Who 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.

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.