A loan was the right thing. Gnabry was very impatient and hungry to start playing. We were under pressure to give him a chance. This is the big challenge with a youth model. You need to deliver on it, while also competing. It's easier to do if you are BVB and the only club you are competing against is Bayern, so if you collect the best youth players in Germany, you have a reasonable chance of beating the other 16 teams in the Bundesliga. It's harder when you are Arsenal and competing with 4 or 5 big clubs while trying to blood kids.
A better loan for Gnaby in retrospect would've been to a team that understands youth talents like a Southampton or someone else in the Championship, not to Tony "Serge is not at the required level" Pulis. It's a real lesson about setting expectations for players, and thinking about how we set up a network of preferred loan clubs or managers.
