Arsenal: The next great wonderkid another ‘why not?’

Arsenal are being linked with 15-year-old ‘wonderkid’, Marcelo Flores of Ipswich. The move is just another case of ‘why not?’ with absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I do not know every player that Arsenal are linked to. I don’t know every player that they sign. No one does, and if anyone ever says that they do, then they’re just lying. It’s not possible to have that breadth of knowledge on that many players.

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So when the club does make signings, a lot of the time, for fans, it is a case of placing their trust in the ability of the decision makers to scout and acquire the right talent. ‘In Arsene, We Trust’ was a statement of concession: fans conceded that Arsene Wenger’s knowledge and judgement was better than theirs — of course it was; anyone would be horribly arrogant to suggest otherwise.

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And that same trust must be afforded Ivan Gazidis, Sven Mislintat and their band of merry men who are conducting the transfer work at the club. Even though Wenger was trusted because of his bank of work over many years and this team have only just started on their transfer endeavours at the club, they should be given the opportunity to strike out on a few players to simply see what could come of them.

One of the players who they are reportedly ready to take the plunge on is Marcelo Flores, a 15-year-old Mexican currently, oddly enough, plying his trade for Ipswich Town in the Championship. The reports, stemming from this Daily Mirror piece, claim that Arsenal are one of a myriad of different teams from across Europe that is looking at Flores as a potential superstar.

Described as a ‘wonderkid’, which is what every remotely gifted young footballer is labelled as these days, Flores is a highly-touted talent who plays in across the attacking-midfield positions.

And that is all I really know about him. A quick Google search will tell you that he admires Lionel Messi — what 15-year-old kid doesn’t? — and Eden Hazard, shaping his game around the latter, and that he has never played a senior game in this country. But that’s all there is to know, really.

It is, therefore, difficult to find a really good argument to make this signing other than, ‘why not?’ He is a talented player, obviously, he has attracted the eye of Mislintat, Emery and Gazidis, he will be extremely cheap, both in wages and fee, and he could just develop into the next world star. Why not take the punt.

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This is what Wenger would frequently do. Some of them paid off; some of them didn’t. Now it’s time for Mislintat and co. to roll the dice. I guess we’ll just have to be willing to trust them and patiently wait for the results to play out.