What to do with Vela this season?

By @SweGoon

The first thing we need to look at when deciding if a player should be loaned is if there is a place for him in the team at the moment. If there is a clear part for the player to play we need to decide if that part is beneficial to the development of the player, if it is then we obviously keep the player at the club. If it isn’t there are two option sell or loan, loan if the players is believed to have a future with the club and sell if not. If the player on the other hand doesn’t have a place in the team at the moment we got directly to the sell or loan part. I will now use this analysis on Carlos Vela.

Vela can, if needed, play anywhere along our front three in my opinion, so first let’s take a look at the competition. On the left there is at the moment four other players, Nasri, Arshavin, Bendtner and Gervinho, however with two of them, or at least one, looking very likely to move it might just be Arshavin and Gervinho left in September.On the right there is also four other players at the moment, Nasri, Walcott, Bendtner and Gervinho, and there is obviously two looking likely to move which could leave us with Walcott and Gervinho. Up front Vela would be less likely to be played by Wenger but he is a possible backup, the competition is seemingly four players at the moment, RvP, Chamakh, Bendtner and Gervinho. One is leaving and Gervinho is more likely to be used as a winger mainly, which leaves RvP and Chamakh.
My conclusion from this is that if Nasri and Bendtner stay there won’t be a place for Vela as he would most likely be fifth choice for all three positions or possibly fourth if Cesc goes. In that case I would be in favor of a loan.

If they leave however there will only be Gervinho plus Walcott on the right, Arshavin on the left and Chamakh and RvP up front. Even with a potential replacement for Nasri/Cesc, for instance Mata, there would still be only four wingers and three forwards. In that case Vela could play a part as a backup, but we also need to consider the possibility of playing Rosicky could limit his chances further. I don’t like Rosa there anymore than you do but Wenger likes playing him there when needed. This raises the question: Is it in Vela’s and the club’s best interest for him to stay as a backup? My answer is no, I would rather see us loaning him out to, say, Bolton where he could develop further with more regular game time. To fill his role I would prefer that we tried for a work permit for Miyaichi as a backup and CC-player for the wings and gave Afobe half a season to impress as third choice striker and sending him out on a loan in the spring. Then bring Vela back unless he’s on a real roll on the loan.

In conclusion I would like Vela to go on loan, season long if at least two of Cesc, Nasri and Bendtner stay and 6 months if they don’t.