Over the last decade or two loans\nhave grown from something we did occasionally to become a central part of our\nplayer development and rotation cycle. Whether we like this or not, it is\nsomething we need to do well in order, ultimately, to give us a better chance\nof winning trophies. For several years our approach seemed fairly haphazard,\nespecially in terms of player development, hence the title of this piece. We\u2019d\nloan a player out, moan he wasn\u2019t getting enough game time and then groan about\nall and sundry on his return \u2013 no clear plan, no improvement, and no contact or\noversight from the club gives you the gist of it I believe. Just over a year\nago, the club appointed Ben Knapper as The Loan Arranger (sorry) or more\nprosaically Loan Manager. Presumably, a belated recognition of a sub-optimal process\nrequiring more effective planning and monitoring. How\u2019s that going for us a\nyear down the road? Fair to middling I\u2019d say but no doubt you will have your\nown opinions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First let\u2019s look at the\ncurrent situation. We have 10 players out on loan, five from the first team\nsquad and five youngsters from the Academy. I have divided by squad and added a\nnote as to the overall objective of the loan as there are differing\ncircumstances and we need to do both well. Is the loan a development move for a\nplayer we see as potentially challenging for a first XI place in the near\nfuture? Or is it part of the rotation cycle where we are looking to move the\nplayer on at the end of the loan? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First Team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Henrikh Mkhitarian – Roma\n(Rotation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest Mkhi was not so\nfine in his brief time with us, though he did contribute some useful goals and\nassists. He has played intermittently for Roma, scored 3 and got 1 assist in 11\ngames so far but also had several injuries. He seems well enough liked by Roma,\nwho reportedly offered 10m euros for a permanent move in January. Personally,\nI\u2019d probably have taken that as I see no way back for Mkhi and he\u2019ll only have\na year left on his contract at the end of the season. However, if the rest of\nthe season goes well for him then we should be able to meet the purpose of the\nloan at the end of this season and wish Mkhi all the best in his future\nendeavours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mohammed Elneny \u2013 Besiktas\n(Rotation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was never able to establish a\nregular place in the side, though twice player of the month. He was once sent\noff at Southampton for a shove on one Cedric Soares. Now playing regularly and\napparently doing a fair job at Besiktas though they have struggled of late and\nrecently fired their manager. There are reports the new Besiktas manager wants\nto develop internally and isn\u2019t planning to play loan players, as well as a\nless credible report linking him to AC Milan. Regardless of Besiktas using the\nbuy-out clause I believe that with a season of regular football under his belt\nwe will be able to move Elneny on at the end of the season as he is relatively\nlow priced, not on a high salary, and certainly not a bad player. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Emile Smith Rowe –\nHuddersfield (Development) <\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent loan that seems to\nhave got off to a good start with a goal and an assist for ESR at Huddersfield.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has played 3 times so far\nin the Championship, being subbed off after 81, 85 and 89 minutes in those\ngames. Anyone would think our players lack fitness (note to self \u2013 stay on\npoint there laddie). ESR is to me an excellent prospect and our future No 10\nbut as to this loan it is still too early to tell. Seems a good choice and he\nhas been put straight into the team, which is encouraging after Eddie. Go, Go,\nES Rowe !!<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Saliba \u2013 St Etienne\n(Development)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another great prospect who\nhas the fans salibating about his arrival next season. A mixture of a few good\nperformances this season and many games missed due to injury make it very\ndifficult to reach any kind of conclusion. Whether he can take the step up to\nthe PL and make himself our first choice CB on the right hand side will be\ninteresting to see over the next couple of seasons. The loan back to St Etienne\nwas I think a reasonable decision and means we that we have not had the option\nof \u201cMavroing\u201d him \u2013 i.e. throw him in at the deep end in an injury crisis and\nsee what happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Konstantinos Mavropanos \u2013 Nurnberg\n(Rotation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mavro arrived in January\n2018, apparently unknown to AW, and then impressed sufficiently in training to\nbe kept with the squad rather than sent out on loan as originally planned. The\ninjury crisis duly arrived and he was thrown in for a few games where he showed\npromise. Injuries followed and then a couple of difficult outings