The Myth of the Bukayo Saka Backup

For years Arsenal fans have called for the club to sign a backup to Bukayo Saka and the reality is, that player likely doesn’t exist.
 
In a perfect world, Arsenal could have a player waiting in the wings to take the massive burden from Saka and the significant minutes he has played year in and year out as a 21-year-old. Unfortunately, the situation presented is much more complex than Arsenal fans would like it to be. Arsenal cannot spend £60m+ on a Moussa Diaby for instance and expect the 24-year-old, and player with a lot of potential in his own right, to be ok with playing second fiddle to one of the best players in the world at his position. There is not a player in the world that Arsenal could buy that could:
 
a. Replicate what Bukayo Saka does.
b. Be ok with not playing.
 
That player does not exist, and the Venn Diagram is two circles at the opposite sides of the universe. So, what happens if Arsenal does choose to buy a player that works in one of the two criteria?
 
If a player is somehow brought in from option a. and is good enough to do what Saka does, then being a ‘backup’ would not be good enough, a spot in the starting XI would need to be found for player A and then in the mission of finding Saka’s fabled backup, we’d be back to square 1.
 
So, what about Player B? Surely Arsenal can find a right winger that is ok with not playing all that much. Well then, we run into the inverse problem, if by Arsenal and Bukayo Saka’s misfortune this player must play significant minutes in Saka’s absence; the level of the team is automatically decreased because that player is cursed to an expectation to do what Bukayo Saka does. Which for most players in the world, is not possible. For the same reason that players like Sambi Lokonga have been deemed to have ‘failed’ during his time at Arsenal. When a backup plays, especially a young backup player like Sambi, they are expected to do both: not play very often and play to the level of the elite player that starts over them, you’ve created a situation where no player is set up to succeed.
 
In recent years during Arsenal’s squad rebuild, sometimes finding the depth we’ve desired has come at the expense of some of the team’s highest performers. Kieran Tierney and Bernd Leno were some of the best performing players in the Arsenal squad and in the quest of turning an 8th place team into title contenders, they were made the backups by new additions, Aaron Ramsdale and Alex Zinchenko. When creating depth, this has proven to be the most successful way to do so. Unfortunately, Bukayo Saka is Arsenal’s best player and one of the best players in the world at his position, making his role nearly impossible to find depth for.