By the time I get round to writing tomorrow’s bog, our first pre-season game of the season would have happened.
I will not pretend that I have watched it. Like many of you I will not be getting up at 3:30am to watch a friendly. Instead I will rely on videos posted on Twitter to inform me how we played.
It is of course just pre-season, so results do not really matter. And this is even more prevalent when you consider just how many key players have not travelled to our little cousins over the pond.
A quick glace shows no David Raya, Aaron Ramsdale, William Saliba, Gabriel, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz or Gabriel Martinelli. that is pretty much the core of our starting XI and I have probably missed others!
Another notable absentee is Charlie Patino.
Once labelled as the next big thing expected to come through Hale End, Patino highlights just how big the step up is from a academy football to senior. The youngster turns 21 in October and has had two middle-of-the-road loan spells in the Championship.
With a year left on his contract, he has clearly been left at home to focus on finding a permanent move away from us – which will likely see a a low transfer fee but a large sell on clause.
Some will point to Patino as “another youngster who Arteta has failed to develop”, but where we are a club that needs better than him. To be good enough to get your chance at Arsenal, you need to be showing the ability of Patino’s former England youth teammate Jude Bellingham.
Anyone that breaks through from the academy to Arsenal’s first team squad need to be players who have the talent to be pushing for senior international caps within 12 months. Patino is quite clearly a long way off this and his game and physicality has not enough since 2021.
And whilst some will blame is lack of progress on the club, we have to understand that players have different ceilings. It is more than just the clubs investment. You have the players own mentality, whether they want to put in the work, and also their talent ceiling. Being a top youth prospect does not automatically mean you will become a superstar. U18 level might have been the players peak!
Other Arsenal news is talk about Eddie Nketiah’s departure.
The details of the deal to Marseille feel like they have been leaked by us to generate interest elsewhere. Like with many of those we are looking to sell this summer, we are in no rush to be bullied into letting Nketiah go on the cheap.
We are not short of cash, have no PSR concerns, and Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Aaron Ramsdale and Reiss Nelson all have decent length contracts. If clubs do not want to pay our fee, we are more than happy to loan them out, enabling them to prove what we are demanding, with an eye on a permanent move in 2025.
Ultimately, it is better to loan a player out, and have 100% of their wages paid, then sell a player for less than their value just for some short term gratification.
Enjoy your Wednesday. The sun is finally showing through the clouds here in Essex!
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 