Arsenal: Nacho Monreal valuable but not irreplaceable

On social media, there is a debate on whether Arsenal should try and sell Nacho Monreal. The left-back is a valuable asset, but he is not irreplaceable.

There is a debate currently ongoing among the Arsenal fan base: Which players of the prior regime should Unai Emery keep and which should be sold. As this season has illustrated, many of the players that Arsene Wenger relied upon regularly simply are not good enough to build a title challenge with. And so, change is necessary.

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But that does not mean all of them are useless and need to be sold imminently. It would be surprising if Hector Bellerin was sold this summer, for instance. And so the debate continues about almost every player in the squad.

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There is one that I would like to comment on particularly. Nacho Monreal. The left-back now has 18 months remaining on his contract after Arsenal reportedly activated a year extension. Thanks to injuries, he has lost his starting job this season. He is now 32, and will be 33 by the time the summer rolls around. Would the Gunners not be better served trying to move on from a player like that, or does he offer unique value that is worth keeping at the club?

The primary argument for keeping Monreal his consistency and experience. There are few players that are dependable as the Spaniard, who regularly puts in a six or seven out of ten performance, rather than the fluctuating brilliance that tends to be the characteristic of many of the players in the squad. Dependability may be boring, but it is still a trait that should be valued.

His experience is also a key asset. Emery is attempting to bleed a string of young players into the first team. Balancing them with intelligent, aware individuals like Monreal is critical. Becoming an overly young and inexperienced squad would be a very risky move. People like Monreal are needed for their influence in the dressing room.

But neither of those skills make him irreplaceable. They do make him valuable and useful, that much is certain, especially when paired with his increasing positional flexibility. But there are other players that Arsenal can rely on to meet responsibilities. And that would free up space in the squad and some extra resources to improve the left-back position, a deceptive weakness of this current team.

Sead Kolasinac is a brilliant offensive weapon but is exceptionally vulnerable when defending and Monreal has lost that necessary level of athleticism to be a starting full-back or wing-back. What Monreal brings to the squad can be found elsewhere. And what he brings to the actual team on the pitch is now little more than depth, and that is when he isn’t spending his time rehabbing from an injury, which he is doing with increasing frequency in recent seasons.

Monreal, I believe, is largely underrated among the Arsenal fan base. Because he is a little boring, he is easy to overlook. He does provide more value than many would care to admit. But that does not make him totally invaluable. Should Monreal be sold? I don’t really know. But there is a reasonable argument to be made either way.