Arsenal: The Serge Gnabry sadness is inevitable

Serge Gnabry has stated that he wanted to leave Arsenal because of a lack of playing. While his departure is sad, these developments are somewhat inevitable.

The recent development of Serge Gnabry is not surprising to Arsene Wenger. When Gnabry was provided with his shot at the first team after Theo Walcott suffered a season-ending injury at just 18, Wenger was bullish in his praise.

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‘We are looking at a guy who has good individual talent, he can pass people, is a good finisher, and has a very good football brain with good vision. He has great pace, he is two-footed, he can finish with his right and left. He has a lot in the locker,’ said the then Arsenal manager.

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Wenger was always very positive about Gnabry’s talent and future. But opportunities were difficult to come by, with a series of unfortunate loan deals, including a short stay at West Bromwich Albion with Tony Pulis, perhaps not the wisest destination, and thanks to injury and rotation, Gnabry felt that his opportunities laid elsewhere.

As he stated this week in an interview with ESPN, the German winger conceded that it was a logical decision that had to be made for the betterment of his career:

"“In my heart, I wanted to stay. I always believed that I had what it takes to play for Arsenal, but these things are not always down to you. It was a tough decision [to return to Germany] but it was a logical one. I needed to play to get ahead.”"

The Gnabry situation has been a major thumping stick for plenty of Arsenal fans. Seeing him play well for Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich and Germany is a little disappointing. It is hard not to reflect on that and think that he should be doing those things at the Emirates. But unfortunately, it is a natural inevitability of developing young players.

Throughout world football, there are plenty of examples of brilliant young players fulfilling their potential away from the clubs that they grew up in. Just look at Cesc Fabregas and Hector Bellerin. Or Jadon Sancho at Borussia Dortmund, not Manchester City. Or Mohamed Salah, Kevin de Bruyne or Romelu Lukaku not currently playing at Chelsea.

As Arsenal look to be a more frugal and efficient machine in the Unai Emery era, using the power of the academy, bringing young players into the senior squad, these mistakes are going to be made. Eddie Nketiah could leave this summer and become the brilliant centre-forward away from north London. Chuba Akpom may discover himself in Belgium. Reiss Nelson may not make it and then flourish elsewhere.

Sadly, these things happen. The development of young players is not easy to predict and sometimes it goes wrong. It is inevitable. Bemoaning past errors, therefore, does very little indeed.