Arsenal: No harm in holding out for Reiss Nelson at this point

Unai Emery has opened up about Reiss Nelson and his future at Arsenal, and it sounds like he’s reserving a spot for him. Which is perfect.

Arsenal‘s attack has a fantastic variety of attacking options. But they all have one thing in common – they all want to play centrally. Similarly, they have all been forced to play wide at one point or another in order to make up for that pesky necessity in this game we call football to have wide players.

As it stands, the Gunners have zero wingers. There’s a reason why Bailey, Coman and more were all linked to the Emirates this summer and there’s a reason why they will continue to be linked. It’s a clear and present need.

That’s why I was a bit surprised when Reiss Nelson was loaned out to Hoffenheim. I love the loan, and think it’ll do him some serious good, but he was also the only guy we had that could utilize speed and wide attacking capabilities to serve as a serious winger.

Unai Emery spoke out about the young Englishman’s future at the Emirates and was quite clear. He sees a spot in the first team for him next season when the loan is complete.

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Which is essentially what I saw as a distinct possibility this past summer – saving Nelson and nabbing one more winger to give us two wide options.

You can’t really get any worse than zero. To rephrase, anything more than zero is more than you had. So no matter what shape Nelson is in, even if he isn’t completely ready yet come next year, it’s worth waiting for him.

After all, we’ve waited this long, what’s another few months going to change?

The good news is that Nelson is hitting the ground running he scored in his debut and will look to earn his way into the Hoffenheim XI, which, given the capabilities that he has and the Bundesliga tendency to suss out the best in young attackers, seems like a very realistic possibility.

It’s amazing that we’ve gone this long without a winger, but now that the “new era” is here, the grace period is certainly still on, and that gives Emery time to feel things out before he can really face that much criticism.

Which means he has time to feel around and see who on the current roster he even sees a future in. Hopefully not everyone.