But a bit like the summer, the feeling is that if a bid comes in for one of our fringe players, and they decide to seek first team football elsewhere, then the door is open. And that includes Hale End trio Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson.Mikel Arteta has shown during his time at Arsenal that if a fringe player wants to depart for first team football elsewhere, then he will not stand in their way.
It was a lesson learned with Ainsley Maitland-Niles when Arteta blocked him departing. We ended up with a moody player who did not want to be here, and whose training dropped off so much he became unpickable. We ended up losing around £25m in transfer fee due to the situation.
Last summer, Matt Turner had the opportunity to become a Premier League first choice keeper with Nottingham Forest. He took the chance and Arsenal replaced him with David Raya.
Whilst we are in the title race, and it would be crazy to let anyone go, it is also wrong to keep hold of players who play so little, and sacrifice the transfer fee.
Nketiah, Smith Rowe and Nelson could generate in excess of £100m in transfer fees combined. and you would probably only need to buy one player to replace them. A striker.
Eddie is the only man of the 3 that has played any significant minutes in the Premier League this season – 839 at the time of writing.
There has been plenty of talk already about us targeting a new striker in January (Ivan Toney, Dominic Solanke), so if Eddie left, you have to assume we would have a replacement lined up.
I do not think people have realised how little Smith Rowe and Nelson have played in the last 18 minths. The pair have played a combined 170 minutes this year. Last year it was 368 minutes across the entire season.
Whilst both are favourites amongst the fans, I think it is fairly clear that they could leave and it would not weaken our squad. There place – as very fringe wingers – would be taken by Gabriel Jesus if a new striker joined.
A better number 2 (or new number 1), would give the option of playing Jesus on either the left or right if 2 of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard were out injured.
Say it was Toney we signed to replace Eddie, we could have a front 3 of: Jesus Toney Trossard. More than enough to beat most teams. And all 3 of those are better than Smith Rowe and Nelson.
There had been a feeling for time that Smith Rowe could play more centrally, but even there he has a battle for games.
Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard are now clearly our “number 8s”. They are backed up by Fabio Vieira (who is also an option on the wings). Vieira is expected to return to the first team squad in January.
A new striker would also give us the option to play Jesus deeper, similar to the role Julian Alvarez undertakes for Manchester City. There is also the option of playing Declan Rice further forward (with either Thomas Partey or Jorginho taking up the deepest midfield role). If Partey leaves, I would expect us to recruit someone who can cover both midfield positions.
We currently have a first team squad of 25 (including Cedric Soares and Mohamed Elneny!). 3 departing and one top, top player coming in would see our squad size reduce to 23. But it would feel like a reduction in quantity and an increase in quality.
Whilst Smith Rowe and Nelson are part of the first team squad, neither are really playing enough for their departure to be missed. The pair plus Nketiah departing could finance a move for a top striker could be what pushes us over the line this season.
The door is open for them to leave depart in January…
