Trae Coyle loaned to Gillingham in League One

Earlier today, Arsenal announced that they’ve loaned 19-year old attacker Trae Coyle to Gillingham in League One for the 2020-21 season. Coyle will join Arsenal teammate Zech Medley in Kent, whose loan to The Gills was announced earlier this week. Coyle said that it’s important for his development that he play “men’s football” and that he’s excited to join the League One side.

The pair join Zak Swanson (MVV Maastricht, Eredivisie) and Dinos Mavropanos (VfB Stuttgart, Bundesliga) as confirmed loans for the upcoming season.

Arsenal seem to be doing their loan-out deals early this year, despite the window for business with lower division clubs in England remaining open through mid-October. According to football.london and broken down by Nathan for TSF, loan-outs for Matt Smith and Tyreece John-Jules are in the works as well.

In a normal summer, the youngsters would probably get some time to train with the first team and would feature in some of the July preseason matches before heading out. But with the curtailed offseason, it’s probably best that they get as close to full preseasons as possible wherever they’re spending the season. That way, they’ll be fully integrated into their loan squads and ready to earn those all-important developmental minutes.