How Premier League title obsession could cost Arsenal the next Saka

Tom Weber

Updated: 14 May 2024 15:40 BST
4 min read

Mikel Arteta, Bukayo Saka, Arsenal — © IMAGO

Arsenal are facing a major conundrum regarding the club's future.

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Mikel Arteta has turned Arsenal into an elite club again. Since the Spaniard's arrival in 2019, the Gunners have gradually evolved into one of the Premier League's best sides.

Nowadays, they are able to challenge Man City for the Premier League - though even a historic season such as the current one may ultimately not be enough to dethrone Pep Guardiola's rule-bending, well-oiled machine.

This evolution from banter club into one of the world's best sides has come at a cost, however. It is becoming harder and harder for promising academy prospects to break into the first team. One thing Arteta has not managed to do in his eminently impressive stint in charge of the Gunners is forge a pipeline between Arsenal's elite academy and his side.

Many a youngster has been given the chance to train with the seniors under Arteta, but actually getting on the pitch in competitive fixtures has proved a nigh on insurmountable challenge.

Arsenal risk talent slipping away

With the exception of the brilliant Bukayo Saka, Arteta has not really managed to fully and consistently integrate any Hale End prospects into the first team. Emile Smith Rowe looked incredibly promising a few years ago but he can barely get a game now, while Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah haven't been able to make the grade either.

Charlie Patino, hailed as one of the biggest prospects in England, is on the way out and now The Athletic reports that Reuell Walters, another very highly-rated youngster, is also set to depart. FootballTransfers exclusively reported in December that Arsenal were stepping up their contract talks with Walters, but the 19-year-old defender has snubbed the Gunners.

Walters wants to pursue other opportunities after seeing his path to senior football blocked. Despite being a regular fixture in Gunners first-team training, he has never made a competitive appearance and will leave as a free agent this summer.

The only teenagers to have made a senior appearance for Arsenal this term are Charles Sagoe Jr and Ethan Nwaneri, who have both played one game - the same amount as Kieran Tierney, who has spent the entire season out on loan at Real Sociedad. Walters has been part of 11 matchday squads without seeing minutes, which must surely be incredibly frustrating.

It was a similar story last season. Nwaneri made one appearance, the only homegrown teenager to do so. The year before, Patino and Folarin Balogun made a handful of appearances, with the latter sold to Monaco last summer after Arteta and company, allegedly, refused to guarantee him a place in the side.

To say that Arteta doesn't improve players would, of course, be far from the truth. William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli have gone on to become very good Premier League players under the Spaniard's tutelage, with the former now one of the best defenders in the world.

However, it must be acknowledged that Arteta's track record of working with academy talent just isn't great. With the manager and the entire club now obsessed with the idea of beating Man City to the Premier League title, it is unlikely that things will improve anytime soon.

In fact, it looks increasingly as though Arsenal will go down the same route as Chelsea, who have begun flipping homegrowns to generate pure profit and help them balance the books.

The likes of Smith Rowe, Nelson and Nketiah are all earmarked to depart this summer to permit more massive spending on elite stars. If Arsenal are not careful, more prospects such as Walters and Patino could slip through their grasp.

Read more about: Premier League, Arsenal, Bukayo Saka, Reuell Walters