‘Took me back’: Nketiah says 38-year-old Arsenal let go used to truly amaze him in training

By Charles Jones

Speaking to the BBC, Eddie Nketiah has been discussing his first training sessions with the Arsenal team and which player was the first to truly take him aback.

Nketiah has been training with the Arsenal senior side for some time now and when he first broke through there were some truly talented players strutting their stuff at London Colney such as Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil.

However, according to Nketiah the first player who truly made him realise the standard he had to be at in training was Santo Cazorla.

The striker says that Cazorla would truly amaze him in training back in the day, claiming that his ability to move the ball with both feet and turn on a sixpence forced him to sit up and take notice of the standard he was now expected to be at.

Cazorla stunned Nketiah

The attacker spoke about what it was like to train with the Spaniard.

“The first pro you trained with who took you aback?” Nketiah was asked.

“For me it’s Santi Cazorla. The way he could move the ball with both feet and turn took me back. I just realised that this is the standard,” Nketiah replied.

One of the best

Cazorla may not have been the very best player in the Premier League at that point in time, but we can’t imagine there would have been many better in training.

In a less intense environment where technical ability shines through above physicality, Cazorla would have looked like a footballing demi-god.

His footballing IQ, ability on both feet and ball-striking ability were all amongst the best in the world in his pomp – there’s a reason he’s still one of the very best players in Qatar right now at the age of 38.

Cazorla is one of those players that you always hear about being amazing in training, and we’re not shocked to hear that he was the player who Nketiah first realised was just on another level.