RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesWho blinks first over Reiss Nelson? – Opinion
With Arsenal expected to continue trimming the squad before the transfer window closes, Reiss Nelson’s future remains one of the more intriguing situations to watch. The Hale End graduate has just a year left on his contract, leaving Andrea Berta with a difficult balancing act if the club hopes to secure a transfer fee.
Dan Smith believes Arsenal may have less leverage than many supporters realise…
Last season I called Andrea Berta one of the best appointments made since the Kroenke family first joined Arsenal’s board.
Yet if our director of football can secure an eight-figure transfer fee for Reiss Nelson, that would rank among his most impressive pieces of business.
Some Gooners might have forgotten the 26-year-old is still an Arsenal player because he hasn’t featured in the club’s first-team plans for quite some time.
Part of the family since the age of nine, a child has grown into a man only ever knowing the comforts of his boyhood club.
The academy graduate made his Premier League debut in 2018, but for too much of the last decade it has felt like he has found ways to cling on to his dream rather than further develop.
That’s not to question his talent because, at one stage, he was receiving just as much praise as any youngster coming through Hale End.
Injuries have stalled a promising career
Persistent muscle injuries have meant that, now in his mid-twenties, Nelson has still never enjoyed a campaign where he has consistently started week after week.
The most league starts he has managed in a single season came during his loan spell at Feyenoord, when he started just 14 matches.
I don’t know if those fitness issues damaged his confidence, but ever since he signed his current contract extension, he has looked like a competition winner waiting for someone to realise they were paying him £100,000 a week to represent the club he loves, despite having no real place in Arsenal’s current first-team plans.
This time next year he becomes a free agent, where he may struggle to find another employer, certainly in England, prepared to match his current salary.
That’s why Mr Berta holds very few cards this summer.
The first two loan spells for Nelson were about his development.
The last couple have felt more like attempts to reduce the wage bill.
Reiss Nelson of Fulham (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Arsenal may have to blink first
If interested clubs were reluctant to buy him before, why would they rush now when they know they could wait another 12 months and sign him for nothing?
Reiss Nelson is one of the last examples of a player who was rewarded with a contract that exceeded his market value.
So much so that it is difficult to imagine another Premier League club matching those wages, effectively leaving him trapped in London because very few people willingly take another job for less money.
Arsenal’s best hope of generating a meaningful fee may be for another club to call their bluff during the closing days of the transfer window.
Potential suitors could offer a few million pounds and simply tell Arsenal to take it or leave it, knowing the alternative is paying his wages for another year while he remains on the fringes of the squad.
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History suggests Arsenal would be expected to blink first.
The club has previously terminated contracts to reduce the wage bill, so why would any buying club offer more than necessary now when they can simply wait until the final days of the window and hope Arsenal become increasingly willing to negotiate?
That may leave Andrea Berta facing one of his first genuinely awkward transfer dilemmas since arriving in north London.
Dan Smith
Do you agree with Dan, Gooners? Should Arsenal accept whatever reasonable offer arrives for Reiss Nelson this summer, or would you keep him for another season and risk losing him on a free transfer next year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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