Arsenal’s summer recruitment will include a particular focus on the youth academy, according to David Ornstein.
With Arsenal fighting for the Premier League title and reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League, there’s a growing call from the fans for the club to continue to push on in the summer transfer window.
It feels like major honours are almost within Mikel Arteta’s grasp, and with a few smart additions, the Gunners could take the next step in 2024/25.
Yet The Athletic’s David Ornstein believes the club will also be thinking more long-term, with academy manager Per Mertesacker aiming to bolster their academy options.
“I think Arsenal’s recruitment, there will obviously be a focus on the youth academy,” Ornstein said. “We’ve talked about that on these podcasts before.
“I think there’s going to be some investment to try and bring in better quality players at a younger age and really compete with rivals.”
It’s true that Arsenal’s current u21 crop is a level below some of the top academy teams at the moment.
The Gunners are sixth in the Premier League 2, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Manchester City are 22nd in the division, but they’ll feel more confident about their academy players because many of them are already proving themselves in senior football.
By contrast, most of Arsenal’s youth player loans this season did not go well, with Arthur Okonkwo arguably the only player to join a lower-league English club and start consistently all season – and he’s out of contract this summer.
Mika Biereth is doing excellently with Sturm Graz in Austria, but he and Okonkwo are the exceptions.
Prospects like Charlie Patino and Brooke Norton-Cuffy started well before fading and dropping to the bench towards the end of the campaign, whilst most of the rest never broke in to begin with.
The Arsenal u18 age group has some top talents, including Chido Martin Obi, Ethan Nwaneri, and Myles Lewis-Skelly. But they aren’t being surrounded by players on their level at the moment.
If the loans aren’t going well and the players left behind aren’t good enough to help Arsenal’s most talented players to kick on, those young talents won’t stick around for long.
The aim has to be to bolster the u21s ahead of next season and provide an environment for the likes of Obi Martin, Nwaneri, and Lewis-Skelly to reach their potential. The first team will profit if that happens.