Arsenal: Reiss Nelson is in some damn good hands

Arsenal’s young gem Reiss Nelson has struck gold at Hoffenheim, but Julian Nagelsmann’s warning showcases how safe this loan move is.

One of my ‘side quests’ in life is to forget how poorly executed Serge Gnabry’s loan move was to West Brom. I don’t know what Arsene Wenger or whoever orchestrated this at Arsenal was thinking, but they were wrong. Nothing about that loan move worked and it spoiled Gnabry’s future at the Emirates.

This side quest may near completion if Reiss Nelson‘s loan move to Hoffenheim can succeed the way it is starting to hint at.

Four goals in under 200 minutes of play is a fantastic stat, but there is more to it than that, and Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann has been quick to highlight that these numbers don’t mean that he is a superstar right this moment. His words:

"“We must be mindful. Nelson’s scored four goals, two very important ones against Nuremberg, but he’s also had bad games.“He needs to grow healthily. It’s like in music – one song puts bread on the table but only for a few weeks."

He went on:

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"“He’s also had negative outliers with us. It’s about delivering the positive outliers consistently, showing those over and over again.“Be careful when evaluating him. Let him grow in peace and don’t get into his head. It’s not easy to keep your feet on the ground at 18.”"

This is a manager who gets it. Who understands what it means to be a young player and what it takes to make that young player grow into something more sustainable and more capable of a career in the sport.

I’ve been guilty of losing my mind over Nelson’s exploits, but much in the same vein as Mesut Ozil, there’s more to hype and delivering on it than a single positive performance buried in a sandwich of crappy ones.

Nelson is growing, he is improving, he is going to have his breakthroughs and his setbacks and the important thing, as Nagelsmann said, is to ‘let him grow in peace,’ which may well be one of the favorite things I’ve heard said this season. Let Nelson develop and grow and don’t put a cape on him and expect him to fly (that’s my quote, you can use it).

Whatever the case, the point is that Nelson is in good hands, whereas so many loans previously have been anything but.