Stick or twist? Should Arsenal sign another defender this summer?

2. Reason to stick: Hale End can plug the gap

If you can’t use the academy in times like this, when can you?

Of course, Arsenal should refrain from thrusting youngsters into the Premier League spotlight unless it is best for their development, and our lofty ambitions for 2023/24 indicate that depending on inexperienced ‘kids’ is simply not an option.

However, for talents like 18-year-old fullback Reuell Walters, who has been on the fringes for a couple of years and regularly made the bench last term, first-team exposure might prove hugely beneficial as he could acclimatize to ‘Artetaball’ as part of a settled Arsenal team- with Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka showing that such integration can work wonders.

Loans are perhaps the favored developmental route, but there must come a point when young players step up from the underage level, and Walters appears to be next in line.