Arsenal are said to have “enormous expectations” for a teenage talent who’s yet to make his senior debut for the club, with manager Mikel Arteta also taking note of his performances at academy level.
As revealed by sporting director Edu, the signing of young and energetic players with “beautiful futures” is very much top of the north London club’s agenda heading into this summer.
The long-term project by Arteta and Edu has been nothing short of exceptional, as it wasn’t long ago that Arsenal were miles away from competing for a league title.
Now, though, they’re among the frontrunners to lift the Premier League and are seriously worrying two of England’s most established elite of the last few years – Man City and Liverpool.
Arsenal’s patience and faith in Arteta has paid off, despite some bumps in the road, and the key now is building upon this success by thinking to the future.
“We already have our targets,” said Edu on Arsenal’s transfer plans (via TNT Sports). “We have planned a lot ahead and I will be worried if we don’t score a lot of goals and if we’re not creating chances, which is the opposite because we create a lot and score a lot of goals.
I think if you see the type of the players we have at the moment, it’s players which have a big, big commitment of [to] the club, which is very important. So the way we transmit to the fans, transmit to people our commitment – sometimes you can lose, you can win games, it’s all part of the sport – helps us perform the best way possible and show the passion we have for the club and try to be win as many games as we can.
“Many times in certain conversations to recruit the players you don’t see the character of the player or the character of the player does not fit well with what we are trying to do and then you have to move on and try to find what we’re really looking for. If you see all the signings we’ve made since we started together, everyone is almost the same, young, energetic and passionate, and good talents with big, beautiful futures ahead of them.”
While Arsenal are looking to bring in young talent from elsewhere, some prodigies closer to home are thought to be really impressing at Hale End.
Indeed, according to Ekstra Bladet (via Sport Witness), Arsenal have “enormous expectations” for Chidozie Obi-Martin – who is making waves behind-the-scenes.
Indeed, according to Ekstra Bladet (via Sport Witness), Arsenal have “enormous expectations” for Chidozie Obi-Martin – who is making waves behind-the-scenes.
Arteta is “perfectly aware” of the teenager’s ability, and could well hand the 16-year-old his first team debut in the coming weeks. This will come as enticing for supporters who wish to see another academy graduate make the grade, and Obi-Martin looks like someone to watch out for.
