When you talk about success stories arising from a good loan spell, Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere is a great example. The talented Englishman who had failed to break into the Arsenal first team was sent on loan to Bolton Wanderers in the 2009-10 season to work under Owen Coyle. He used the time to play regular football as a launch pad to kick start his Arsenal career and has scaled great heights this season with a brilliant season that has seen him earn many admirers who see him as the future of England and Arsenal.
So during the January transfer window, when Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was faced with the quandary of deciding which club to send Carlos Vela on loan, many Arsenal fans were hoping that Wenger would send him to Bolton. Instead it was Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge who went to work under Coyle and the Englishman has had a hugely successful spell as he has scored an extremely impressive eight goals and in my opinion was the best signing of the winter transfer window.
Vela instead went to West Bromwich Albion and it would suffice to say that he has not made the sort of impact that Wenger would have been hoping he would make. A mixture of Peter Odemwingie’s stunning and Roy Hogdson’s pragmatic approach meant that playing time was at a premium for the Mexican and despite scoring two goals early in his loan spell, he struggled to crack the West Brom team.
He made a total of just eight appearances, scoring two goals and providing one assist. Wenger would have undoubtedly wanted the talented Mexican to play more often and gain more playing time. The sad part is that even during the first half of the season he made 12 appearances, scoring thrice. Something makes me feel that he would have ended up playing more games had he stayed with the Gunners and going to West Brom hardly did any good for either him or the Gunners.
While there is no doubt that Vela is a supremely talented player and is an exceptional technical player, he is yet to prove his worth to the Gunners and he has reached a point in his career where he has to start delivering the goods. At 22, he is running out of time and while there is enough potential in him, he has to start delivering or he will most likely end up leaving the club.
And so Wenger faces a tough decision to make regarding the Mexican; should he continue to keep him or sell him?
There are several arguments that can be made in regards to his sale and towards him staying but at the end of the day, Wenger has to take a decision that will favor the club in the long term. In other words, either ensure that he scales great heights at the club or sell him and replace him with another talented player.
Vela is adept at playing as both the central striker and can even slot into the wings. At 179 cm, Vela does not represent a physical strength of any sorts and would be more of a fox in the box striker than anything else. While he is a solid finisher, his three goals this season being a testament to that, his aerial abilities and knack of winning contests against defenders are fairly limited. I see him slotting into the wings if he wants to further his Arsenal career.
That being said, his finishing ability, which I feel is matched by few players at the club, shouldn't be discounted.
While he has been offered only limited opportunities, each time I see him, I see him as a calm, clinical and composed finisher. I see him as a far superior finisher when compared to the likes of Nicklas Bendtner and Marouane Chamakh but his overall abilities and performances thus far in his Arsenal career means that he is below them in the pecking order at Arsenal.
Vela has the talent to be a success in the wings. He is quick, technically sound and has a solid left foot. Many see him as the future replacement to Andrei Arshavin and he does have the traits to succeed the Russian captain.
The question remains whether he will remain at the Emirates.
If he does play in the wings, I still don’t see him breaking into the first team because there still remains several players who have performed better than him. With players like Gervinho, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlaina and Eden Hazard rumored to be on the Arsenal radar, even a move into the wings will make it hard for him to earn regular playing time.
For the last few seasons now many have been predicting his breakthrough into the Arsenal first team, but despite getting off to a positive start in almost every season, he fails to convert these starts into something larger, meaning that Wenger plays him rarely, even as a substitute.
This season he scored three goals early on, against Bolton and a brace against Braga. When we expected him to cement his place as a regular for Arsenal, he struggled to get playing time and in the end was forced to go on loan.
This season, the chances for Vela were slim, mainly due to Wenger’s insistence on playing the 4-2-3-1. The return of van Persie meant that he would automatically be the first choice striker for the Gunners and so Wenger would be forced to use Chamakh and Bendtner both in the cup competitions and as the substitutes, thus limiting the chances Vela would receive.
And while he remains a good talent, I just don’t see him breaking into the first team. The only way I see him ever getting some decent playing time is if both Nasri and Fabregas leave and Wenger signs just one player or nobody to replace them. Then Vela could be given plenty of chances, if not as a starter at least as a substitute.
But something tells me that Arsenal will not lose both of them this year and so Vela may once again end up struggling to get playing time. Arsenal have several young players in Ryo Miyaichi, Henri Lansbury and Jay Emmanuel Thomas who can play in the wings. All three of them have enjoyed more fruitful loan spells than Vela.
If he stays next season, I see him getting in no more than around 10-15 games with most action coming as a substitute.
The ideal scenario for the club would be to send him on loan next season and then, based on his performances, take a final decision on whether to keep hold of him. But once again I wonder if the player will be satisfied with being sent on loan every season.
If Wenger sees him as surplus to requirements for the next season, I see him leaving.
Right now he does indeed seem surplus to requirements and with Arsenal stocked with talented players, he may be one of the players who may end up leaving the club due to lack of playing time. A move to a club in the lower divisions like West Ham would give him some regular playing time and would be a good opportunity for him to get his career back on track.
Just like Fran Merida and Havard Nordtveit before him, Arsenal have seen several youngsters leave due to a lack of opportunities. And while he has shown his talent in brief moments, Vela has not shown the kind of skill that would make him a huge loss to the Gunners right now.
While he remains a solid player that provides depth, it wouldn’t be a bad move to sell him and free up funds to make some serious transfers in order to strengthen some areas of the squad that requires immediate attention.
Verdict: Send him out on loan if possible. Otherwise, the best bet would be to sell him since he will definitely struggle to get any meaningful playing time. Another case of a talented player who was just surplus to requirements at Arsenal.
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