20-year-old Arsenal youngster says he’s ‘amazed’ Mikel Arteta recently

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Arsenal youngster Catalin Cirjan says he has left Mikel Arteta ‘amazed’ after recovering from a serious knee injury.

Cirjan has been called up to first-team training regularly by Arteta this season and looks to be yet another bright prospect coming through the Hale End academy set-up.

The Romanian midfielder hasn’t had the best of luck in terms of his journey through the ranks at Arsenal though.

He joined the Gunners’ youth set-up back in 2019 and made a promising start to life in England, before he picked up a serious knee injury in 2021.

The 20-year-old was ruled out for a total of 449 days, which has naturally slowed down his progression in north London.

Now, Cirjan has revealed that Arteta was blown away with how he bounced back from what was a significant injury setback.

Cirjan has amazed Arteta

Speaking to London World, Cirjan opened up about his relationship with Arteta and heaped praise on the Gunners boss.

“He [Arteta] knows what I’ve been through,” he said. “He was also in a similar situation [with a long term injury]. He told me that I amazed him and that he admired me for the strength with which I came back after the operations.

“I am very grateful to Mikel for the way he talked about me, even more as these words come from the team manager of the moment, in the best championship of the world.

“I have great pride to be coached by Mikel and I try to learn as much as possible from him, especially since my style of play is very similar to the one he had as a player.

“He always asks me to play with courage and makes me give everything to training with him.”

Cirjan has racked up a total of 17 appearances for Arsenal’s U21s side this season after recovering from a serious injury.

He’s managed to score one goal from central midfield and was even spotted in first-team training last week.

It’s clear that Arteta is a huge fan of the player and if it wasn’t for his injury, he may have already made his debut for the club by now.