After Mohamed Elneny, Rob Holding is the second longest serving member of the squad, arriving from Bolton Wanderers in the summer of 2016 for a fee of around £2 million. He was Arsenal’s third signing of that transfer window, arriving after Granit Xhaka and Takuma Asano, but Holding joined the club to meet Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Gabriel Paulista and Calum Chambers, that was on the verge of leaving on loan.
Holding was on the fringes for most of his Arsenal career, but he featured regularly under Unai Emery, before suffering an ACL injury in Old Trafford that cut his campaign short. He did well to return from injury to hold a regular spot under Mikel Arteta in the 2020/21 season starting 30 of Arsenal’s 38 Premier League games in that campaign, but with each new defensive signing, Holding found himself further down the pecking order. Despite Jurrien Timber out for a considerable chunk of this season with an ACL injury, Holding is still behind Jakub Kiwior, William Saliba, Gabriel, Ben White and even Takehiro Tomiyasu for a center back starting berth.
With his contract expiring at the end of this season, Arsenal has to make a decision regarding his future – sell him this summer or let him leave on a free transfer at the end of the campaign.
According to transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano, Holding has garnered some interest from some Spanish clubs and he is set to end his seven-year association with the club this summer. One Arsenal player has already sealed a move to Spain, with Kieran Tierney recently joining Real Sociedad on loan, so it’s interesting to see how this develops.
I like Holding as a player, and I’m sure he has good influence in the dressing room, but last season, he became a lightning rod for abuse from the Arsenal fan base, as his arrival in the team following Saliba’s injury, coincided with the Gunners rotten run of form that saw them draw three matches on the spin against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton, before losing to Manchester City which effectively derailed Arsenal’s title challenge. Arteta responded with replacing Holding with Kiwior against Newcastle, but the damage had already been done.
Holding’s last appearance for the club was a five minute cameo in the 4-1 win over Chelsea in May 2023 following a Gabriel injury concern, and he has not featured ever since. Even during preseason, Holding’s only minutes came in the 5-3 win over Barcelona, coming on as a sub late on for Gabriel.
With Arsenal competing on many fronts, I expected Holding to stay behind and feature in the odd Carabao Cup or FA Cup games, but it seems the club has given its blessing for him to leave and Spain seems to be the likeliest destination. With the transfer window just days away from closing, one would imagine that Edu Gaspar and his team will be working round the clock to get this departure to fruition.
If it eventually materializes, Holding will be departing from Arsenal after making 162 appearances in seven seasons. He won two FA Cups (2017, 2020), three Community Shields (2017, 2020, 2023) with the Gunners and he’d leave us with some good memories. The performance that would forever stand out for me was his defensive output in the 2017 FA Cup final against Chelsea.
I wish Holding the very best and I hope his move to the Iberian Peninsula is one he’d enjoy.
Sayonara.
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