Chelsea has entered the tug of war for Arsenal youngster Ethan Nwaneri.
What’s the latest on Ethan Nwaneri to Chelsea?
According to The Athletic, the Blues, alongside Manchester United and Manchester City are all monitoring the schoolboy, who is yet to resolve his future at the Emirates Stadium.
Although, the Gunners have not given up hope of convincing him to accept their offer and a new round of negotiations has taken place.
The teen’s current deal expires in the summer, so there is a race against time to secure his future in north London.
How old was Nwaneri when he made his Arsenal debut?
The prodigy is already engrained in top-flight folklore when he became the youngest player to appear in a Premier League match after he came off the bench against Brentford in September 2022, aged just 15 years and 181 days.
Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka eulogised over the talent and said: “He has a big future, if I am honest, I am doing my coaching licence and I have trained the Under-16s. You can see a big difference with him and the other guys. He is very, very special.
“Of course you have to protect him as he is very young but if he keeps going like this with his hard work he has a big, big future.”
Should Chelsea sign Nwaneri?
To those inside the Emirates Stadium, the boy’s incredible rise into national prominence is no surprise.
By the age of just 14, he was already playing for the U18 side, and at the start of this campaign, he moved to the U21s.
He has also featured for the England U17s, and has registered a commendable nine goal contributions in 14 appearances – this is a glowing testament to his quality and maturity. Nwaneri is already an overachiever, who is firmly on the pathway to immortality if he continues this growth at an exponential rate.
Former Arsenal U18 coach Dan Micciche has described the Englishman as someone “very highly thought of” with a “champion mentality”, whilst the club's U18 manager Jack Wilshere has labelled him “unplayable.”
He is a tricky, agile, and pacey player, who bares very similar traits to former Arsenal academy starlet Omari Hutchinson, who joined Chelsea last summer.
Across 71 appearances for various youth sides, the winger has recorded 51 goal contributions, and although he is yet to make meaningful inroads into the Chelsea first-team, he is still regarded as one of the nation’s biggest talents.
For Thomas Tuchel and head of youth recruitment, Jim Fraser, to pluck him from Arsenal was quite the statement. After all, like Nwaneri, he'd already appeared in first-team training and was on the bench a number of times.
Indeed, the prodigy looked all set for a bright future in north London, only to be snatched away by one of the club's rivals.
Given how young Nwaneri was when he made his debut, this would perhaps be an even bigger statement by Todd Boehly and co with it set to look like a real masterclass once again if they can repeat the feat of signing a promising youngster from the Arsenal academy.