Arsenal: Sell Nacho Monreal and unleash the tank

Nacho Monreal has been surprisingly strong for Arsenal thus far, but in the name of progress, it’s time to sell him and unleash the tank.

Arsenal weren’t supposed to be in this predicament. They bought Kieran Tierney to be the foil to either Sead Kolasinac or Nacho Monreal and that would see the leftback position into the future, another issue solved for the here and now, and for the future.

With the injury to Tierney that now looks set to keep him out until at least October, things changed drastically. Nacho Monreal took center stage with Kolasinac embroiled in that bizarre security issue situation that lasted for two weeks and kept both him and Mesut Ozil out of the team.

In that span, Nacho Monreal did some tremendous things, particularly against Burnley. He was exceeding expectations, which is a rarity for someone like Monreal, who has become a steady 6 or 7 in recent years, but rarely an 8.

So when the rumors emerged that Monreal is on the brink of being sold before the European transfer deadlines, some heads might have been scratched.

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Are we really going to trust our left back fortunes to Sead Kolasinac until Tierney gets back?

Hell yeah we are. And hell yeah we should. I love what Monreal has been doing recently and even joked that it looked like he was getting younger with how much ground he was able to cover, but this isn’t the first time Monreal has gone on a hot streak, only for him to continue life as normal just a few weeks after.

In just a few weeks, Tierney will be back, and Monreal won’t really have much use anymore, but he’ll be stuck at the club, taking up a spot. This is the best time to get rid of him, even if it seems problematic, because it’s done in the name of progress, and it beats seeing him walk for free at the end of the year.

The likelihood of selling a 33-year-old fullback in January with just half a season left on his contract and the last several months spent on the bench is roughly equivalent to zero. It won’t happen.

In the name of the future, we have to trust the leftback tole to Kolasinac, who still has tremendous value going foward, and try to recoup some value on Monreal, seeing as how money is always going to be an issue.