last season,\nunder a manager who didn\u2019t seem to rate him highly, and another injury. We have\nhad him for 2 years and now he has gone on loan to Bundesliga 2 outfit FC\nNurnberg. I have no actual idea whether this is a development or rotation loan\nand I suspect that the club and player don\u2019t really either. To me, he\u2019s 22 and played\nless than 30 senior league games in his career. In May he will come back to a\nclub with 3 young CBs ahead of him in the queue. It would be better for all involved\nto let him move on this summer. I don\u2019t want to be harsh but his development\nhas not been our finest hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall we seem to have found\nsuitable opportunities for Elneny, Mkhi and Mavro plus made positive decisions\nfor Saliba and Smith-Rowe. This summer will validate those decisions to a large\ndegree but we have at least given ourselves as well as the players an\nopportunity. On the other hand Eddie\u2019s loan to Leeds worked out less well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Academy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tyreece John-Jules is an 18-year-old\nstriker. At just over 6 feet tall he is certainly no dwarf for the men in red. Currently\njust starting a loan at League One Lincoln City, he seems the best prospect\namongst our current Academy loanees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n James Olayinka \u2013 the 19-year-old\nmidfielder just started at Northampton Town and got the MotM award in his first\ngame for The Cobblers \u2013 a 3-0 win over Scunthorpe. After the match the manager,\nKeith Curle, a 2nd<\/sup> rate clogger for those of you who don\u2019t remember\nhim, said \u201cJames Olayinka is a good player\u2026but we have to get our way of\nplaying into his system\u201d. Oh no you don\u2019t Keith. Sadly, James is ineligible for\nthe Derby FA Cup game and will miss the chance to boot Shrek in the trolls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Deyan Iliev \u2013 recently\nstarted his loan at mid-table Polish League club Jagiellonia. A long shot to me\nbut the loan itself looks a good step up from the Slovak side SKF Sered where\nhe played for the first half of the season, and played well enough to get\nnoticed by a higher level club. It is a good sign that we have been active in\ngetting a better level for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jordi Osei-Tutu \u2013 halfway\nthrough a year loan to VFL Bochum in Bundesliga2. He did very well to overcome\nthe challenge of dealing with disgusting racist abuse and got good support from\nArsenal via Ben and Per. Started the season with a run of games in the first\nteam but since a change of manager he has rarely featured and I did wonder if\nwe should bring him back in January. Sitting on a bench in Germany is not a good\nuse of a young full back\u2019s time. He is 21 and it is time to play regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ben Sheaf \u2013 on loan to\nDoncaster since the start of the season. He has been playing regularly and\nextended the loan in January. This was a step-up for the 21-year-old midfielder\nas he was on loan at League 2 Stevenage last year. However, another who seems a\nlong shot for a future with the first team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest I see most of\nthese, excepting John-Jules, as rotation moves for players who will not feature\nin the first team squad in the next one or two seasons. Nothing wrong with that\nand an important part of our responsibility to the young players we bring to\nthe club. Could we be more aggressive on the<\/p>\n\n\n\n development side? I believe\nso, but the current young players in the squad demonstrate that loans are not\nthe only way forward. Also, it is important to recognize that there will always\nbe more players who can\u2019t reach the senior squad than those who can and so\nnaturally we will have more young players on loan who do not go out to a career\nwith The Arsenal. Finally, on this point, academy players are not robots, they\nmay surprise or disappoint and today\u2019s high flyers may be tomorrow\u2019s swamp\ndwellers \u2013 we never truly know and all opinions above are just my own. May they\nall be successful !<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are different ways for\nyoung players to get to the first team squad \u2013 AMN and Nelson went out on loan,\nSaka did not and neither did Joe Willock. Guen and Martinelli were signed\nstraight in. After a famine in terms of youth development we are now enjoying a\nfeast \u2013 for me seeing our young players coming through this season has been a\nreal joy. If ESR and Saliba come in as better players for their loan periods\nand play a role for the first XI next season followed by John-Jules or others\nthe season after, then the loan system is working well. If not I will moan and\ngroan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the last decade or two loans have grown from something we did occasionally to become a central part of our player development and rotation cycle. Whether we like this or not, it is something we need to do well in order, ultimately, to give us a better chance of winning trophies. For several years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}