Mikel Arteta isn’t helped by the news that Arsenal has completed its second summer transfer transaction just yet.
Despite having an excellent first half of the season, Mika Biereth, an Arsenal youth, has been brought back from his Motherwell loan. It continues the Gunners’ trend of minimal first team action in January this window.
Brazilian attacker Marquinhos has already returned to the team under Mikel Arteta, after failing to have much of an impact at Nantes in Ligue 1. Having been at Norwich after January of last year, this is his second temporary relocation in a straight that he has battled with.
The manager is irritated with the market, though, since his team and the majority of the Premier League are facing the prospect of harsh penalties for breaking financial regulations. Teams are being exceedingly frugal with their spending after Nottingham Forest and Everton were both implicated in more misdeeds.
It comes at a difficult moment for Arteta, as Arsenal is attempting to end their mini-slump after winning just one of their previous seven games. It is unlikely that any new players will bring about that alteration, though, as football.london is aware that it is quite possible that no new players will be brought in before the deadline of February 1.
Nevertheless, the team is still going strong and seems to have realised how to further Biereth’s development. He has been a standout performer on a terrible team, accumulating six goals and five assists in just 14 Scottish League games—all the more impressive considering that he has only made 11 starts.
Motherwell has only won one of their last 17 games and is currently ranked ninth (out of 12). Manager Stuart Kettlewell was surprised by Biereth’s return, but it’s possible that it was a part of a larger plan at Arsenal. With regard to the 20-year-old forward, the manager stated, “It’s a major, major disappointment.” This caught me off guard a little.
“They believe there’s an opportunity to send him to another club that takes him that step beyond where we are just now.” According to a story in The Star, Biereth is scheduled to travel to Sheffield Wednesday, a Championship team.
The goalie James Beadle from Brighton and the former Chelsea attacker Ike Ugbo from Troyes have already joined the Owls, who are now coached by Danny Rohl. With Wednesday presently in third place, Rohl is trying to prevent relegation, thus he signed both players on a loan basis.
In addition to the loan system being in place here, a special technique has also been used, which explains why Biereth’s stay above the border has been cancelled. Before this window, Ugbo and Beadle were already on loan at Cardiff and Oxford, respectively, but they were persuaded to renounce their commitments in favour of a fresh challenge.
Undoubtedly, this is a novel approach, and Wednesday will aim to extract maximum performance from Biereth, who reportedly trained with the first squad of Arsenal during the Scottish winter break. Following his impressive 25 goals and 15 assists in just 37 games, he joined the Gunners academy from Fulham and spent the previous year on loan at RKC Waalwijk in the Dutch top division.
With 12 goals and five more assists in 26 games since he was signed to a professional contract in 2021, he has consistently been a standout for the Hale End young teams. Despite not having played for Arsenal yet, he was included in the squad for cup matches against Nottingham Forest and Liverpool in addition to being selected on the bench for a 0-0 draw with Burnley during the 2021–2022 season. If it is to take place at Hillsborough, his upcoming test appears to be the most difficult of his career thus far.
