Arsenal: Under the radar Donyell Malen sale the most questionable

Arsenal can sell bratty wantaways all they want, but when you start selling guys who have never been given a chance, that is something else entirely.

I won’t miss Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Of course I am speaking out of spite, but I truly believe if he was that desperate to leave Arsenal after how much they’d given him, then good riddance. There will be others like him. Others better than him.

I don’t usually get gut-punched by transfers. But when you start selling off young players who have only ever wanted to succeed at Arsenal and who have proven themselves as much as they possibly could, well, that’s pretty close to a gut-punch.

This transfer window, it happened to both Jon Toral and Donyell Malen. Toral I have covered over and over, but as a recap, the lad has impressed on every loan. And after every successful loan, he reaffirms that all he wants is to succeed at Arsenal.

And before he can even make a first team appearance for a team thin at the midfield, he’s sold off to Hull City.

Donyell Malen falls in the same boat, although with a higher ceiling and much less of an opportunity. He’s only been with the Gunners two years. In that time, he shot up the youth ranks to the U23 level at the age of 18 and was a consistent member for them.

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Now, granted, he struggled a bit at first with the U23s, but he’s 18. And he turned on the jets later in the season, scoring three and assisting one in his final five matches.

Sure, Eddie Nketiah is looking like a goal-scoring fiend. But there’s room for two. There’s room for twelve when you’re talking about the talent that these kids have.

One source close to Malen noted that the young striker loves Arsenal.

Which just raises the question as to why they would so easily part with him. They are a club that prides themselves on bringing guys up through their system, yet they are cashing in on young players, like Malen, who have hardly been given a chance.

He was missing out on U23 opportunities with the arrival of Nketiah, but let me repeat this – he was just 18 years old. He was included in our preseason squad, which shows there was no pre-established motive to sell him. Yet here we are, starting the season down the No. 1 prospect from the Netherlands.

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It doesn’t make much sense. Sell all the senior members that don’t love the team. All of them. But young, talented players that still have pride in the badge? There’s no reason for that. Hopefully there is a buyback clause with this lad, because he’s going to be something.

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