Arsenal: Pablo Mari has complete control over his own future

Pablo Mari has indicated that it’s his goal to stay at Arsenal long-term, which is good for everyone because he’s in complete control of his future.

Pablo Mari has only just dipped his toe at Arsenal, but he’s already thinking long-term. I like it. It means he loves the club. That’s step one. Now that he’s got that out of the way, he’s looking into the future and determining that this is the place he wants to be.

Before Mari even featured, there were rumors that Mikel Arteta had already decided to turn the loan into a permanent deal. While that hasn’t been confirmed, we have been able to formulate some first impressions of the Brazilian and honestly, there’s very to little complain about.

He’s left-footed, which is cool. He’s superb at distribution, which fits right in the mold of what Mikel Arteta is clearly looking for. And he’s composed too. He needs to get up to speed in the Premier League, but that will come with time.

So if Mari really does want to stay, as he himself has said, then it’s all up to him. This is a fantastic time to be a defender auditioning for a role at the club.

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This is pretty much an extended preseason for Mikel Arteta. He’s trying people out, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Even his starting defensive pairing—David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi—may well be sold this summer. You just never know.

What we do know is that Arteta is actively seeking long-term answers. He wants to find the guys he can build this club around, and if Mari wants to be that guy, he can be. He’s already putting down a lot of the pieces that we needed to see, now we just need to see more of him. We need to see him learning and improving.

Arteta didn’t consent to bring in Mari on loan without hopes of signing him long-term. That’s the goal of just about every single loan ever. It’s like a rental. You want to try it before you buy it. Simple enough. So if Mari does his part, he will get the long term deal he’s after and we’ll be getting the defender we’re after. We all win.

It’s nice when things are easy like this. All we have to do is wait and see. And with things already looking good, there’s even more to look forward to.