Arsenal: Reiss Nelson damage already done

Reiss Nelson is set to leave Arsenal, joining Hoffenheim per Chris Wheatley of Goal.com. While the departure is disappointing, unfortunately, the damage was already done.

The success of Jadon Sancho, Leon Bailey and others is causing Arsenal problems. Their consistent playing in the Bundesliga, with German clubs seemingly substantially more willing to thrust young players into their starting XIs, flies in the face of the hoarding of average but experienced veterans in the Premier League that block the path to playing time of youth prospects.

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Reiss Nelson, per Chris Wheatley of Goal.com, is set to leave the club and sign for Hoffenheim. The deal is extremely disappointing. Nelson is 18 years of age. He was named as the Premier League II Player of the Season. He is one of the brightest talents to come out of London Colney in years, perhaps all the way back to Jack Wilshere. And now, his future will be played out elsewhere.

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It is never nice to see talent leave the club, even if it is talent that is not yet fully formed and regularly contributing. And this is a very frustrating development indeed. Nelson was impressive two preseasons ago, breaking onto the scene during the Gunners’ tour of Australia, featured in 11 Premier League and Europa League matches, as well as a handful of domestic cup games, and again impressed in this summer’s preseason under Unai Emery.

Initially, it was hoped that Nelson would be afforded more playing time this season in the first team. Certainly, the fact that a proper wide player hadn’t been signed suggested that Emery thought highly of Nelson and saw him as a possible solution to the prior exits of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Obviously, that was not the case.

It is easy to bemoan the decision of the club. Nelson is a wonderfully gifted footballer who you want to keep. But, unfortunately, they had no choice. The damage was already done.

Nelson hadn’t been named in any of the matchday squads for the first three Premier League games. Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had distanced themselves in the pecking order, and playing time, in the league, at least, was going to be severely restricted. For many 18-year-olds, that would be perfectly acceptable. Not for Nelson.

He wants to play regularly. He feels that he is good enough to be playing regularly, like his good friend Sancho is at Borussia Dortmund. And with less than a year remaining on his contract, he held all the power. If he wanted to leave, he could. Arsenal, unfortunately, had no choice. The decision had been made for them.

Hopefully, Nelson’s departure will not come back to haunt them. Serge Gnabry who is now playing for Bayern Munich is currently going about doing his best to make Arsenal rue his exit. Marcus McGuane at Barcelona is trying to do the same thing. And now Nelson will join them. The damage may have already been done, but the extent is not yet known. I’m not sure I want to know.