Arsenal: Serge Gnabry and 2 other former prospects who’d be starting

Arsenal have had their fair share of elite young talents escape their system. Along with Serge Gnabry, here are two other getaways who would be starting.

I don’t often like to play the “what if?” game, especially as far as Arsenal are concerned, because the sheer amount of ‘what ifs’ is enough to make your head spin. But given the resurgence of interest in Serge Gnabry, I figured it might be worth it to look at how he’s not alone. There have been other youth prospects that were waiting for their Premier League opportunity only to flourish elsewhere.

Serge Gnabry will always take the cake, at least for the time being. As it stands we have about five guys on the club who could surpass him, if allowed to slip away. Bukayo Saka is the biggest threat, with him in need of a new contract, but Emile Smith Rowe is also right up there with him.

It’s hard to even include Gabriel Martinelli since he’s pretty much in the clear. One year at Arsenal and he’s already making massive progress towards being an everyday regular.

But regardless of what’s happening now, let’s look back on what was happening back then and what could have been happening now. We will start the list with the already-mentioned.

3. Serge Gnabry

The only Arsenal exit that I can’t seem to get over. Even the regret tied to Olivier Giroud has passed, but Serge Gnabry likely never will. Not while he’s one of the best players in the world, playing on one of the best clubs in the world, and sticking it to Tottenham Hotspur every single time he faces them.

Gnabry did the ultimate Gooner thing and wore an old Arsenal kit to post on social media and set the world on fire with talk of what could have been—or what could be, if he ever returns.

As much as I admire Nicolas Pepe, I will say that if we had never lost Gnabry, we’d have never needed Pepe in the first place. But enough of that, let’s move forward to No. 2, a player who I really, really thought could have come back.