The Arsenal youngsters destined to become household names

By Tony Attwood, with data from Andrew Crawshaw

I suspect most Arsenal fans have a particular affection for players who come up through the club from a young age and make it into the first team.   Perhaps doubly so when they are so evidently Arsenal born and bred as Jack Wilshere.  Which is what makes his moving away so sad.

But time moves on and the question always arises, who next?  Who will we see moving from the ranks of youth player into the first team?

This past season that mantle was taken by Ainsley Maitland-Niles who joined Arsenal aged six and now has his squad shirt number.  He played 28 games last season (15 in the league, nine in Europe and the one FA Cup match) and looks set to exceed that in 2018/19.

But who else now will step up?

Last season was a stellar campaign for the under 23s as the final league table shows…

Club	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
Arsenal	22	13	3	6	48	32	16	42
Liverpool	22	13	1	8	43	27	16	40
Swansea City	21	11	4	6	40	29	11	37
Leicester City	21	10	6	5	34	20	14	36
West Ham United	22	9	4	9	30	32	-2	31
Manchester City	22	8	6	8	41	31	10	30
Everton	22	9	3	10	32	36	-4	30
Chelsea	22	8	5	9	34	35	-1	29
Tottenham Hotspur	22	7	5	10	38	48	-10	26
Derby County	22	7	3	12	32	44	-12	24
Sunderland	22	6	4	12	19	39	-20	22
Manchester United	22	4	8	10	22	40	-18	20

We also have a new under 23s manager: Freddie Ljungberg.   Freddie previously coached the under-15s during the 2016/17 season and then was assistant coach at Wolfsburg.  He also worked with the under-19s as an assistant in 2016 and 2017, and so obviously will remember many of the players he will coach this season.

Here are the players who are still registered as youth players and so don’t count in the list of 25 first teamers.  Having such players clearly helps expand the squad beyond the restrictive 25 player limit, particularly as these players will often see each and every game in the first team as a bonus rather than seeing playing in the under 23s as a step down.

The first seven players can already be said to be first teamers…

Player	Country	No.	Position	1st team	Loan 2017/18
Ainsley Maitland-Niles	England	15	CM/Wing	Y
Edward Nketiah	England	62	Forward	Y
Jeff Reine-Adelaide	France	31	Forward	Y	Angers  Jan 18
Joe Willock	England	69	CM/Wing	Y
Konstantinos Mavopranos	Greece	27	CB	Y
Reiss Nelson	England	61	Forward	Y
Joshua DaSilva	England	43	Forward	Y
Ben Sheaf	England	65	CM
Charlie Gilmour	England	47	CM
Emile Smith-Rowe	England	90	Forward
Emiliano Martinez	Argentina	26	GK		Getafe
Gedion Zelalem	USA	40	Midfield
Joao Virginia	Portugal		GK
Jordi Osei-Tutu	England	62	RB
Joseph Olowu	England	87	CB
Julio Pleguezuelo	Spain	53	CB
Kelechi Nwakali	Nigeria		Midfield		VVV Venlo
Krystian Bielik	Poland	37	Midfield		Walsall J an 18
Nathan Tormey	England	94	Midfield
Stephy Mavididi	England	57	Forward		Preston North End
Trae Coyle	England	80	Wing
Tyreece John-Jules	England	82	Forward/MF
Xavier Amaechi	England	72	Midfield
Zech Medley	England	85	CB
Bayli Spencer-Adams	England	91	Defender

Of course more names could be added and there is no doubt that we have several players in the second part of that list above who have been rated highly by the club.

It could indeed be that several players from the list above could play in the first team in the coming season.  After all some of us thought the Reiss Nelson would be making a further breakthrough this past season.  Now, one year on, maybe this is his year.

But if the club can find just five players who can step forward into the first team when there is a chance, and avoid the sort of injury that has blighted the progress of, for example, Zelalem, then it could be an exceptionally exciting new season.

 

• In out in out: Arsenal’s 25 starts to take shape; but sadly, Farewell Jack.
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