Arsenal: Jeff Reine-Adelaide Can Prematurely Vindicate Wenger

Arsenal youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide looks set to join the first team after being removed from the academy. Wenger has a lot of eggs in his basket.

Arsene Wenger has made a habit out of avoiding major signings in the past couple years. It’s always been one big signing and then a handful of under-the-radar picks for Arsenal. Of course, a big portion of that transfer time is also spent on young prospects that will hopefully build a future for Arsenal that will not require so much need for big signings and therefore so much disappointment when big signings are not made.

In the past three transfer windows, Wenger has made a bunch of youth signings. He unloaded several million pounds bringing in guys like Donyell Malen, Yassin Fortune, Krystian Bielik, and, of course, Jeff Reine-Adelaide.

No one is yet at the position where they are breaking into the first team. Well, correction. One man is, Jeff Reine-Adelaide.

You see, someone shrewdly took note of an alteration to the Arsenal squad pages. An alteration as in, Jeff Reine-Adelaide is no longer on the academy team page. Granted, he has not yet hit the first-team pages either, but that seems to be only a matter of time. According to academy expert Jeorge Bird, Reine-Adelaide was given a first team number and seemingly promoted.

This is good news for everyone, but mainly for Arsene Wenger. While big name signings have not been Wenger’s top priority, investing in the future has been. As such, the fact that Wenger dropped over £2m for the services of Reine-Adelaide should be promising enough, but for us to see first-hand what that investment is turning into, that has the powerful ability to vindicate Wenger’s shrewdness.

Signings like Granit Xhaka – big money signings – are always going to capture headlines and win our hearts. Lesser investments for teenagers are never viewed as highly, though if they pan out, they obviously lend significant credence to the party that signed them – namely Arsene Wenger.

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We already expect to see guys like Donyell Malen in the coming years, but for Reine-Adelaide to already be in the first team conversation puts him in a unique position. Unfortunately, Wenger needs reason more than ever to vindicate his transfer window endeavors and Reine-Adelaide may be in a position to deliver that sooner than we expected.

There is also Alex Iwobi, who grew in the academy, but given that he joined at the age of six, his first-team relevance is more a credit to Arsenal’s youth development, rather then Wenger. Since the big-time signings (or lack thereof) are leading to heavy criticism of Wenger, seeing someone like Reine-Adelaide, who cost a fraction of what these big name guys cost, coming in to the first team at such a young age should restore some faith in Wenger.

Or at least that’s the idea.

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Reine-Adelaide still has to make that impact, but given that he plays a wide right position, he may have a golden opportunity to do so. Hopefully all the Arsenal faithful are paying attention because Wenger pulled out all the stops to sign this young man and if he can find relevance already, then Le Prof deserves massive credit.

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