Gilberto Silva has given some advice to Arsenal youth midfielders Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, as the duo look to make the step up to first-team football.
When Arsenal took on RC Lens in the Champions League last week, a couple of spaces in the senior squad were reserved for 16-year-old Ethan Nwaneri and 17-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Nwaneri has already made his first-team debut, coming on against Brentford in the Premier League last season, but last Wednesday was the first opportunity for the duo in a Champions League squad.
With Arsenal set to play a dead-rubber against PSV in the final game of the group stage, it’s not impossible one of the two could even make a debut in the competition next week.
Speaking to Daily Cannon this week, former Arsenal midfielder Gilberto Silva gave some advice to the two youngsters.
“It’s tough to cross this line to the professional game, to the senior team,” Gilberto began. “Always the anxiety is there, the anxiety that the players feel to perform for the first team.
“One of the important things for every player is the preparation. If you prepare well for the opportunities, when they come you are going to be ready.
“The point is not to lose your focus. For me, it was like that. I’m sure for them it’s the same.
“I hope they keep doing well because it’s not so easy when you are in a club like Arsenal, you come from the academy, and then you start to face your first few challenges in the professional team. Sometimes it’s quite intimidating.
“But just make things easier and simple for yourself. And be open to learn from the other players, from the manager, be open to listen. Then just express yourself on the field.”
One thing Gilberto was keen to stress was the importance of moving on from your mistakes, and not giving too much significance to every individual touch of the ball.
“If you make mistakes, don’t focus on the mistake,” Gilberto continued. “I think this sometimes happens. People when they play for the first time, they believe ‘my first touch is important’.
“Yes, the first. The second. The third touch. The tenth touch. All of them are important.
“Don’t focus on the mistakes, if you make one with the first touch, but focus on making things easier and simple. That’s it.”
A lot has changed since Gilberto was a young player, and he believes it’s important for today’s youth to make the most of all the new facilities available to them.
“When I started we didn’t have physiologists there,” Gilberto recalled.
“But after a few years they brought a physiologist, and we have nutritionists, psychologists… The rehabilitation centre of some clubs seems more like a nice hospital.
“But one important thing for me apart from all this support is to make things proactive. You can have a nutritionist at your club, good professionals, psychologists, but they have to be proactive, to work closely with the players.
“And the players need to understand that they are important in the process for you to perform, to recover, but also to progress.
“And they need to be conscious about this, because sometimes I had to explain to them why those professions are there.
“Sometimes they know that they’ve got those professionals but they don’t know the importance of them, what they really do in order to help you as a player, to perform on and off the field.
“It’s important to have this mindset to be conscious about what you have to do to perform. What I have to do in order to recover. What I have to do to get the balance of my professional life and my personal life.”
If Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly can do that, they have the talent to go far in the senior game.
Former professional footballer Gilberto Silva is the newest ambassador for suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). CALM stands united against suicide and as part of his signing, Silva will help raise awareness of rising suicide rates in the UK, which sees 125 lives lost to suicide each week.
1 in 5 people in the UK will experience suicidal thoughts and CALM is there every day to help anyone who’s struggling see that things can change.
To find out more about CALM, services or for support or advice, visit thecalmzone.net.