Arsenal are a team that prides itself on the promotion of youth.
Be it Bukayo Saka, Tony Adams, Liam Brady or David Rocastle, every generation has had at least a few homegrown gems that help build a stronger connection between the fans and the team.
However, while football can provide players and supporters with moments of unbridled joy, it can also be crushingly cruel, and where a few players go on to fulfil their promise and make it to the very top, there are hundreds who just don’t.
There have been plenty of such players at Arsenal in recent years, but there is one who was compared to Patrick Vieira and expected to do great things – both at the club and when he left – but it just hasn’t worked out that way.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide's record at Arsenal
The player in question is former Arsenal youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide, who joined the Gunners in the summer of 2015 from French outfit RC Lens as part of a £3m deal that also saw Yassin Fortune join the youth side.
It didn’t take long for the young Frenchman to impress his new fans either, as he took part in that summer’s Emirates Cup and put in a barnstorming performance against a Wolfsburg side that had a certain Kevin De Bruyne at the heart of it.
GK – Petr Cech
RB – Hector Bellerin
CB – Calum Chambers
CB – Gabriel Paulista
LB – Nacho Monreal
CM- Mikel Arteta
CM – Santi Cazorla
LM – Jeff Reine-Adelaide
CAM – Mesut Ozil
RM – Jack Wilshere
ST – Theo Walcott
The then-17-year-old provided the assist for Theo Walcott’s opening goal of the game and was described as “something special” by manager Arsène Wenger in the aftermath.
Over the next two years, the promising youngster would make eight competitive appearances for the first team but fail to score a single goal or provide any assists, and while Mikel Arteta described him as possessing “really big potential” and as having “all the attributes to become a really good player”, the north Londoners opted to sell him to Ligue 1 side Angers in July 2018 following a successful sixth-month loan spell at the club from January.
In his full season with Les Scoïstes, the Champigny-sur-Marne-born midfielder made 36 first-team appearances, scored three goals, provided three assists, and, after scoring a goal and providing an assist in his first league game of the 2019/20 season, he made a £23m move to French giants Lyon.
The Gunners made around £5m themselves thanks to a clause in the deal that saw him leave in 2018, but while the move was ideal for them, it would be quite the opposite for the player himself.
What Jeff Reine-Adelaide is doing now
Despite being compared to the immensely talented Vieira during his short time in England thanks to ‘his assurance on the ball and insistence of driving forward in possession’, combined with his ‘unnatural running style’ and most likely his nationality, Reine-Adelaide couldn’t make the step-up to playing regularly for Lyon.
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In his first season with the side, he made just 22 appearances, scored two goals, provided three assists and had to deal with a cruciate ligament tear that caused him to miss 19 games and 198 days of action.
With questions lingering about whether he was of the level to play for Lyon following his underwhelming first season, he was sent out on loan to OGC Nice for the 2020/21 campaign.
While things started well enough with five goal involvements in 18 games, the youngster was once again blighted with injury as he suffered a second cruciate ligament tear, only this time it led him to miss a whopping 47 games and 341 days over the latter half of the campaign and the first half of 2021/22.
It was during this period that Reine-Adelaide revealed he had thoughts of simply retiring from professional football, telling L’Equipe (via Get French Football News): “Yes, I have to say that it crossed my mind, I had it at the back of my mind. But my mentality is that of a winner, not a loser, that’s why it only crossed my mind.
“It’s the most difficult time I’ve experienced. I was alone at the hospital for a month, without being able to have visitors.”
The following two years saw him make a grand total of 33 appearances between Lyon and Troyes, who he joined on loan in 2022/23, but he still managed just two assists in that time.
Angers SCO
47
4
4
0.17
Lyon
48
2
4
0.12
OGC Nice
18
1
4
0.27
Troyes
6
0
1
0.16
RWD Molenbeek
19
1
2
0.15
The 6 foot midfielder finally parted ways with Les Gones permanently in September 2023, when recently promoted Belgian Pro League side RWD Molenbeek signed him on a one-year deal in what looked like a move that could save the talented player’s future.
Six months into his spell, Reine-Adelaide has made 19 appearances for the team – 17 of which have been starts – and while he has only registered three goal involvements, and picked up a red card in his 16th game, he appears to be a relatively important player to the team.
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The only problem is that Les Coalisés are currently three points from safety, so there is a distinct possibility that the player once described as “special” by Wenger and compared to Vieira by the press could be playing in the second tier of Belgian football next season. If they renew his deal, that is.
Ultimately, while he certainly had some trouble recreating his form from Angers at Lyon, it’s impossible not to look at his injuries and wonder what could have been had he had better luck.