Arsenal May Not Make Significant Transfer For Years

Arsenal avoid transfers at all possible cost, and given the current crop of youngsters, we may not see any big name transfers for quite some time in North London.

As we have seen over the past season, Arsene Wenger will not spend just to spend. He actually will not spend period, if it is at all possible to avoid. That trend may be set to continue into the next few transfer windows because every ‘need’ Arsenal has can be filled with a rising talent within the youth system.

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This is good and bad. It is bad because the supporters will go crazy if it does not work out. It is bad if Wenger puts all this faith in younger talents and they flail and disappear, yet he keeps faith in them.

However, it is good because it continues that mantra of building from within that makes Arsenal so special.

So let’s consider how each and every position of need can be filled at Arsenal without spending big (or at all) on someone outside the club.

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We will start at the back. Petr Cech is 33 years old and has mentioned that he could play until he is 40. That pretty much covers this category already, but among Arsenal’s youth talent there is 23-year old Emiliano Martinez and 21-year old Matt Macey. Martinez has put up an impressive save record in the Championship for Wolverhampton and looks to be coming along nicely.

Similarly, Macey is a highly-touted prospect that Arsenal had to scratch and claw to secure. Plus, he has the size to be a force in the box.

There is also Ryan Huddart and Deyan Iliev as well as last season’s dueling duo of David Ospina and Wojceich Szczesny. Like I said, pretty set.

At defense, Arsenal is already in pretty good shape. At right back, Hector Bellerin is set for another decade plus and behind him, Debuchy and Jenkinson will be returning. Then there is Tafari Moore, Chiori Johnson and Julio Pleguezuelo. Left back is less-stoutly manned, but between Monreal and Gibbs, Arsenal is set for another handful of years alone. After then there is Marc Bola

At center back, Gabriel Paulista and Calum Chambers are already being groomed to take over the mantle of the current duo and behind them there is the rising youth talent of Stefan O’Connor and Krystian Bielik, if he remains at center back. Again, there is very little room with which Wenger could justify squeezing a signing.

In terms of midfield, Arsenal may be set for life. There is a ton of talk about the exodus of Mikel Arteta, Tomas Rosicky and Mathieu Flamini this summer, but Arsenal is already working fine without them. Aaron Ramsey, Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny are all going to be at Arsenal for another decade and filling the voids behind them is a compendium of exciting youth talents.

Jon Toral, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Krystian Bielik, Isaac Hayden, Dan Crowley, Gedion Zelalem and more are all knocking on the first team door and after this summer, many of them may be joining Arsenal’s senior squad, much like Ramsey and Wilshere did when they were around the same age.

And then there is the attack. Two areas I have always pegged as danger areas are striker and left wing, but given Wenger’s logic, those are set for years. Behind Alexis, Wellington Silva is finally starting to prove his merits. And at 23 years of age, he could use an opportunity.

Then there is Chris Willock, who is another high-potential winger.

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Right wing is a cluttered mess. Between the Ox, Campbell, Serge Gnabry and Theo Walcott, Arsenal have options. You can even include Danny Welbeck here.

Finally, striker. Olivier Giroud has another few years to give and in two or three years, when he is likely to start his decline, Wenger will have a Walcott and a Welbeck desperate to either prove that they are the man for the job, or prove that they need another shot. By then, Akpom will have either fallen out or made it so he provides another option.

Then there is Donyell Malen, who will be 19 in this scenario. He has played well above his age for awhile now, so it would be no great surprise to see him stick in the first team when handed that opportunity. And don’t count out Yassin Fortune just yet either.

Wenger has put striker rumors to rest, saying that he rates his current stable of strikers too highly. He is of the opinion that no one out there is better.

Overall, if you are looking forward to big name transfers over the next few seasons, there does not look to be much room. It is understood that not every youth talent makes it. In fact, a very small percentage of them do. But with how many Arsenal have and with how high their ceilings are, there is enough talent in this youth system for Arsenal to become self-sufficient.

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Plus, with the additions of Kelechi Nwakali and Samuel Chukwueze, more talent is going to be flowing in for years to come.