This article was originally published on the Daily Briefing, a subscription service. If you would like to receive Charles Watts’ exclusive articles via email ahead of publication on caughtoffside.com, please sign-up for the service at thedailybriefing.io
Arsenal have lost Jordan Reece to Manchester United, which is definitely a blow to them as he had been at the club for nearly 12 years now and was a hugely popular and respected figure behind the scenes.
He had been head physio since 2020 and is known as one of the best in the business. That’s why Gary O’Driscoll was so keen to take him to United. O’Driscoll, who is now head of sports medicine at Old Trafford, left Arsenal towards the end of last year to take up his new role in Manchester and so had worked with Reece for a long time.
There was no real animosity over Reece’s exit. Arsenal were sad to lose him, but after nearly 12 years at the club he wanted to try something new and people behind the scenes in North London could understand that.
The key thing for Arsenal now is to replace him. On the whole, Arsenal had a fantastic injury record last season which played a huge role in their excellent campaign. While plenty of clubs struggled with crippling injury lists throughout the season, Mikel Arteta was able to call upon his big hitters consistently most weeks. William Saliba, for example, missed the 2022/23 run-in, but was then able to play every single minute of the 2023/24 campaign.
He will not want that to change during the coming season so Dr Zafar Iqbal, who joined from Crystal Palace last year to replace O’Driscoll as head of sports medicine, will be looking to make a successful appointment.
From United’s point of view, the capture of Recce is seen as a big coup, especially as it follows on so swiftly from the appointment of O’Driscoll. United’s injury record has not been great of late, as Erik ten Hag is always so keen to point out, and so luring someone as highly respected as Reece away from Arsenal will be viewed as a major step forward by those behind the scenes at Old Trafford.
Mohammed Kudus is another name that can join the quite lengthy ‘ones that got away’ list at Arsenal.
He was a player they liked while he was at Ajax and they were well aware of his availability last summer. But they just did not have the financial capability to make it happen.
They did some big business obviously, bringing in the likes of Declan Rice and Kai Havertz for big transfer fees and they were unable to bring much money in by selling some of the players they had earmarked for potential permanent exits. So they just didn’t have the financial wriggle room to do any more significant business in the market.
Signing cover for the wide areas has long been on the agenda, we’ve seen that with the interest in Raphinha and Pedro Neto in the past, and Kudus was another player on that list. But they couldn’t stretch their budget, so their interest never really got off the ground.
I don’t know if that interest still remains. Given the way he has performed since moving to West Ham since moving there, his price tag would be huge and I would be surprised if Arsenal were able to go near that given what they are looking to do with other areas of their squad.
Emile Smith Rowe’s future is going to be one of the ongoing stories of the summer at Arsenal. I do expect him to go and I know there is plenty of interest in him, both from clubs in the Premier League and abroad.
His preference, if he does leave Arsenal, is to stay in England and the links to Fulham are certainly interesting. It would tick a lot of boxes for him. It’s a London club, they look to play decent football under Marco Silva and he already knows some players in the squad, such as former Gunners stars Alex Iwobi, Bernd Leno and Willian.
The key thing for Smith Rowe, if he does leave, is that he wants some stability and he wants to start playing regularly again. He’s had three Premier League starts in the last two seasons. For a player of his quality and age, that is simply not enough. The timing just feels right for a move.
I think Arsenal should be looking for at least £25m for him. I know he’s had his injury issues, but he’s young, homegrown and has shown he has the quality to make a big difference in the Premier League. Arsenal need to start showing they can get good value for their players and I think anything under £25m for Smith Rowe would be disappointing business.
There are a few players at Arsenal right now who, while the club do not actively want to sell, they would consider offers for should good ones arrive this summer and I would include Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jakob Kiwior on that list.
I can’t see both being allowed to go in the same window, but I wouldn’t be shocked if one was to leave.
If I had to choose between one to go, I would probably go with Zinchenko. He’s a fantastic player and I think some of the criticism that came his way last season was harsh. But there’s no doubt that Arsenal have moved on from him a bit in the last 12 months.
He was deservedly one of the first names on the team-sheet in his first season, but his form has definitely dipped since then and Arsenal have shifted things a bit tactically, which has seen his importance on the team diminish.
We’ve seen Ben White take on the inverted full-back role over on the right hand side, with the left-back now being asked to play more as a classic full-back.
Kiwior did that very well at times during the second half of the season and showed what a good defender he is. I just think the fact he can play full-back and centre-back probably gives him the edge over Zinchenko. He’s younger as well and has longer left on his contract.
Taking all those factors into the equation, I feel he is probably worth keeping for now.
Ethan Nwaneri is someone Arsenal fans will have been aware of for some time now and he really caught the eye for England Under-17s at this summer’s European Championships.
So what next for the latest homegrown wonderkid to come out of Hale End? I think we’ll see Nwaneri stay at Arsenal next season and become more of a fixture in the first-team. I can’t see him being a regular, but I think we’ll see Mikel Arteta start to give him some minutes to ensure he continues to develop at the rate that Arsenal want him to.
There are certain players that you look at and think that they can skip going out on loan and move straight into the first-team picture. Bukayo Saka was one and I think Nwaneri is another.
If Smith Rowe goes, it could be the perfect chance to promote Nwaneri. He’s such a talent and it’s really important that Arsenal leave him a pathway to continue to develop. Sometimes you need to leave a place in the squad to give a highly talented youngster a chance and I think this is definitely one of those occasions.
