Arsenal set to lose 'best of the lot' academy graduate

Suraj Radia

• Updated: 11 Apr 2024 21:35 BST
• 4 min read

Arsenal are set to lose another talented academy youngster this summer who had previously been touted to break into Mikel Arteta’s first team and was dubbed ‘the best player to come out of Hale End’.

The Gunners saw Folarin Balogun leave the club last summer in search of first team football while similar doubts remain over current academy graduates Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah.

While Arteta has assembled a young squad full of homegrown talent like Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson, the only teenager to play in the Premier League under the Arsenal manager has been 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri.

READ MORE: Latest Arsenal transfer news

Arsenal had hoped that Charlie Patino would be a player who could also become a regular first team player, with Arteta himself insisting in November that ‘there is a pathway’ for the 20-year-old to feature in the squad.

However, the Evening Standard have claimed that Patino will seek a move abroad this summer after being unable to force his way into Arteta’s plans, with the midfielder having just one year remaining on his contract.

Patino has been on loan at Championship side Swansea this season but he has struggled for first team football since the arrival of new manager Luke Williams in January.

Patino yet to live up to Ferdinand hype

Patino had previously been lauded by Rio Ferdinand, who claimed he had spoken to people at Arsenal who believed the youngster was ‘the best of the lot’ from the club’s academy.

“Go on YouTube and watch his clips. It’s a joke what you see, the talent he’s got,’ Ferdinand said in 2022. “I’ve spoken to people at Arsenal and what they say about him in terms of this kid, talent-wise, could potentially be the best of the lot that’s come out in recent years. It’s a huge bar, but this kid has the talent and the big, big part of him is his mentality.

“When you talk to anybody who knows him, mentally, he doesn’t get carried away, doesn’t get too low, doesn’t get too high, very balanced kid, but has all the fundamentals in his game to really go to the top of the tree.

‘This kid is the next. I just feel, when you watch him, there’s a beautiful way he plays, the balance, the rhythm, the fans will enjoy watching him.”

Patino initially had a bright start to his career at Swansea, grabbing three assists in his first four games and scoring three times in 20 appearances under manager Michael Duff.

But Duff’s replacement Williams appears to be less keen on Patino, with the Arsenal loanee playing just 125 since the new manager was appointed.

Patinos’s struggles will have done him no favours to convince Arteta of his credentials, particularly with Arsenal’s progression into title contenders.

The playmaker will take comfort from seeing players like Balogun flourish abroad and it appears Patino will need to follow suit in order to live up to Ferdinand’s hype and bounce back from the disappointment at his boyhood club.