Ethan Nwaneri could be the beneficiary as Mikel Arteta tries to ‘get youth machine going’

Mikel Arteta knows what it is like to be a teenager and to feel like it is impossible to break into an elite team.

He lived it every day for three years at La Masia, surrounded by bunk beds that cradled four future Champions League winners — some of whom would go on to form the spine of Barcelona and Spain’s national team for over a decade.

The older players would prank the non-Catalan boys by putting thumbtacks in their beds but what was no joke was the queue of midfielders in front of Arteta at Barcelona: Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Phillip Cocu, Ivan de la Pena, Emmanuel Petit, Gerard Lopez, Bolo Zenden and Jari Litmanen, as well as older B team graduates Xavi, Gabri and Sergio Santamaria.

Arteta went on to make nearly 500 appearances for Paris Saint-Germain, Rangers, Real Sociedad, Everton and Arsenal but first he had to experience the door being shut on his dream at Barcelona.

Despite his own experience at La Masia, Arteta is clear he wants to create a similar culture of incorporating homegrown players.

Since becoming Arsenal boss in December 2019, Arteta has opened the door for seven debutants from the academy — Ethan Nwaneri, Karl Hein, Ben Cottrell, Miguel Azeez, Charlie Patino, Charles Sagoe Jr and Folarin Balogun — but to date, they have only played 16 games between them.

“We need to get the machine going,” he said on Tuesday. “I have been there in that position, and you feel a huge empathy for them. I really want to help them fulfil the dream and hopefully we can achieve that.”

Of all the players in the academy, Nwaneri is the one regarded most highly, with one academy source — speaking on condition of anonymity to protect their position — unequivocal that, as an eight-year-old, the midfielder was the most talented youth player he had seen at that age — and has remained on that trajectory.

He is in the squad for Tuesday’s final Champions League group match at PSV Eindhoven and could become the youngest player to represent Arsenal in Europe if he features. Jack Wilshere holds the record from when he faced Dynamo Kyiv in 2008, aged 16 years and 329 days. If Nwaneri plays, he will beat that record by 63 days.

Nwaneri already holds the record as the youngest player in English top-flight history, having come on against Brentford in September 2022 aged 15 and 181 days. It has all led to a growing focus on how Arteta intends to incorporate him.

“Something unique that he’s got that I really liked from the beginning is his ability to take the ball in tight areas, to escape a little bit like Jack Wilshere used to do,” Arteta said. “The personality he has… he trains with us as he trains with the under-18s, under-16s — and I love that in a player.

“He’s got that thing between his teeth as well that he wants to show every single day how good he is and impress people. When you have someone like that, you have to give him hope. It (his debut) was a really important moment for us because we wanted to keep him. I think it was a strong sign for him that this was his place to keep developing.”

Nwaneri has not featured since his first appearance and did not come off the bench in the 6-0 home win against Lens despite top spot being sealed. Fellow 16-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly did not feature either and was not chosen to travel for the dead rubber in the Netherlands.

Full-backs Lino Sousa and Reuell Walters, who are both yet to make their competitive debuts, are the only other two youngsters to have been given a chance as part of the squad.

“It gets harder and harder so the talent has to be really good,” said Arteta. “You have to build space in the squad as well to give that talent an opportunity.

“On TV, it probably looks easier (to be at the level), but if you get them to train with the boys they might realise. The level is high. The demands the game has got right now are huge and the competition as well because we can pick players from anywhere in the world. I’m very positive with a few that we have at the moment.”

The way Arteta’s path was blocked at Barcelona gives him valuable experience he can use as a manager. But he also saw how a football identity was indoctrinated at every age group and how then-managers Louis van Gaal and Lorenzo Serra Ferrer did or did not transition young players into the first team.

“It’s very difficult and the context is very different,” Arteta added. “When I was in La Masia, we were staying in bunk beds. It was Pepe Reina, Victor Valdes, Andres Iniesta, Thiago Motta, (Carles) Puyol and myself. So there was huge competition living in that room already. We were like little brothers living together, but the competition was fearless and that’s probably what made us after. So when we had to compete, we were ready. But it’s very tough to put youngsters in the environment close to what they’ll need to compete on the pitch.”

Whether under-23 football adequately prepares players for the huge leap in standard is an ongoing issue in many countries. The EFL Trophy offers a limited taste of senior football but the concept of B teams in professional leagues is not something that has got off the ground in England, unlike in Spain and Germany.

Chelsea have made over £150million ($188m) from academy sales since the summer of 2021 in what has become a reliable income stream over the past six years. Manchester City have mirrored that success, which is especially beneficial to clubs financially as the transfer fees from academy sales are not amortised over a number of years in the accounts — they count as pure profit in the same year.

Arsenal have earned more than £100million ($125.5m) in fees from Alex Iwobi, Emi Martinez, Joe Willock and U.S. international Balogun, who joined Monaco in the summer after failing to dislodge Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah in the striking pecking order.

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To what extent academies exist as talent factories for the senior team or now primarily function as money-making machines is a recalibration Arteta is aware of.

“Sometimes it’s about timing and the competition that they have in their position,” he said. “Sometimes you develop a lot of midfielders or strikers and then you cannot accommodate all of them. The club also has to have the capacity to give space to those players to grow somewhere else. It has to be part of that strategy.”

Given those comments, there was some surprise Arteta did not leave more senior players at home for this week’s match and bring another few youngsters with him. But he argued he wants to maintain the squad’s tightness by keeping them together and instilling the mentality that every game is to be won.

There has not been a stream of players who have broken through to become regulars but Arteta has developed Bukayo Saka to the extent that he is now indispensable for both Arsenal and England, picking him the most times of any player (181) during his tenure.

The youthful energy of Emile Smith Rowe was also key to elevating the team during difficult periods between 2020 and 2022 but Nwaneri — who scored five goals against Crewe Alexandra in the FA Youth Cup on Saturday — is the type of special talent that puts a manager’s eagerness to play youngsters under the spotlight.

(Top photo: Arsenal FC/Getty Images)