Football insiders shocked ‘special’ player is still at Arsenal now

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Many people within football were shocked that Ethan Nwaneri stayed at Arsenal this summer.

Journalist Charles Watts was speaking to TEAMtalk about the 16-year-old after committing his future to Arsenal.

Arsenal have already had a very busy summer.

Kai Havertz is currently the only player to have joined the club, but he’s set to be joined by two more players very soon.

Arsenal fans are on tenterhooks waiting for Jurrien Timber and Declan Rice to be announced as new signings.

Timber is expected to be announced this week, while Rice is working on his fitness away from West Ham before a move is confirmed.

Mikel Arteta and Edu have also had to work on new contracts for several of their current players.

After very briefly being a free agent, Reiss Nelson signed a new long-term deal at the Emirates last week.

William Saliba has put pen to paper on an Arsenal contract too, but some people were shocked that Ethan Nwaneri made the same decision.

He signed scholarship terms last month despite interest from Chelsea and Manchester City.

Some shocked Nwaneri stayed at Arsenal this summer

Asked about the ‘special’ teenager staying at the Emirates, Watts said: “Chelsea and Manchester City did everything they could to turn his head, not just his head, to turn him and everyone around him, which is the way of the world obviously when it comes to signing these players now.

“There’s so much competition to get the best young talents in English football, and it looked for a long time like he was going to go.

“Everyone that you spoke to in and around football and various agents who have players around the youth teams… it was pretty well believed he was going to be heading off either to Chelsea or Man City.

“And so for Arsenal to keep him, to convince him, again says a lot about where the club is at the moment, that they’ve managed to keep hold of their best young talents.

“And that I know they are absolutely delighted to keep hold of him and to be able to bat away the interest of Chelsea and Man City to keep him.”

Many were shocked when Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest-ever Premier League player when he came on for Arsenal against Brentford last season.

At 15 years old, he smashed the record held by Harvey Elliott when he made his debut for Fulham.

Arteta has kept faith in Nwaneri and called him up to their pre-season tour of Germany this week.

It will be interesting to see if he’s involved in the first team even more next season.