there is of course a pinch of winding a rival up in my post but there is a am serious point here, one which I'd genuinely hate to see my club get involved in (I was delighted we walked away from the reguillon deal in the summer as the buy back nonsense is a similar situation)
What's the best case scenario for arsenal here?
I'd suggest the best they can hope for is that he's 'ok' maybe a little above average because anything else is a long term loss for them.
If he's brilliant they can't keep him and they lose a key player at the end of the season. Not only are future results affected but player mentality too as they see a teammate using arsenal as a stepping stone and how do they suddenly view the club then ?
If he's total crap it's a waste of resources they could've put toward a player of their own that maybe could've benefited them long term or at very least shown other youngsters at the club that they'll be given chances
Your fellow fan talked above about how do we expect little arsenal to compete with the big boys, well that's kind of my point.
Arsenal are accepting a lesser position here, they could coach the shit out of this guy and make him a world beater, there's no benefit to them though (except maybe Real will lend them the next player they want to give minutes to without risking their own results)
I couldn't see someone like wenger taking deals like this, there's someone who despite his flaws had arsenal's best interests at heart. All this move serves is possibly protecting artetas positon and the boards coffers.
I get modern football is changing and during the covid period finances are doubly worrisome. Arteta is grabbing at whatever he can because he needs any kind of short term upturn to protect his job. The player will get minutes and regardless of the outcome can always swan back to Spain in the summer. So they've both nothing to lose.
Would you be pleased if he's excellent for you for the rest of the season only for Chelsea or Spurs to drop a fat wad in reals lap and sign him in the summer now that you've got him nice and settled in the league?
It's short term thinking
And small time mentality