How did Arsenal’s 13 loanees get on this season?

Arsenal have had 13 players out on loan over the course of the 2025/26 campaign, let’s have a look at how they got on and what’s next.

Arsenal continued to make use of the loan market in 2025/26, sending a number of players out in the summer transfer window, and a few more in January.

Starting with those who have since left the club, Jakub Kiwior joined FC Porto on an initial loan and Karl Hein joined Werder Bremen, with both deals subsequently turning permanent.

Kiwior had a great season with Porto, playing regularly and winning the league title. Hein’s season was much less busy, as he largely acted as a backup to Mio Backhaus, but Backhaus’ transfer departure has opened up an opportunity for Hein to take over.

Oleksandr Zinchenko spent half a season on loan with Nottingham Forest and didn’t play particularly often, but Ajax decided to sign him permanently in the January transfer window anyway.

Then Maldini Kacurri joined non-league Morecambe and impressed sufficiently for League Two Grimsby Town to sign him in January.

On the other side of things, Will Sweet (Dagenham & Redbridge) and Harrison Dudziak (Braintree Town) both had non-league loans too, but they’ve both since been released by Arsenal to become free agents.

Fabio Vieira had a great loan with Hamburger SV, who had an option to buy in the player’s contract. But the German club have decided not to activate their option, hoping to buy the midfielder for less. Arsenal are unlikely to be ameanable to that, given Vieira’s strong individual campaign.

Similarly, Brentford have decided not to take up their option to buy Reiss Nelson, for the fairly obvious reason that he didn’t manage to break into their team.

The winger was a little unfortunate with a couple of early injuries and illnesses disrupting his momentum, but it was still a less-than-ideal season.

Ethan Nwaneri also did not have a particularly good loan with Olympique Marseille, and he appears to be available for transfer too.

The midfielder only made four starts in France, and whilst the experience still will have been valuable, Arsenal are likely to be disappointed that the loan wasn’t more eye-catching.

Louie Copley was popular with his manager at League Two Crawley Town, and he helped them to avoid relegation, but the main blot on his loan was a couple of weeks-long injury absences.

Ismeal Kabia had a less controversially successful loan with fellow League Two side Shrewsbury Town, playing week in, week out throughout the season. The winger did find himself generally playing as a full-back or wing-back, but this was a positive first taste of senior football for him.

Lucas Nygaard’s loan with Danish lower-league club Brabrand IF has also gone pretty well, as he’s played a decent number of games.

That loan concluded today, and he did play fewer than half of their matches whilst on loan, but he was in and out of the team throughout. Brabrand’s sporting director has indicated they’d be open to another loan.

That just leaves Charles Sagoe Jr., who is still on loan with Kalmar FF. The winger joined on a year-long loan in February, so he still has a while to go.

But that loan is going excellently, with Sagoe Jr. providing seven direct goal contributions in 12 games so far.

In all, Arsenal will be pleased that their loans for Kiwior, Hein, Kacurri, and Zinchenko all resulted in permanent moves, and that Sweet and Dudziak got some good first-team experience before their Arsenal deals ended.

The Gunners will hope to cash in on Vieira, Nelson, and possibly Nwaneri, and Kabia has done well to raise his profile for another loan or permanent move.

Nygaard and Copley will probably need further loans as well, as there’s unlikely to be significant interest in permanent transfers at the moment. As for Sagoe Jr., Arsenal have another six months before needing to think about what’s next.

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