Have Arsenal learnt a valuable loan lesson this summer?

Last season, Arsenal sent out multiple players on loan with buy options in their respective deals. This summer, it appears the club is learning from their mistakes.

On 6 July 2021, Arsenal announced that Matteo Guendouzi had joined Marseille on loan. The loan deal also included an option to buy him for around £9m if certain conditions were met during the spell of the loan.

Guendouzi was sent away after falling out with Mikel Arteta, and his attitude seemed to be counterproductive to the culture that the manager was trying to create at the club. However, I think most if not all can agree that £9m was a very low amount for a player who had just turned 22 and had talent and potential in football terms.

Almost exactly a year later, it was confirmed that Guendouzi’s move to Marseille had been made permanent. He played a total of 56 games and had a record of five goals and 14 assists in that time according to transfermarkt.com.

For comparison, the Arsenal central midfield’s highest contributor for appearances was Granit Xhaka with 30, while Thomas Partey and Xhaka both registered three goal contributions.

Of course, Ligue 1 is very different from the Premier League, but that is a big disparity in the numbers produced by Arsenal’s central midfielders in comparison to Guendouzi’s. The fee was an absolute steal for Marseille, especially as Arsenal paid roughly £7m for Guendouzi themselves.

Have Arsenal learnt a valuable loan lesson this summer?

Fast forward 12 months to this summer, and we can see a very different situation regarding the loan of a young player. Nuno Tavares went out on loan (coincidentally to Marseille) following a mixed debut campaign in north London. The loan deal did not include an option to buy.

Marseille play a different system to Arsenal as they use wing-backs, and this appears to have given Tavares the freedom to play to his full potential. In his first four games at Marseille he has already scored three goals – some of them quite spectacular.

Having Tavares performing so well gives Arsenal options as the deal is only a season-long loan. If Tavares continues to perform, it means when he returns next season he can either be sold for a healthy profit on the roughly £8m fee he was purchased for, or he can be re-integrated back into the team and improve the squad with more experience and higher quality.

The same could also be said of the Nicolas Pepe loan deal to Lille, with the winger trying to recreate some of the magic that led Arsenal to sign him for a club-record £72m. While he’s off to a poor start in France, both the Ivory Coast international and the club will hope his form improves and leads to a similar situation to Tavares’.

It seems that Arsenal are learning from previous mistakes they’ve made, and this should benefit the club in the long term. Hopefully, both players can perform well and either make a successful comeback at the club or be sold on with a higher value than before their loans.