Arsenal must rue releasing “world-class” star

This season has felt like a slog for Arsenal.

It’s the third year on the bounce that Mikel Arteta’s side have fought for the Premier League, but instead of Manchester City, it’s Liverpool who, as things stand, look set to pip them to the crown.

The North Londoners haven’t been at their scintillating best for much of the campaign, but they have also been incredibly unlucky with injuries, with their two best attackers, Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, out injured.

Worse still, a player the club released as a youngster continues to thrive at the very highest level and has already scored more goals than Saka and Havertz combined.

Havertz and Saka’s seasons

So, it would be fair to say that since he moved to Arsenal for £65m in June 2023, Havterz has been a player who has split opinions among fans and pundits alike.

The German international initially joined the club as a midfield option, but halfway through last season, when he was struggling to adapt, Arteta opted to move him up and make him the team’s starting number nine, which was a decision that more than paid off.

By the end of the campaign, the former Chelsea ace had scored 14 goals and provided seven assists in 51 games, but eight of those goals and seven of those assists came in just 18 appearances up top, which is an average of a goal involvement every 1.2 games.

He hasn’t been quite as clinical this season and has received flak for it, but we’d argue that the Aachen-born marksman has been more effective than people have given him credit for, as in 34 appearances, he’s scored 15 goals and provided five assists, which comes to an average of a goal involvement every 1.7 games, and also makes him the club’s top scorer.

From one player who sometimes has as many critics as fans to one who was in simply sensational form prior to his unfortunate hamstring injury: Saka.

In just 24 appearances, totalling 1828 minutes, the Gunners’ “legend in the making,” as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, has scored nine goals and provided 13 assists, which comes out to an incredible average of a goal involvement every 1.09 games, or every 83.09 minutes.

In short, Arsenal are in for a serious uphill battle if they are going to overtake Liverpool without these two in the team, which makes the club’s distant decision to release a prolific goalscorer, who has more goals than he pair combined this season, as a child even harder to take today.

The former Arsenal prospect outscoring Saka and Havertz

With a club the size of Arsenal, there will always be incredible youngsters who slip through the gaps, such as Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze and Donyell Malen.

However, we aren’t sure many teams have made the decision to release a player who would end up being as unbelievably talented as Harry Kane.

The England captain was a part of Hale End until he was around 12 years old, when then-academy manager Roy Massey decided to release him, as he didn’t believe the youngster had what was needed to make it in the game.

Now, while the club have since come to regret that decision in a big, big way, it did take about three years for Tottenham Hotspur to swoop in and pick him up after he spent a few weeks on trial with Watford, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Following a number of loans around the Football League, the Walthamstow-born star finally made it into the Lilywhites’ first team and went on to become their all-time top goalscorer, racking up an incredible haul of 280 goals and 61 assists in 435 games before securing a mega-money move to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2023.

The “world-class” centre forward, as dubbed by Harry Maguire, has been just as devastating in Germany, and this season, he has already scored 29 goals and provided ten assists in just 31 appearances, totalling 2459 minutes.

That means he is not only outscoring Havertz and Saka combined, but he’s also averaging 1.25 goal involvements every game, or one every 63.05 minutes, which is utterly outrageous and the sort of output that would surely fire Arteta’s men to the title.

Ultimately, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and Arsenal are blessed with a plethora of incredibly talented players of their own, but a world in which they kept hold of Kane is one that might’ve seen them win a lot more silverware.