy minutes, despite having played well whenever given the chance.
Late in the season, when the club needed those players, or needed their stars to step up, the title challenge sputtered. Fans and pundits love to point fingers at Rob Holding, though he made zero errors that led to goals (not true of Gabriel Magalhaes) but no one has asked the manger how he expects his players to perform when they know they won’t play.
The genius of Pep Guardiola is his man management. Pundits like to oint out his riuthlessness (like sending Joao Cancelo out of the team) but very few managers rotate their squads as effectively as Guardiola. Right after telling the media Kyle Walker had no place in the team, the full back played four games in a row. He has kept a squad chock-a-block with world class talent happy and productive. By contrast, Mikel Arteta cannot seem to rotate at all.
Before Saliba was hurt, Rob Holding played a total of 16 minutes across 7 games; with his longest run-out 8 minutes. The rest was just one and two minute cameos to waste time at the end of matches. Nketiah was treated marginally better, getting cameos off the bench zero starts) but played for than twenty minutes once before Gabriel Jesus was injured. Arsenal paid 35 million euros for Fabio Vieiram who started three league matches all season, did not feature at all 16 times, and totalled 500 minutes when the man he backs up, Martin Odegaard played over 3,000.
Nketiah signed a new deal at Arsenal rather than move on, only to risk splinters from sitting on the bench more than a playing injury.
Vieira was a rising star in Portugal before signing for the Gunners, now people dismiss him as a flop.
Holding has been a solid, professional center back whenever he plays, but his manager buckled to pundit criticism and replaced him with Jakob Kiwior who was, to put it mildly, underwhelming in the final four games of the season; including losses in critical fixtures against Brighton and Nottingham Forest. The five points Arsenal lost the title by, there they are. Two teams Arsenal should have defeated… but rarely get mentioned when discussing the late-season fade because that does not follow the narrative that is was Holding’s fault Arsenal did not win the title
Beofre makong his decision, Reiss Nelson should look at his colleagues and understand that is he wants a meaningful career in football, he will need to leave Arsenal.