It's getting harder to make it at Arsenal

And that's a good thing.

The rude awakening that has been the past month has been illustrative of a truth that many Arsenal fans were acknowledging even at the best of times earlier this season: Arsenal still need more ready-made players to get where the club wants to be.

With the Champions League back on the agenda and more money to be spent, that leads to some exciting links: Declan Rice, Moisés Caicedo, Mohammed Kudus, Mason Mount.

But that also has a crueler, more “ruthless” consequence: It’s harder for in-house players to make it to the first team. And that means some players, even ones we like, who aren’t terrible, are going to leave.

Such is the case with Charlie Patino, Arsenal’s 19-year-old Xhaka-successor-in-training. The Athletic’s David Ornstein reported early Monday that Patino wants first team minutes or to be sold, and that leads Arsenal to its only logical conclusion: Sell the boy, despite the lofty expectations of many in the fan base.

The news hasn’t been universally accepted with glee. Many fans are understandably shattered to think that Patino, the most hyped Hale End product out there, could leave without ever becoming a first team regular. Some have even gone so far as to say Arsenal should make the room necessary to keep him next season.

Mikel Arteta’s unwillingness to bring youngsters into the team is an issue, some will say. Unai Emery is responsible for Bukayo Saka’s rise to Arsenal’s first team, while Arteta has barely elevated anyone from the lower level.

But as this project continues to progress, here’s the correct answer to that line of argument: Good.

Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Ødegaard, Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel…Arsenal have built their rise to second in the Premier League on the backs of several young players, who have each grown in their own way into Premier League Team of the Season candidates. But there’s no way around the journey they took to get here.

When Bukayo Saka made his first Premier League start, Arsenal was in awful shape. He started with Dani Ceballos, Sokratis, Sead Kolašinac. This Arsenal side would go on to finish 8th, only gaining a European place because of their cup win.

Ramsdale and White’s first seasons at Arsenal were also each filled with encouraging ups and defeating downs. They finished fifth.

The standard was always about what this team could become, one eye on the future.

But Arsenal are second now. Starting next season, they’re in the Champions League. The good players will play on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and good players will also play on Saturdays or Sundays. There are no more Europa League punts to be had, and that means there’s going to be so much less room for unfinished players who need more reps to reach this club’s level.

For a player like Patino, who’s not willing to accept another loan as an option, that means it’s time to go.

Patino is by all accounts a bright prospect, one whom most fans of this club were hoping would turn into a club legend. But in a world where Granit Xhaka is sometimes not good enough, and the club’s summer left 8 signing will only be around the same level or better, there aren’t minutes for Patino.

The players above got the chance to learn on the job. But Arsenal aren’t in the business of handing out lessons to their players in Premier League games anymore. They’re out to win 30 games, score 100 goals and check every one of Mikel Arteta’s ambitious goals.

The best case scenario for a youngster would be a Carabao or FA Cup run, something that could at best provide something like 10 starts for a player who’s going to need more like 30 to keep progressing. And Arsenal can’t afford to give Patino, bright though his future may be, 30 starts. They can’t do it against even the dregs of the Premier League, and they can’t do it against their group opponents in the Champions League. Not if the goal is to win.

Arsenal can still protect themselves against a meteoric rise by Patino in the transfer market. For example, they can offer a lower transfer fee up front in exchange for a buy-back clause that could bring Patino back, perhaps starting in 2025. Not just any club will accept that, but those clubs who’d seek Patino as a starter aren’t in the running for the Premier League anyway. You could see a newly-promoted English side take a run at him, or potentially a continental club a bit on the fringes of its league.

This outlook will bleed into Arsenal’s summer business as well. Ready-made players at midfield will become the priority. They may pass on opportunities to bring in exciting young players because they simply wouldn’t produce right away, as needed (I get into this in the link below and will dig more into Højlund specifically soon). And, in some cases, we may see even more of our bright young Hale End products ask to leave.

But as long as Arsenal continue to put the senior team first, I can promise you this is a good thing. And frankly, let’s hope the next Hale End boy to make his full senior debut is only doing so because it’s painfully obvious it’s his time. Until such happens, I’m afraid Charlie Patino’s is unlikely to be the final sad goodbye Arsenal are forced to say to a beloved young player.