Arsenal keep Premier League’s youngest ever player away from Chelsea and Man City’s grasp

Arsenal’s retention of expertise exhibits gamers imagine they’ll compete 

The excellent news retains on coming for Arsenal. This week they’ve signed Kai Havertz, moved nearer to an settlement with West Ham United over Declan Rice and, on high of that, they’ve now satisfied Ethan Nwaneri to commit his future to the membership.

Of these three developments, the information of Nwaneri’s settlement is comfortably probably the most low-profile. However that’s not to say this isn’t an necessary day for the membership, who had been at critical threat of dropping one among their brightest younger abilities to a rival.

Again in March, when Telegraph Sport reported that Nwaneri was being eyed by different Premier League giants, there was not a lot optimism inside Arsenal that {the teenager} would stick with them past this season.

Clearly, it will have been a big blow if Nwaneri had been lured away. He joined the academy on the age of eight and is broadly thought to be one of the crucial promising younger abilities within the nation.

For Arsenal to show that scenario round, then, is one other signal of the encouraging work they’re at present doing below Mikel Arteta, sporting director Edu and, on this case, academy supervisor Per Mertesacker.

There aren’t any ensures, after all, that Nwaneri will make it as a first-team participant at Arsenal. There aren’t any ensures he’ll make it as a first-team participant anyplace. Accidents can occur, improvement can stall, issues can change.

However Arsenal can’t be able the place their greatest abilities are poached by different golf equipment. If they’re to supply the subsequent Bukayo Saka or Emile Smith Rowe, there must be a pathway for these gamers and a spot for them to develop. They want these children to imagine that Arsenal is a membership the place they’ll have probabilities.

What message wouldn’t it have despatched to the very best 11 or 12-year-olds within the academy, for instance, if Nwaneri regarded Chelsea or Manchester Metropolis as a greater place to be taught the sport? Arsenal are competing with these giants on each degree and youth improvement is among the most necessary of these. Conserving Nwaneri is an indication that they’re at present competing properly.