Blood them early: Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri
Brentford were the latest side to be stung by Mikel Arteta’s new-look Arsenal: a dominant performance typified by a 3-0 win against their newly found social media rivals.
While many headlines were littered with superlatives reciting William Saliba’s calmness at the back, or Gabriel Jesus’ guile in attack, it was Ethan Nwaneri – a Hale End Academy product – that demanded the majority of media attention.
At 15 years and 181 days old, Nwaneri became the youngest ever Premier League debutant, and joined an illustrious list of prodigies that have gone on to serve as evidence that the Premier League can, and does, produce some of the most talented players in world football.
Nwaneri may go on to fulfil his potential. He may not. But, the ensuing media storm brought on by his debut is gathering momentum for all the wrong reasons.
Jason Cundy, in a tempestuous rant on talkSPORT, provided perhaps the most eye-catching criticism of Nwaneri’s substitute appearance.
“That is an unbelievable achievement, and I’m delighted for him on a personal level. There is a big ‘but’ coming… Arteta doesn’t really care about the boy” he laments.
“It’s about Arteta. It’s all about Arteta!”
Cundy goes on to label the decision taken by Arteta as “self-indulgent” before suggesting that giving him his debut at 15 does nothing for his career.
Cundy purporting that Arteta’s decision was some sort of PR stunt is strange. A reminder – Arsenal were 3-0 up, three minutes from time.
In other words, Arteta makes an ostensibly contentious decision in order to arouse some sort of reaction from the media – that’s where the irony unfolds.
Now, I’m not suggesting that sometimes pundits speak controversially purely to evoke a public reaction. Because, that would be incredibly facetious…
Cundy is wrong. Not wrong because he’s failing to detect the irony in his own words. But wrong because he’s forgetting that Arteta learned under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola.
Guardiola fostered the career of one of England’s brightest prospects, Phil Foden. The Spaniard was tentative in his mentorship of Foden, handing him his debut when he was 17-years-old, but only truly integrating him into the starting XI at City two seasons later.
Foden’s debut came when City were 4-1 to the good against Tottenham in the 83rd minute. At the time, there were no accusations of self-indulgence by Guardiola. No media uproar, no personal agendas against Guardiola pursued.
Why? Perhaps because Guardiola is a world-class manager, and has won almost everything there is to win in the game. In short, he knows what he’s doing.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Arteta – whose stewardship under Guardiola at City spans over three years – may know what he’s doing too. An idea attested to by Guardiola himself.
Nwaneri probably won’t go on to feature again this season. Just as Guardiola did with Foden, Arteta is doing with Nwaneri: give them a taste of what Premier League football is like, and in the same breath, increase their appetite for it ten-fold.
Cundy has also decided – for whatever reason – to completely ignore the reasoning behind Arteta’s decision.
“It’s not going to be about the age; the age doesn’t tell you a good player or a bad player [sic]” the Arsenal boss said. [1]
“He’s trained a couple of times with us. Yesterday he had to come because we had all the injuries… It sends a really strong message about who we are as a club.”
So, all it would’ve taken is a brief look at the post-match comments for Cundy – and others who have criticised Arteta – to realise that Nwaneri may not have even been in the squad if it wasn’t for injury to key players.
Arsenal were 3-0 up in the 91st minute of the game, and Arteta had an opportunity to send Nwaneri a very clear message. One that would be heard by Nwaneri himself, as well as all the other Hale End hopefuls: if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
Nwaneri himself won’t yet have committed his future to Arsenal due to his age, and what better way to secure his services than to convey this message.
You’d have to question what it says to academy players at Arsenal if age is considered to be a determining factor in their bid for first team football.
Danny Murphy offers a more nuanced criticism of Arteta, suggesting that the quick rise to superstardom could be detrimental to Nwaneri’s development:
“Nobody at the hierarchy at arsenal can know how fame and fortune are going to affect a 15-and-a-half-year-old boy in London.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GChpBIcGokg
While Murphy’s points are valid, is he really in a position to make assumptions about how Nwaneri would cope with this rise? By contrast, who is in a position to make such assumptions? Arteta.
And it’s unlikely that Arteta would have made his decision had he not thought that Nwaneri was equipped to deal with the consequences Murphy elucidates.
Although it’s a pundit’s job to scrutinise the actions of managers, to place yourself inside the Arsenal set up, and give yourself seniority over the man who sees these players day in, day out, is doing your job, but with a hint of ignorance. Or arrogance. Or in this case, both.
Kevin Campbell has come out in support of Arteta on talkSPORT, and launched into an anecdote about his time at Everton when Wayne Rooney was coming through the academy ranks.
Critically, he argues that part of the test that young players face is being able to deal with the pressure that managers put on their shoulders – a test that Rooney passed with frighteningly few problems.
We shouldn’t prematurely crown Nwaneri as the next Wayne Rooney – only time will tell how good he will be.
But to play devil’s advocate – and to adopt the same style of the pundits in question – should it not work out, and Nwaneri doesn’t hit the heights Arteta clearly thinks he can, it won’t be because of a three-minute substitute appearance he made when he was 15.
