Could Arsenal take a look at more academy players after youngster steals the show? by Konstantin Mitov
I must admit that I didn’t really see how young Eddie Nketiah would come on with 5 minutes to go and turn the game on it’s head, but it happened and it is so nice to see. Once he scored, every touch he made just lifted the crowd and a start like that puts high expectations on a player.
With the Europa league at hand and the Carabao cup, we have a much bigger chance to see players like this emerge. And with all the negativity surrounding the club in the past year considering the amount of players underperforming, wanting to leave and so on, it feels like some of the youngsters have come out with more desire to prove something.
It’s kind of worrying seeing academy lads shaming performances of players like Walcott on 140k a week and I continue to wonder why we didn’t take 30 million for him when Everton wanted him? But the big question for me is will Wenger trust those kind of players enough, so that they don’t just disappear?
Alex Iwobi is the most recent example of a player who came out of the academy and is getting some first team time, but there have been a few noticeable under 18 players who’ve made a case for themselves this year like Joe Willock and most notably Reiss Nelson.
Joel Campbell is a player who was performing well in my opinion for the part time role he had here, but Wenger doesn’t seem like he trusted him enough to keep him in the side. Rob Holding also had a lively start to his career, but is yet to develop as the real deal. If we manage those players right, than maybe when the ever approaching time to replace some of the older players at the club comes, we will have a new Arsenal star born from the academy!
Konstantin