Reiss Nelson leaves Arsenal as contract terminated immediately
After 18 years with the club, Reiss Nelson has parted ways with Arsenal by mutual consent, and the transfer rumours are already flying.
Reiss Nelson leaves Arsenal as both the player and the club have agreed to tear up his contract early, as per latest transfer news. This closes a chapter that started when he was just a boy chasing a first-team dream at Hale End.
End Of An 18-Year Arsenal Journey For Reiss Nelson
Arsenal announced that Reiss Nelson and the club had mutually agreed to end his deal with immediate effect. This allows him to walk away as a free agent. The winger joined the academy as a kid and slowly worked his way up through the youth ranks before signing his first professional deal in December 2016.
Over those 18 years, he built a deep connection with the club, one that many fans feel deserved a better send-off. In total, Nelson made 90 appearances for the Gunners first team, scoring 8 goals and setting up 9 more for his teammates. He also picked up an FA Cup medal in 2020 and helped the Gunners lift the Community Shield twice, first in 2017 and again in 2020.
The north London side thanked him for his years of service and wished him well for what comes next. He was a player who once looked destined to regular football at the Emirates. But, the exit feels bittersweet rather than triumphant. It leaves fans wondering whether the club could have handled his path differently.
Nelson’s all-time Arsenal stats, as per FOTMOB:
| Matches | Goals | Assists |
| 90 | 8 | 9 |
Nelson’s Career Of Flashes & Few Long Runs
The winger’s Arsenal career will be remembered for moments of brilliance rather than consistency. He never truly cemented a starting spot, and injuries often disrupted his rhythm at the worst possible times. His best individual spell came during a loan at Hoffenheim in 2018-19, where he scored seven goals in the Bundesliga that season. That was a return that first showed just how sharp his finishing could be.
He later spent time on loan with Feyenoord in the Netherlands during 2021-22. Then he moved to Fulham for the 2024-25 season, before spending last season with Brentford. At one stage, Arsenal wanted around £20 million for the winger, including add-ons, when several clubs showed interest in signing him permanently. That move never went through and the club eventually chose to let him leave for nothing once his contract neared its final months.
Reiss Nelson’s next stop after Arsenal
Now a free agent, Nelson holds the power to choose his next club without a transfer fee getting in the way. He has already been strongly linked with a move to West Ham. With his current market value sitting close to €8m according to Transfermarkt figures, several Premier League clubs could see him as smart business.
For the north London club, this exit marks the end of an era for one of Hale End’s most talked about graduates. This comes even if his senior career never fully matched the early hype. The Gunners’ head coach Mikel Arteta and his squad continues to lean on academy talents like Bukayo Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly. That said, Nelson’s exit quietly reminds everyone how hard it is to break through at a club chasing big trophies every season.
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