Tony Adams, Ashley Cole, Rocky Rocastle, Bukayo Saka: the list of superstars that have emerged from Arsenal’s famous Hale End academy goes on.

A central part of the football club, it’s rightly regarded as one of the best in the game, something that we continue to see with young prodigies coming through every season.

Loan spells can be the making of these stars. Regular first team action builds their character, makes them game-smart, and fosters that winning mentality that’s so intrinsic to the football club.

With that in mind, here are five young Gunners who are making an impact at their loan clubs.

Charlie Patino

A young, slender Arsenal youngster will inevitably attract the questions of ‘whether he can do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke’, but 19-year-old Charlie Patino has put those doubts to rest with a fine season for Blackpool so far.

While he may not have scored at Stoke on the opening day, he did net one at Cold Blow Lane, or the New Den, as Millwall’s stadium is now known. Then-manager Michael Appleton singled him out for praise later on, noting how he’d seen a big improvement from the midfielder.

Patino has also cemented his place in a team fighting hard to battle against relegation to League One. Whatever happens, it’s sure to be a useful learning curve for the teenager.

Brooke Norton-Cuffy

Brooke Norton-Cuffy may have only just turned 19, but he already has close to half a century of senior appearances to his name.

The youngster has risen up the ranks while on loan. He flourished in League One for Lincoln City last season, before making the step up to The Championship with ease for Rotherham United.

His powerful frame, excellent dribbling skills, and impressive pace caught the eye of Mark Robins, who successfully managed to get him on loan for Coventry City until the summer. Playing in front of 20,000 people every other game will no doubt get Norton-Cuffy used to big-game experience, and he may even be part of a play-off charge if the Sky Blues can put a winning run together.

The hope for Arsenal fans is that they get a ready-made wing-back once Norton-Cuffy’s loan experience is done.

Folarin Balogun

If it’s a goalscoring forward you’re looking for, then Balogun is proving that he can do it at a top level. In his first season in Ligue Un for FC Reims, he’s already scored against three of last season’s top four, including a last-gasp equaliser against PSG.

The glut of goals has seen his transfer value balloon to the size of a lottery jackpot over the last few months, and if he can replicate his form upon a return to Arsenal, we may even see it rise to EuroMillions levels.

Quick and strong with a fierce shot, the young American appears to be on the right track. Whether he can push past the likes of Eddie Nketiah and a fit-again Jesus upon his return, though, remains to be seen.

Nuno Tavares

Nuno Tavares may be a surprise inclusion on this list, having divided opinion among Arsenal fans with some mixed displays for the Gunners.

People forget, though, that the young Portuguese has only just turned 23 and still has a lot of learning to do. He’s managed to do a lot of that learning this season, on loan at last season’s Ligue Un runners-up Marseille.

Tavares started the season with a bang, scoring three times in the opening four games from the left wing, earning praise from teammate Adel Taraabt. His form then has been steady, with a sustained run in the team seeing moving to left back and even right wing at times.

Arthur Okonkwo

After joining Arsenal’s academy at the age of just eight, Arthur Okonkwo put over a decade’s formative training to great use with an excellent season at Crewe last season, where he kept ten clean sheets in 34 games.

After spending the first half of this season with the Gunners youth team, Mikkel Arteta allowed him to make the step up to the Austrian Bundesliga by moving to Sturm Graz. The higher standard of domestic football will no doubt help Okonkwo build on his promising full debut season.

Even if the youngster doesn’t feature that much for Graz, the fight for a first-team place with a higher-class of keeper will surely be a formative experience for the England U18 stopper.