Arsenal’s Pursuit Of Thomas Buitink Highlights Clubs Direction

Arsenal may look to be grabbing at straws with another wonderkid in Thomas Buitink, but the purpose of these youth signings is apparent and promising.

The surest way to avoid a situation like Arsenal is currently in in the future is to prepare. What Arsene Wenger finds himself and the club in right now is a predicament. Injuries are running rampant. The club was already thin at some crucial positions and a disgusting slew of injuries have made that thinness even more spread out.

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What makes the situation even worse is that in the past few transfer windows, Arsene Wenger has found no one available or of sufficient quality to cover for Arsenal’s star-studded starting eleven. While some may doubt Wenger’s actual commitment towards bringing in new players, all we can do is take him at word value and believe that no one was available. That being the case, Arsenal is even more stuck. Call it stinginess or close-mindedness, but Arsene Wenger is not going to spend money on question marks.

As such, Wenger is doing the next best thing. He is aiming to load up on so many youth products that in the future, this situation will not present itself again. In the future, someone within the system will always be ready to assume the mantle.

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Over the last two transfer windows, Arsenal has landed Krystian Bielik, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Donyell Malen, Yassin Fortune and more. These are all incredibly highly-touted youngsters that could hold the future of the club in their hands. They came into a youth system that was already boasting the likes of Gedion Zelalem, Daniel Crowley and more.

Now, reports have tied Arsenal to Nigerian talent Kelechi Nwakali as well as the most recent subject of Arsenal scouting, Dutch prodigy Thomas Buitink.

The young starlet has scored 100 goals in various competitions already and has already made quite the impression at the Dutch U16 level. He is just 15 years old. The Metro is reporting that Arsenal is in competition with Borussia Dortmund and Juventus to land the Dutch teen when he turns 16.

Arsenal has always been a club that prides itself on a few shrewd signings and internal products. That has been less so as of late, however, and is a predominant reason why the club is in it’s current predicament. The club has not been able to churn out too many internal youth solutions, with just Hector Bellerin and Francis Coquelin finding consistent, uninterrupted success at the senior level.

That kind of inconsistency from the youth system can make a team too reliant on outside signings. For a club under the watchful eye of Arsene Wenger, that is not a good thing. Arsenal needs its system to be delivering consistent and reliable prospects, otherwise they will falter because of injuries and inconsistency. Wenger is never going to go make massive signings. He would rather wait a year or two with a single guy manning a position than sign someone as a reinforcement.

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That’s why seeing Arsenal pursue all of these young talents is fantastic news. Granted, it is something Arsenal has always done, it is still something you cannot have too much of. There are no guarantees that a 16 year old will make it. But with the incredibly talented scouting system that Arsenal has, you have to have faith. Give it a handful of years and Arsenal will be able to avoid these awful injury situations by calling up these youngsters that Wenger had the much-belated foresight to buy.