Arsenal: Hector Bellerin changed the culture of the club

Top clubs don’t sell their best players, but it’s something Arsenal used to have a lot of trouble with. That is, before Hector Bellerin set a new standard.

During the debt years at Arsenal, all of our best players left. Literally all of them. Captains and would-be legends, and all the players that composed the core of the club. They left. Robin van Persi, Samir Nasri and the ever-heartbreaking Cesc Fabregas, all gone.

So when Hector Bellerin was linked to follow in the footsteps of Fabregas, ditching the club that gave him his opportunity as a youngster in favor of the allure of the club that never would, because they were too big for their own britches. Or something like that.

When he was much younger, Bellerin denied the move entirely, as any excited youngster would, but as he matured, he began to entertain thoughts of then move and consider his future. In the moment of truth, the rumors passed and Bellerin remained.

I would consider that the first big time player that chose to stay since the great exodus, and because of Bellerin’s decision, there’s a new mentality at the Emirates that it’s okay to stay. That you don’t have to leave.

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This is invaluable with young starlets like Matteo Guendouzi and Gabriel Martinelli attracting top tier attention. Guendouzi was almost instantaneously linked tp PSG and Martinelli has been tied to Barcelona and Real Madrid as well.

If that “abandon ship” culture was still rampant at the Emirates, we would all pretty much accept that it was just a matter of time before they left for a higher profile club. After all, that’s what everyone did.

And to expand on that, why wouldn’t Guendouzi and Martinelli be thinking the same? Everyone leaves when they reach a certain level of stardom, right? That’s just what happens.

But Bellerin changed that. Bellerin still is of that certain level of ability that he could go pretty much wherever he wants, but he remains at Arsenal, and he will continue to. Thus he has defied the former culture, the culture that Fabregas and van Persie embraced, and helped us establish a new culture that Martinelli and Guendouzi can help perpetuate with their own prolonged stays.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t worry about players leaving anymore. I haven’t for awhile. And it was only recently that I realized that this was because Hector Bellerin broke the mold.