Written by The Arsenal Kid.
Jay Emmanuel Thomas’s 2 goal performance against Everton reserves yesterday meant only one thing. He is too good for the reserve league but still a little short of breaking into the first team.
I am a big fan of JET but the couple of times I have seen him coming on as a substitute for the first team, he has not impressed at all. I might be biased but based on his those performances; there is no way Arsene would pick him over Van Persie, Chamakh or Bendtner. Ultimately he would be a big hit at the Emirates but as of now, he is just an unpolished gem.
So it begs the question, what do we do with him? Obviously we do not want to lose him to another club like others before him (Jay Simpson, Jerome Thomas etc). Personally, I feel JET’s situation now is pretty similar to the one faced by Jack Wilshere a year ago. Back then, Jack was not getting in the first team but was getting frustrated at the lack of opportunities. A loan move to Bolton and voila, he is a changed player. The stint at the Reebok really did him a world of good and we are reaping the rewards out of it.
The same can be prescribed for JET. He has completed a loan move to a lower division team and impressed, so now we have to see if he can cut it in the Premier League. There are plenty of team which are looking for talented strikers and would more than willing to take him in. The selection of the loan team is important as we do not want him to just sit on the bench or play in a team whose philosophy is markedly different from us e.g. Stoke, Blackburn. I guess the obvious choices would be Bolton again, Sunderland or Aston Villa. Arsene Wenger has a fantastic relationship with Steve Bruce and Gerard Houllier so it would be a breeze getting it done.
There are a couple of other players which would benefit from a loan move to a Premiership team besides JET, which Henri Lansbury and Havard Nordveit coming first to mind. The boys have come so far and just need the last step to make a breakthrough. Jack Wilshere has shown the way it is done last season and we would be foolish not to take advantage of this again.
