Reiss Nelson had been hotly tipped as an Arsenal star of the future, and the top German coach Julian Nagelsmann requested him on loan at Hoffenheim a couple of seasons ago.
He did not disappoint, scoring 7 goals in just 587 minutes of action in the Bundesliga, and on his rteurn was given a place in the Arsenal first team squad by Unai Emery for last season’s campaign.
He was in the Starting XI for Arsenal’s first two games of the season, and scored a goal in the League Cup, before cruelly sustaining a knee injury which kept him out for a couple of months. He had a couple more cameos before a hamstring injury gave him another six week lay-off, but he still managed 17 appearances under Emery and Arteta, usually as a late substitute.
This season though his progress has stalled, which was not helped by the meteoric rise of Buyako Saka and Smith-Rowe, and other than a few Europa League and Cup games, he has only been seen twice in the Premier League.
He has been thoroughly overshadowed by other Arsenal Academy graduates and now that he has reached the ripe old age of 21, I think he needs to go back out on loan to regain some confidence and form. There have been unfounded rumours that he could go to a Championship club for the rest of the season, and I for one think this is a very good idea…
What do you think?
Yes or better still sell him along with willock and nketiah. Not the quality needed to move back to being serious contenders
Come on. Nelson is significantly better than Nketiah and Willock combined. He would do great with a loan and should get back to first squad rotation once Pepe is sold for 40 million pounds (the club will never recuperate the 72 million they wasted on sanlehi’s retirement funds).
YOU SERIOUSLY THINK ANY CLUB WOULD BE BONKERS ENOUGH, LET ALONE EVEN FINANCIALLY ABLE, TO PAY US YOUR FANTASY £40 MILL FOR PEPE? WEWILL NOT GET EVENHALF OF YOUR FIGURE, IN THE REAL WORLD!
Sadly true. We’re stuck with Pepe and can only hope that he’ll magically come good, although not much chance I’d say.
were not stuck with Pepe. There is a club that will take him, just for a signifcantly lower price. If Pepe is allowed to run down his contract it is the clubs fault! He’s 2 years into his 5 year deal and is 25 years old. Move him on…
@OnceGreat,
Could you define what you mean by ‘significantly better’? I only ask because they all play like a bunch of overhyped, less-talented lads.
Have you noticed that it is those players that get less hype in our academies that have progressed the most? Saka, benacer(Hope I got his name), Martinez, Fabregas et al
I just believe the players are not up to the hype. So the sooner we cut our loses by selling them, the better!
He should be kept in the environment that he aspires to. ARSENAL! If he goes to a Championship team at 21, he will still find it a step up too far when he returns. Frankly, i think it would be a silly, naive mistake to send him out on loan anywhere!
Really?
Smith Rowe spent the 2nd half of last season on loan with Huddersfield fighting relegation in the championship. And that experience paid off, and we’re reaping the benefits of that.
Yes. He wouldn’t get enough minutes, because:
– There are Aubameyang, Martinelli and Willian on the left wing
– There are Saka, Odegaard, Pepe and Willian on the right wing
– There are Smith-Rowe, Ceballos, Willian and Odegaard in the CAM position
Nelson still better than Willock and Nketia. He was only injured and needed time to be fully come back to his best. Nketia should be sold and give Balogun real opportunity to exploit out attack. Willock could be loan for the rest of the season. Nelson is confident and bold unlike other two.
Yeah he needs to go somewhere where he can play 1st team football. But also it needs to be in a competitive league. Germany Spain UK but the 1st league not championship or some rubbish. I think Germany would be amazing for this guy. He just needs a break.
He is better than willian atm imo
NO! He needs to remain in a tougher environment where he can either reach up to meet it, or be sold altogether. Going down to an inferior level at 21 will only peg him to that level for ever, and whenever he returned, he would be back where he is now, but a bit older with less growing space than he has at present.
#Loan Nelson
-if he does well bring him back and sell Pepe
#Promote Balogun
#Sell Nketia and Willock
– even if we get 20mil combined just sell them before we are either cancelling their contracts or at the stage where they run them down. 20 mil is better than nothing
I’m sick and tired of Arsenal getting ZERO cash for the majority of their players!
@PJ-SA
It would be very amazing if we can get ‘A Whole 20 Mil’ for those two players you mentioned? Lemme ask you a very direct question: Would you be willing to use your own money(if you were a club owner) to buy either Willock or Nketiah into your team? For that amount?
I think you have missed my point. I said take what we can get
FYI Fans here are wanting 20mil minimum for just Eddie! I think we could maybe get 20 mil for both, being young and English.
