Arsenal to benefit from Ake transfer?

Morning all.

Nathan Ake moving to Man City for £41 million is good news for Arsenal I think. We’ve two English centre-backs, both with experience and both saleable. Rob Holding and Calum Chambers are good players but neither have set the world alight when fit. I might sound harsh but if Mari and Mustafi had been fit, I doubt Mikel Arteta would have selected Holding for the last couple of fixtures, nor would he be lining up against Chelsea tomorrow. That’s my opinion anyway. Chambers being injured doesn’t help him or the club but I still believe if a club comes in for him with a good price, Arsenal will sell. The same applies to quite a number of our players I think. Man City paying such a big transfer fee for a central defender whose club has just been relegated has suddenly boosted the transfer market for Arsenal.

We are rich in young English players and not all of them will make it. All Premier League clubs need homegrown players and they come with a hefty price tag.

If Arsenal and Mikel Arteta feel that the likes of AMN, Nelson, Willock, Chambers, Holding and even Bellerin, who is classed as home grown, isn’t the future, then there’s a lot of money to be made by selling them but only to another English club. The newly promoted clubs might be interested because they’ll be rich after receiving the windfall which comes with securing Premier League football.

I’m an old romantic when it comes to football because for long now, I’ve hoped that Arsenal would produce their own players at the same time as getting back to challenging for the league and of course, that might yet happen but unless the board are ready to free up a few hundred million pounds, selling players is the only way to raise money for new ones who are either better, or more advanced in their game.

I could be totally wrong though, Mikel Arteta might have more faith in those I’ve listed above, he might believe they just need more time to grow, in which case, we’ll see a lot more of them next season. After all, we don’t just need eleven players. Keeping them all happy will be the difficulty and some will already be getting itchy feet because all they want to do is play football.

If by chance we can beat Chelsea tomorrow in the FA Cup, being in the Europa League will give more squad players game time as well as those expected to make the step up from the under 23’s to the first team squad.

It’s not just the English players who can raise money for the club. We have a lot who individually might not raise much for Mikel Arteta to use on strengthening his squad but collectively, they will. Torreira, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Guendouzi and Ozil to name a few. Potentially, there’s £80-100 million worth of player sales there. Throw in Lacazette and/or Aubameyang and Arsenal won’t know what to do with so much money.

Firstly though, just go and win the FA Cup.