Arsenal was always going to be a place where Mikel Arteta would learn on the job. It might seem mad that a club the size of the Gunners could even allow for a young inexperienced coach to use his early time as a learning curve, but it is the reality.
Thankfully, what was an obvious risk is starting to bear fruit. Arsenal are in the driving seat for the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League and the work to overhaul both the squad and the recruitment strategy has completely changed the outlook of the team.
Arteta has made mistakes and that has led to a number of experiences he will learn from. William Saliba was dealt with poorly in the summer of 2020 but the club have since acted accordingly and the loan strategy for the Frenchman will either return a much-improved young player or a significant sale price should he move on.
READ MORE: Didier Deschamps dents Arsenal’s William Saliba hopes as PSG and Bayern Munich offer major prize
Whilst for Folarin Balogun, he was kept at the club despite clearly being above domestic youth footballing level. Thankfully, Arteta and the club were able to convince Balogun to stay, sign a new contract and then organise him a loan to Championship side Middlesbrough where he has since flourished and is impressing.
Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Crystal Palace on Monday, Arteta praised Balogun’s displays so far. However, the Spaniard admitted that he should have sorted a loan move earlier for the England under-21 striker.
“I think Flo is doing what he’s needing to do. Probably we should have done it earlier. It’s always difficult to time when is the best moment to do that, but he’s having the right exposure. He’s playing a different formation under a manager and a club with huge history,” Arteta said.
“You can see how he’s developing. This is giving us more information and detail about what the best move for him is to keep developing because he has, and we want him to be part of our future.
“The step is too big from what he is doing to the Premier League. You could see that. It’s not fair to him just to assess in certain moments if he can do that or not. He needed that pathway and exposure, he needs to go through good and difficult moments, he needs to be able to adapt and find himself in a dressing room and develop the importance that is required to play at this level. I think he’s doing all of that really well.”
It is this reflection that bodes well for more of Arsenal’s Hale End group. The club have a collection of some of the country's most exciting stars. Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe have both proven how the first team can benefit from their graduates.
Whereas Alex Iwobi and Joe Willock have demonstrated that upwards of £50 million can be made from selling your prized talent not deemed good enough for a long-term future with the club. Both players have since had mixed results after leaving justifying the club's decision to sell.
The current batch contains a number of truly exciting players such as Charlie Patino, Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand and Omari Hutchinson. Arsenal have already sent out plenty of first-team potential on loan, most notably right-back Brooke Norton-Cuffy.
Hutchinson though is the man in focus. Like Balogun in 2021, he will enter the final year of his deal and there is the potential that Arsenal could lose the young star. However, unlike Balogun, there is a greater assurance for Hutchinson of the route into the Arsenal first-team.
Arteta needs to use the experience with Balogun to show Hutchinson that a future with Arsenal can be achieved. Laying out a pathway for Hutchinson with loan moves planned to elevate and develop his game and abilities.
Learning not to wait too long like with both Balogun and Saliba will be crucial to showing Hutchinson and future young stars that the Arsenal pathway continues to exist. Lessening the pressure on contract talks and making the club’s attraction for young starlets that much more alluring.