No i wouldn’t, but im not a club owner so that’s irrelevant. I mean Southampton bought Walcott and I think thats insane too.
I’m sure Theo is on loan.
It’s also no coincidence that all of our “highly rated” youngsters are only highly rated by us and are rarely in any starting line up.
There are a multitude of times when our young stars go on loan to, what we would consider, a lesser team and all they do is warm the bench while we expect them to be key to their new team.
We need to ask ourselves if these guys often sit bench in leagues like the Championship then they likely aren’t nearly good enough for Arsenal.
Could he go to another Premier League side? I think if he were to do that for the remainder of this season he would return to a dramatically different looking squad where there might be some room for him to flourish.
One last chance before letting him go.
He would sit bench for any EPL side….most of our loaness even sit bench in championship
e.g. Eddie last season
In my opinion Nelson DOES have sufficient talent but lacks belief, confidence,and also lacks a real prolonged opportunity thus far and may well eventually fail to meet his undoubted potential.
You need massive self belief, MARTINELLI AND SAKA STYLE, to ever succeed as a youngster in a huge PREM CLUB.
Ability alone is NEVER enough. A lot of young players who fail to live up to their early talent, fail not through lack of skill, but through not enough determination and drive, all of which they either have or have not.
I much doubt NELSON WILL EVER HAVE A TOP LEVEL CAREER, for that precise reason. I expect him to go on loan and never come back into OUR team, sadly.
I agree he has the talent but not the confidence. He’s still young although seems like he’s been around forever because we start hyping our young guns when they hit puberty.
Only way he’ll get confidence is to play. As long as we don’t send him to a Tony Pulis type managed team (still bitter about that one) it’ll be a good move – Brighton, Bournemouth strike me as good options.
Send him out on loan for the rest of the season if he wants to go . Perhaps back to Germany where he may feel more comfortable. Arsenal may have to pay some or all his wages .
Q: Should he be loaned out?
A: No! He should be sold, ASAP!
He needs a loan very badly and needs to find some confidence. send him to a side he will start in. Lower championship team is probably his level. Dont think he’d get a start in any bundesliga side.
Well, for me, Reiss-Nelson has something in him to become a top forward@Arsenal whether as a striker/left winger/right winger..
He is like a Sadio Mane or Diogo Jota forward..All-round!!
But as someone mentioned up there, he needs to believe in himself!! But we should also agree that he needs opportunities!!
See how Nketiah has started some games!! Has he(Nelson) ever gotten such from Arteta??
That said, I think the club should keep him!! Instead find a way to ditch Pepe n Willian on that Right wing to create some space!! He’s better than the two ‘disappointments’!!
If Arteta was convinced by Nelson he would not have recruited Willian.I think the guy could make it as a natural right winger, but how can he gain confidence if he rarely plays?A loan would be a temporary solution, but as with the likes of Nketiah and Willock , Arteta will require to make firm decisions on the future of these lads with Arsenal before their contracts run down and they become yet another worthless asset.
I’m dumbfounded by the fact that they didn’t send him out on loan or even outright once they signed Willian to a 3 year deal…it’s clear that Arteta offered promises to Willian about starting minutes and we already had our most expensive transfer ever competing for the same position…this was just part of the youth movement ruse Arteta was trying to propagate with Willock, Eddie, Reiss, and ESR, who only started out of desperation, on the first-team bench…in some respects it makes sense, the talk out of City was that he was good with player development, plus with no money in the coffers and fans clamoring for some fresh blood, MA strategically hitched his wagon to the long-term vision of the club, but besides Saka, who had emerged prior to Arteta’s arrival, that wasn’t the case whatsoever, until desperation set in…he didn’t even seem too enthused by Marts, before his injury, and was clearly starting more veteran players, like Willian, Xhaka and Luiz, over the more youthful alternatives…I would go so far to suggest that this was simply a reaction to what I like to call the “Gnabry effect”, which attempted to project the image, albeit far more PR driven than a realistic representation, that this organization will be more forward-thinking under Arteta’s tutelage…unfortunately their little scheme backfired too because it seems like the one guy they should have promoted, Balu, might be the best of the bunch and is likely going to sign elsewhere
I would rather have given Nelson an extended run in the team rather than have bought Pepe, which I thought at the time was a strange signing for the amount that he cost.
Nelson has a big potential and with our right wing position not secured has a chance. But every time i see him play he looks like he is scared to do something. Being low on self-belief and confidence is a sure fire way to throw your career away.
Look at the youngsters flourishing right now saka, martenelli, ESR they are all mentally strong and not scared to take chances. Then you have AMN again big talent but not good enough mentally as he is too laid back.