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Arsenal Need to Sign – and Keep – a Wonderkid Sooner or Later
There is a pattern to be noticed amongst Arsenal’s biggest transfer activity over the past ten years. After the Emirates stadium was built, Arsenal needed to gain that money back – so they allowed Arsene Wenger to buy young, and sell for a profit. Since Thierry Henry left for Barcelona, there was a sequence of the best players in the squad departing for huge fees, to clubs where they were competing at higher standards, for bigger wages.
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Cesc Fabregas (pictured) is a perfect example. Arsenal captain before he was twenty-five years old, and then sold to FC Barcelona in the blink of an eye. However, can you blame Fabregas for wanting to win a Champions League title that – at the time – he clearly was not going to get at The Emirates?
Robin Van Persie also left Arsenal in the summer of 2013 after a brilliant season with the Gunners, solely because he wanted to win trophies. He was pegged as a villain at the time of his departure, especially due to the nature of the club he joined – but he won the Premier League a year later. Granted, he has now left for Fenerbahce after a loss of form and fitness, but at the time, it was a logical decision for him.
There is no way to bring these young talents back to The Emirates. There is also no way to turn some of the signings that have not worked out so well, a la Abou Diaby and Nicklas Bendtner, into Arsenal stars that came to the club as young players.
The progression Arsenal want is simply not going to come about by buying the second-best’s from Real Madrid and Barcelona. While adding someone like Karim Benzema would have made them a force to be reckoned with in the Premier League and in the Champions League, it would not lead to long term success. The success of the team would be short lived because the weaknesses are still there.
The way to kill two birds with one stone is to add a young player with massive potential to the side, even if it means eight figure fees to bring them in.
Thierry Henry is a player who was brought in from a young age to fill a void Arsenal had, and then allowed to flourish in that position. Arsenal have a striker at the moment, so the same type of buy is not necessary.
Arsenal need somebody who opposing teams will fear when they reach their potential.
The signing of Memphis Depay is a learning point for the Arsenal back room. At the moment, he attempts the most shots of anyone in the Manchester United team – and he does not score enough goals to make that statistic reasonable. But if given that first team role on the left flank for a number of years, there is no doubt in my mind that he will become a future world-beater. He will become a player the Arsenal defense will fear when they come up against the Red Devils.
Two years ago, someone like Romelu Lukaku would have been a perfect poach for the Gunners after he was put up for sale by Chelsea. This summer, arguably Alexandre Lacazette would have been a brilliant buy if one of the other strikers already in London had left.
But neither of those moves happened, and so now Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck lead the line. This means that Arsenal fans should not focus on the big money buys up front, and urge Wenger to place his funds into a long-term investment at defensive midfield, or at center back.
At center back, someone like Matthias Ginter (above) would be the perfect fit at the moment. With Per Mertesacker beyond age 30 already, there is room for another center back to partner Laurent Koscielny and become Arsenal’s main man at the back. Gabriel Paulista could work with Ginter in a rotation system, and eventually Ginter’s class would prove that he deserves to hold down a first-team place.
In central midfield somebody like Youri Tielemans or Geoffrey Kondogbia would be a great buy for the Gunners, especially if one of them has another great season for their respective side. Kondogbia has just moved to Italy which will give him a chance to prove himself a key cog in a Internazionale side that want to get back into Europe.
Kondogbia has already shown how good of a box-to-box presence he is. One need only rewatch Arsenal’s Champions League exit to Monaco to find that out.
Tielemans is a different story – the Belgian central midfielder is only 18 years old and is already tipped to become one of the top central midfielders in Europe. If Jack Wilshere’s injury problems persist and Francis Coquelin remains the best midfielder capable of staying in his position at the club, Wenger giving Tielemans an extended run in the first team could transition his game from being a play-maker who can make tackles, to a true box-to-box presence.
He is only 177 centimeters tall at the moment, but with physical improvements to his strength, and the fact that he is still a teenager, he could become what many people consider as the missing piece in the Arsenal team – a piece that has been missing since the days of Patrick Viera.
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If Tielemans stays as an offensive central midfielder, Arsenal can look at a player like Leon Goretzka, a central midfielder capable of making good defensive contributions as well as holding onto the ball and playing further up the pitch.
At 189 centimeters, Goretzka is already a more physical presence than Tielemans, though he is two years older. In 2013-14, he made 25 appearances in the Schalke first team, averaging a 7.22 rating on whoscored.com.
The season after he was dealing with injuries, which brings us to the present date. If he can get back to full fitness and make bigger contributions in the Bundesliga for the Gelsenkirchen side, Arsenal should take him on as a young piece in their first team squad.
Wherever on the pitch Arsene Wenger wants to strengthen, his next money buy should be for the potential. He has the pieces already to allow young players to grow alongside an already talented first team. Players like Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are already in the Premier League star echelon of players. They will allow one of these young stars – or another name not mentioned – to grow into a world-beating presence if they are given a first-team chance.
(All statistics are per Whoscored.com)
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