Before the end of the month, Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta will be looking to move on several players on the periphery of Mikel Arteta’s first team squad.
In total Arsenal have signed six new players for Arteta to work with this season, and yet only two regular first teamers have departed.
Andrea Berta now has work to do in order to shift the likes of Fabio Vieira and Oleksandr Zinchenko before deadline day – Arsenal’s squad is bloated in areas.
Fortunately, Leandro Trossard is set to leave Arsenal, but attacking departures may not stop there.
Following his season on loan at Fulham last term, 25-year-old Reiss Nelson is available once again this summer, a winger who simply won’t get adequate chances under Arteta.
That being said, Arsenal fans might imagine that the club are ready to part ways with Nelson on a permanent basis at this stage of his career.
At 25, there’s seemingly not much hope that Nelson will be able to forge a long-term future in Arsenal’s first team.
And whilst Nelson is very popular at Arsenal owing to his exemplary professionalism, he’s surely a player the club would now like to sell.
However, the Independent have now reported that Nelson would prefer to go out on loan again this season – he doesn’t want Arsenal to sell him just yet.
If he joins Fulham, Nelson prefers a one-season loan.
Perhaps that’s because Nelson is hoping that another season at Craven Cottage could lead to bigger opportunities in a year’s time, providing the winger avoids injury this time around.
And with respect to Fulham, maybe if a bigger club playing in Europe were to bid for Nelson this summer, he might be happy to go.
But as things stand, Nelson doesn’t want Berta to sell him to Fulham.
In addition to Fulham, there has been some talk about Crystal Palace showing interest in Nelson this summer.
And given that Palace are playing in Europe this season, albeit not the Europa League, perhaps the ‘electric‘ winger could be convinced to make a permanent move to Selhurst Park.
Of course, Arsenal want to sign Eberechi Eze from Palace this summer, even if north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur want the England international too.
And whilst Theo Walcott thinks Eze should stay at Palace, perhaps Berta could try a clever deal including Nelson in a bid for the number 10.
Eze would add real quality to Arteta’s forward line across the season, which has missed a maverick like figure at times.
And although Nelson doesn’t want to be sold if it’s just Fulham’s interest at the table, perhaps Palace could be more tempting.
