Arsenal are having their best season in recent memory under Mikel Arteta, with one of the best squads in Europe a big reason behind their success.
The Gunners sit top of the Premier League table, nine points ahead of Man City with seven games remaining, while they also have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals following a 1-0 away win against Sporting CP in the first-leg of their quarter-final this week.
The results this season, alongside the fact that Arsenal have finished as runners-up in the Premier League in each of the last three seasons, have bought the manager a lot of power behind the scenes at the club and a lot of credit with the fans, but he may have just overstepped the mark with his latest decision.
Arsenal Ready to Sell Academy Starlets
Reports emerged on Thursday evening that amid plans to strengthen the squad once again at the Emirates Stadium this summer, attention is already on the fact that sales are needed to fund that.
That has seen Arteta make the decision that he would be willing to allow both Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri to depart the club permanently for deals worth a combined £100m.
The club would be open to sales due to the limited game time both players have had this season, and the fact that any deals would be registered as pure profit on the accounting side, allowing them to reinvest more freely.
But while it may make sense from a business point of view, it’s no surprise that the decision has been met with disgust from Arsenal fans, and in reality the board should sooner look to get rid of the manager than lose two of the crown jewels from the academy.
Arsenal Should Sack Arteta Instead
Obviously, Arteta is the best manager the club have had since Arsene Wenger, earning the label of ‘extraordinary’ from Pep Guardiola, and he looks on course to end their 22-year wait for a Premier League trophy.
But some things are bigger than trophies in football, and one of those things is having something that keeps fans connected to the club they love. The best way to do that is, and has always been, having academy talent come through the ranks and play in the first team.
A club as good as Arsenal rarely have players good enough to make it all the way through, but right now they have four at the same time. Bukayo Saka is the face of the club, Max Dowman is undoubtedly the future, but Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly could easily be the present and future too.
Arsenal fans have already relented on their usual style of play by allowing Arteta to adopt a more defensive style to find success. But getting rid of the best academy talents in decades as well? That’s simply blasphemy and shouldn’t be tolerated.
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