Lewis Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri: both with Arsenal, both attracting more

It is not so much that Arsenal have Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri on their books.   It is not even that they are now both getting matches.   It is that they are both at Arsenal at the same time, and both getting matches.   When did a club have two such amazing prospects in its academy at the same time?

I’m sure there have been some examples of clubs having two such brilliant young players at the same time, and both of them getting game time, but none spring to mind.

And that leads to the next point: if you were a parent and had a son showing prodigious talent, and you wanted to get him into an academy where he would not only be treated well, but also might, if that talent is real and sustained, become a top player – then which club would come to mind?

The answer of course is Arsenal.

But there are other snippets of information that might influence your thoughts too, like the fact that Lewis-Skelly, joined the academy as an eight year old, after having had trials with Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.  I just wonder how those two clubs feel now.  Pretty pissed off, I hope – although not so much that they will change any of their approaches to youngsters.

The fact is that the academy team gets to play at a proper football ground – Meadow Park, and the academy has at its manager Per Mertesacker, who has not only been running the show.

Now if you want to know anything about how solid Per is attached to his job, consider this: he joined Arsenal as Academy Manager, became interim manager at Arsenal in 2019, but then immediately he could he revered to Academy Manger.  That shows exactly where his heart and his soul is.

And if you want more still, this is one of the most successful Academies there is.   Now I know that sometimes people measure academies by the number of players currently in the club’s first team, but that’s not the point.  It is the quality of provision at Arsenal Training Centre and the fact that Arsenal Academy is the most successful that there is in the country.

The Academy side have won seven FA Youth Cups and six Premier Academy League titles.  And if you want anything else, the two youngsters we are currently raving about are regulars with England.  Lewis-Skelly even has a mother who has a master’s degree in football business.

As you will imagine, all this commentary came about after watching Lewis-Skelly play last night in the game against Monaco.   As Untold suggested in the preview this was a must win game to ensure Anrsenal went into the last two games next year ready to get an automatic  place in the elite group for the knock out rounds.  To play Lewis-Skelly in that game shows confidence in him, and he repaid it.   As Arteta said in an interview, We can trust him.”   Which means he is going to get some more chances, and in fact Arsenal have two more members of their squad, without either of them taking up one of the 25 positions.  (Because under 21s don’t count).

I don’t mean to say through this that Arsenal are the only club doing it, or that these players that Arsenal have used are the youngest.  Not at all. An Icelandic club with an unpronounceable (by me) name used a player who was 15 years 09 months 27 days, this season, and there are multiple 16 year olds who have been used in the Champions League this season, but these players come from what I might call lesser clubs, and are (sometimes not always) being put on show so that they can get a transfer to a bigger club and thus get better developmental training.

But Ethan Nwaneri remains the youngest player to ever play in the Premier League, making his debut at the age of 15 years and 181 days in September 2022. You’ll remember he came on as an attacking midfielder for the final minutes of the 3-0 win against Brentford.

Ahd oh how the media howled with ridicule and frustration.