Arsenal: Ruthless financial decisions on young players necessary

Arsenal have a whole host of brilliantly talented young players coming through. But not all of them will make it. This summer, if the right financial reward arrives, they should make the ruthless decision to sell.

The emergence of a crop of wonderfully gifted young players might be the story of Arsenal’s season thus far. While they replaced their head coach, conducted a major squad overhaul that is still in flux and upon which the jury is very much still out, and have struggled mightily on the pitch, especially under Unai Emery, the many young talents at the club have made their names known.

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From those that have come through the Hale End academy like Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock to the young signings that the Gunners have made in recent years, led by Matteo Guendouzi and Gabriel Martinelli, the squad is now stocked full of emerging, improving players that the future can — and should — be built upon.

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However, as is well known in modern football, not all of these players will ‘make it’ at Arsenal. It is the nature of requiring world-class footballers, but perhaps only two or three will ever reach the level that is required to be a full-time starter at the Emirates. Others will develop into squad players, which is still valuable, and others still will see their progression stall and ultimately fall out of the club entirely.

Where the value of having excellent young players really comes in, however, is in the ability to sell them on. In recent years, Liverpool have sold Dominic Solanke, Jordan Ibe and goalkeeper Danny Ward for north of £40 million combined. Those three players equate to a Mohamed Salah or Saido Mane. In contrast, Liverpool did not sell Joe Gomez or Trent Alexander-Arnold when they were emerging from the youth system and instead believed in their ability to make the grade as starters at the club.

Arsenal have a lot of decisions to make regarding their young players over the coming years. But as they look to plot career trajectories for these players and determine how they will fit into the team and beyond, making ruthless, efficient decisions is crucial if they want to maximise the value of each player.

For example, let’s say that the club does not believe Joe Willock will be a first-team starter in his career but they do believe that Emile Smith Rowe will be. Rather than hang onto both on the off-chance you are wrong, at just only 20 years old, it has been proven that you could sell Willock for a handsome price, perhaps as much as £20-30 million to the right buyer. Now let’s say you repeat that process with Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Martinelli. Suddenly, you have raised north of £50 million to invest in an elite player by selling players that you believe would never be long-term starters.

These are ruthless decisions. You are determining a player who has displayed great potential as not being good enough. Sometimes, you might make the wrong call, but in reality, very few of these young stars will be good enough to start at Arsenal on a regular basis. So instead of waiting for them to figure it out, eventually letting them leave for cheap as a 25-year-old having gained nothing from their being at the club, why not sell now for an excellent price that can be reinvested into the squad?

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It takes bravery. It will likely upset a few people who believe in the potential of these players. But as modern football has proven, the transition from talented young player to regular first-teamer is extremely difficult. So making the difficult decisions now and recouping as much value as possible is simply the smart thing to do.

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