JET falls from the sky, while other players move on from Arsenal

Nuno Tavares made 22 appearances for Arsenal having been transferred from Benfica, but also went on a series of loans taking in Marseille (31 games and six goals), Nottingham Forest (eight games) and Lazio (23 games and nine assists)

Kieran Tierney has also left the club permanently as expected, and he said some really good things about Arsenal, which are nice to hear, including “I’ve loved every minute”.    He is only 28 so could still have quite a career in front of him.

Tierney’s problem has been a persistent set of hamstring issues.   But he returned to the squad and reached 100 games in April.  He also scored the first goal in the match against Southampton in what proved to be his last game for the club, bringing him to 144 games in total.  There are reports that Celtic are interested in having him back.

The third mover is Neto who was on loan from Bournemouth but only got one game in the season – that against Girona in the Champions League in January.  Arsenal won 1-2.  In that game he became the oldest player to make his debut for Arsenal, since the First World War.

As expected Raheem Sterling has gone back to Chelsea.  It can’t be said that Arteta did not give the player a chance – in fact he kept on giving him chances with 28 appearances, and one can’t but think that he would have had far fewer had so many Arsenal players not been injured.   Indeed one also can’t help but think in this case that if we had had a more effective player to cover for injuries in the forward line, the goal scoring would not have dropped by 22 goals from the previous season.   

In his time with Manchester City Sterling scored once in every two and a half games, and even the once in every four games he achieved with Chelsea would have been helpful.   But no, he’s lost the touch.  Mind you, some of us never had the touch at all, so he can be thankful for what he did have.

And speaking of those moving on, Jay Emmanuel Thomas has moved on, although in a different way, having been found guilty of involvement in a cannabis smuggling deal involving over half a million pounds.

In fact JET’s football career shows exactly why young players need a massive amount of personal support in case their expected life as a star never happens.

We all know about him during his three seasons with Arsenal when so much was hoped for from him, (I remember admitting to my previous expectations back in 2016) but he only made one appearance for the first team and instead went on loans to Blackpool, Donacster and Cardiff, before moving to Ipswich where he delivered eight goals in 71 games.   But he only really showed what he was capable of in terms of goals at Bristol City where he got 24 goals in 82 games.

But after two years there he got into a nomadic existence taking in QPR with loan spells out to MK Dons and Gillingham.  The last two of his 15 clubs were Kidderminster Harriers and Greenock Morton with him playing a total of 14 games in 2024.

And yet here was a player who had played for England in the under-17 and under-19 teams.

One can of course say how desperately stupid he has been, and although drug smuggling can’t be excused in any way, one can perhaps feel a little bit sorry for a man who has seen the bright lights, but never quite been able to make use of the talent he was given.

But the issue of JET does remind us of the difficulties faced by someone who has been shown the high life, only to find they remain out of reach.