Arsenal: Spend the money where the kids aren’t

Arsenal have a rebuild ahead of them, and that means the long haul, which also means that the kids should be involved in a big way, and they can be.

This summer is going to be an enigma for Arsenal. They are going to have to make a lot of sales to fund what you would think would be a lot of purchases. But we don’t have to spend that much money, and chances are, we won’t be able to anyway. We’ll need to spend specifically.

The best way to look at this is to spend the money where the kids aren’t. And by kids, I mean the prospects who are most likely to be viable options next year.

It makes things a hell of a lot easier when you think about it that way. Because, conveniently enough, just about all our top young players are in the attack. The list is prolific – Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Xavier Amaechi, Joe Willock – and that’s just to name a handful.

Seeing as how these kids are bumping their heads on the ceiling of the youth set-up, why not just throw them up there with maybe an addition or two, and let them weed out who’s ready and who isn’t?

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That way you can focus your funds where the kids aren’t – the defense.

Other than Konstantinos Mavropanos, few young players have stepped out on this defense. Even Zech Medley has faded from the focus a bit, and I can’t count Rob Holding or Calum Chambers as kids anymore because there as much kids as Alex Iwobi is. And he isn’t.

This attack needs to be purged of the likes of Mkhitaryan and Ozil and I would even entertain losing Iwobi. It’s not a limitless opportunity position that Iwobi has been playing. Give someone else a chance since he’s been unable to grab the role.

And for the return on that investment, turn it around and spend it on the defense, on the likes of Joachim Anderson and Samuel Umtiti (I’m not giving up yet), because we can’t find the solutions on defense internally like we can in the attack. And the defense has been killing us for years, so it’s safe to say that it really needs the infusion.

Give the kids a chance. If you’re going to add an attacker, add one and fill the rest out with potential. It’s the best way to do this.