Arsenal: Jon Toral Granada Loan Already Off To Poor Start
Arsenal midfielder Jon Toral was sent off to Spain to play out another loan at Granada. Yet, now he’s not playing at all. Couldn’t he do that here?
There were no Arsenal ‘youngsters’ that I was more excited about seeing given a chance this summer than Jon Toral. The former Barca product had just come off a superb loan at Birmingham City where he won player of the year and goal of the year. It was an inspiring effort that saw him look like a class above his team mates.
Which is always a good sign when the team he is supposedly going to be playing for in the future (Arsenal), is a class or two above that team.
Even with a crowded midfield, I assumed that Toral would be given some time in the preseason to stake out a claim. He wasn’t. He was immediately sent out on loan to Granada, a lower-tier La Liga side. It was just like the Birmingham loan, only outside of England, which was, yet again, dubious.
It seemed to go well at first. Toral scored a winning goal in the preseason (he’s such a hero!) and played 73 minutes in their opening day draw against a solid Villareal team. In those 73 minutes he won three aerial duels and completed 92% of his passes and two tackles. He was a little loose with the ball, but cut him some slack, he’s new to the team.
Since those 73 minutes elapsed, Toral has yet to feature for Granada again as they were destroyed by Las Palmas 5-1 and then lost again to Eibar 2-1.
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Looks like Jon Toral isn’t in their plans. If a 5-1 loss doesn’t get you back into the starting XI after a solid preseason and a decent enough opening day performance, than something may be slightly off kilter and it has me greatly worried that Toral may have hit his loan peak last year and has started his decline this year.
I can’t help but think of what Lucas Piazon said about Chelsea. Eventually, these loans don’t help you anymore. Spending each year in a new place doesn’t always help you grow, it can hinder you just as easily.
Jon Toral made it clear last season that, while he loved his time at Birmingham, he couldn’t wait to come back to begin his Arsenal career. While we don’t know what conversations happened following that, it was a matter of days before he was in Spain with Granada.
It’s early in the season, so there’s no reason to panic just yet and think this is another Serge Gnabry situation. But it sure isn’t a good start.
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