I have a small (read: insignificant) professional background in learning and development and talent management from a past career. It is fair to say that people development has always interested me at some level and when it comes to football, I am really fascinated by the many and varied ways in which young players develop (and, often, the many and varied reasons that they don’t develop).
There is no one size fits all method for developing people or for developing footballers, everyone’s ‘journey’ and learning style is different. When I look back at young players who have made the grade at Arsenal throughout the years, they all had a very different emergence. From someone like Cesc Fabregas who had obvious star quality and for whom several senior players were essentially cleared from his path.
To a player like Ray Parlour who just sort of appeared without great fanfare and stuck around for a long time, collecting a lot of silverware as he went along. Some players make their breakthrough thanks to injury (Mathieu Debuchy’s shoulder was the midwife to Bellerin’s ascension) and sometimes a player just had a particular quality lacking elsewhere in the squad- Alex Iwobi was a genuine ball carrier in a relatively static team.
Last season saw the emergence of two academy talents into the Arsenal senior team. Ethan Nwaneri’s talent was already well documented before last season but injuries meant that he quickly became an important player in 2024-25. Myles Lewis-Skelly’s rise to fame was a little more unexpected, given he had never really played at left-back before and Arsenal had 14 left-backs who all managed to get injured somehow.
Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri signed new long-term contracts this summer. It is fair to say the latter’s deal seemed to be a more protracted negotiation than the former. Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea were circling and, from what we understand, Nwaneri’s signature was not always assured. In fact, it looks as though there were moments of genuine doubt.
Nwaneri started three of Arsenal’s five pre-season friendly matches and all of those starts came in the ‘right eight’ position dominated by Martin Odegaard since his arrival from Real Madrid. I think this was partly about helping Nwaneri acclimatise to a relatively new position in a safe environment.
Reading between the lines a little more, I would suggest it was also a show of faith in the player designed to convince him to sign a new contract. What is interesting for me about Nwaneri’s development is how much has been driven by contract negotiations. Due to his tender years, Arsenal have had to hold two intense rounds of contract negotiation with the player in under 18 months.
He signed his first professional deal on his 17th birthday in March 2024. I don’t think it is a huge coincidence that Arsenal cut Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira loose that same summer. I strongly suspect that, again, this may have been a promise made to Ethan during those contract negotiations, where vultures would again have been circling.
This summer, Arsenal bought Noni Madueke as extra cover on the right wing, which, on the face of it, would obstruct Nwaneri’s path to regular minutes. However, Arsenal did not buy any natural Odegaard cover / competition this summer. It is one of the few areas of the team where they didn’t really purchase any sort of squad depth (unless you count Eze but I really don’t expect to see him to play there in anything other than an injury crisis).
TL;DR, I suspect (and I have no information to this effect whatsoever) Nwaneri and his representatives identified playing in a more ‘interior’ position and it was possibly a deal breaker in terms of extending his contract. It could be an entirely tactical preference on the part of the player, it could also be a recognition that trying to develop into Bukayo Saka’s position might not be expedient for his career (with Max Dowman coming down the tracks too…)
Shifting Odegaard from the position won’t be easy, of course. But Arsenal have already witnessed the damage caused by over reliance on Odegaard. Buying Madueke shows they are serious about having depth beyond Saka so the signs point to Nwaneri having a significant role with the chance to push for more.
There is a pattern too in how Arsenal have managed Odegaard’s absences so far this season. When the captain went off injured against Leeds and Nottingham Forest at home, Nwaneri was called for from the bench. Mikel Merino was an unused substitute in the Leeds game. When Nwaneri came on against Forest, Declan Rice was also available from the bench.
However, in the more white-hot surroundings of Anfield and San Mames, Mikel Merino got the nod. It is not too difficult to see the thinking there, Nwaneri has been preferred for home games when Arsenal have been expected to dominate the ball. For tougher away games, Merino’s experience and physicality have been preferred allies for Arteta.
Part of Arsenal having squad depth is about being able to show different faces for different occasions and how Nwaneri and Merino fit into that has been an intriguing subplot in the opening matches of the season. How Nwaneri’s development unfolds from here will also be really interesting.
I have to be honest, I suspect it might have been better for him to keep the dual Saka and Odegaard understudy spots open and just take all the minutes available at this stage. But like I said, no two journeys are the same and if focusing on fighting for Odegaard’s spot is what Ethan thinks is best for him, I am nobody to judge.
I also suspect that Arteta prefers having Madueke and Nwaneri available to him. One thing is for certain, Arsenal have a huge talent on their hands. It is easy to forget that Nwaneri doesn’t even turn 19 until the final day of British winter. How and where he blooms in this Arsenal team is going to be fascinating to witness.
