The Arsenal transfer failure that barely anyone is talking about

Arsenal have had a monumental transfer window. They have spent nearly £300million and signed eight different players for a wide variety of positions.

Sporting director Andrea Berta has been lauded by supporters for the work he has done since arriving at the club from Atletico Madrid in March earlier this year. Many still are reeling from the amount of business the club have done considering how little they have been perceived to spend, or at least have been willing to spend in the previous years.

There is a real sense that what has been done in the market for Arsenal this summer will have a massive impact on their likelihood of winning the Premier League. Mikel Arteta has been given the tools and a significant amount of depth in his squad.

Yet there remains an aspect of the summer market business that is still worthy of scrutiny and has not been highlighted all that much. Arsenal’s sales reputation certainly has not been solved, and it is definitely not something that is lacking in attention.

However, the youth team this summer only saw two players leave on season-long loans, which will give them important senior experiences. Ismael Kabia joined Shrewsbury Town for the season, while Lucas Nygaard left for IF Brandby.

Several others, like Josh Nichols, Maldini Kacurri, and Charles Sagoe Jr., remain with the youth side. Manchester City has just earned a significant fee from the sale of James McAtee, who spent two seasons with Sheffield United.

Armando Broja, Bashir Humphrey, Ian Maatsen, Conor Gallagher, Lewis Hall - the list goes on of Chelsea examples. Players who got loans, were integrated, and were sold. Of course, both City and Chelsea have teams as part of their multi-club models, but none of the aforementioned players went to any of their clubs.

Arsenal recently changed their loans manager from Ben Knapper to Sam Hayball, but this is not necessarily specific to the individuals and has been a long-running issue. Granted, the club have got decent figures in recent years for Eddie Nketiah, Folarin Balogun, Joe Willock, and Alex Iwobi; however, these are few and far between rather than the year-on-year examples of their Premier League rivals.

This is an aspect of the club that needs to change, be addressed, and improve. Otherwise, it will remain just another area where the Gunners will fall behind.

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