Arsenal: Selling Nacho Monreal a rare, proactive sign

There are tentative rumours that Real Sociedad could swoop for Nacho Monreal. Should Arsenal choose to sell and upgrade and him, it would be a rare, proactive sign.

Arsenal have not yet sold anybody this summer. While they have suffered departures, some of them of their own doing, they have not actually sold anybody for a fee yet. That time will come — they did not sign Bernd Leno to sit behind Petr Cech and David Ospina, for instance. But it hasn’t just yet.

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There are many players that the Gunners could choose to sell. In reality, it all depends on Unai Emery’s evaluation of his new players. He may hold a much higher opinion of players that Arsene Wenger shunned; he may not be so enamoured with those that were regular fixtures previously. But there is one name that would show a very different motivation from the club.

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Throughout Wenger’s period, the sales that were made tended to be reactionary ones. Patience was given to those who were never good enough, and then, as a reaction, they were sold; contracts were allowed to run down forcing the club to sell, and then, as a reaction, they were sold; older players were allowed to stay in the team after their level had diminished, and then, as a reaction, they were sold. Rarely was it the case that Arsenal were proactive.

Where Chelsea, for instance, would act in selling a player to replace them before they got too old, ensuring that they garnered the highest price and continually progressed their team, Arsenal would wait, and often far too long, seeing the price of the sold player deplete and their product on the pitch decrease.

But if Nacho Monreal was sold this summer, that would not only be a surprising and progressive decision, but it would show a change in motivation from the club at a much deeper level. The culture of selling players would change with this type of decision.

And it could very much happen. There have been reports that Real Sociedad are interested in Monreal and with the Spaniard now 32, there is no guarantee that he can replicate the same form of the last couple of seasons. Moreover, the attributes that he will lose first — pace, strength, stamina, athleticism — are already ones that he overcomes with his understanding and reading of the game.

Monreal does have an excellent engine, but he is careful and intelligent in the expenditure of his energy. He has never been the quickest either, often relying on his decision-making to make up for his lack of real pace, unlike Hector Bellerin on the opposite flank, for instance.

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This is not to say that Monreal is not good enough and needs to be replaced. Rather, it would be a proactive move that is anticipating future problems and making decisions as a result of such predictions. That is what smart football clubs do. It is not what Arsenal have been doing in regards to their selling for many years. Perhaps it’s time to change.