Arsenal: 3 reasons to execute youth experiment next season

1. It helps build a team

Mikel Arteta is conducting an extensive rebuild of the Arsenal team. The project at the club is not a short-term one. Arteta has much work to do, and realistically, his team will not be competitive at the highest level for many years yet. He has to entirely rework the team into his image.

The best way to build a team is to have players playing together on a regular basis and over an extended period. Manchester United had a wonderful basis during the ’90s and ’00s because the core of the team played together throughout their younger years and developed at the same time. Arsenal have the chance to build something similar here.

It is not inconceivable that the starting XI in three or four years time could consist of five or six youth players: Saka, Martinelli, Guendouzi, Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe and Saliba all have excellent chances. Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and others should not be overlooked either.

So why not get them starting on a regular basis together from an early stage? Arsenal are not going to be competitive next season anyway, so why not build for the future? It might be time to accelerate the youth experiment.