Arsenal’s Hale End Academy is quickly recognized as one of the best youth systems in the country.
It is an installation of the academy for producing Jack Wilshere, for introducing Emile Smith Rowe and having fed Bukayo Saka.
The talent stable they have arisen did not slow down with Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly both becoming large parts of Mikel Arteta’s first team this season.
Max Dowman, 15, also made a huge impression for the U18s this quarter and has already become a familiar name among the supporters of Arsenal despite not yet his senior debut.
Nwaneri – who made his bow at the same age – naturally collected most of the media threw this season. Only Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen scored more goals For a Premier League club in all competitions before it is 18 years old that the talented jewel of Arsenal.
He is not the only one to have reproduced their exploits this term.
The beginnings in England of Myles Lewis-Skelly in number
When Thomas Tuchel announced his first team in England a little over a week ago, there were notable surprises.
Jordan Henderson, now from Ajax, was back in the team. There was also a place for Marcus Rashford. However, Lewis-Skelly’s inclusion was not really a shock.
After all, its performances since then made its first team debut last September last September.
Mid-Terrain de Trade, the 18-year-old young man played like a left back, reversing in central pockets of space and advancing with the ball. He is here, there and everywhere, something symbolized by his only club goal to date, a magnificent curling effort against Manchester City. We all remember the celebration.
Well, if he needed to make another declaration to skeptics on his qualities, he did it during his beginnings in England, a 2-0 victory against Albania on Friday evening.
Lewis-Skelly started on the left back and scored the first goal of the Tuchel era, in the race behind to put itself at the end of a fairly delicious ball of Jude Bellingham, before the goal. Only the aforementioned Owen and Rooney were younger when they scored goals in England.
His interview with the club comrade Declan Rice after the match was charming, with the Arsenal midfielder Greet him like an “intrepid” talent.
“He is simply intrepid. He is only 18 years old. I try to take care of him as best I can. I knew he was going to play like that. The confidence he has in himself, the way he formed all week and what I saw at the club. It was only the beginning for him.”
The goal was not the only impressive part of the teenager’s game, as the figures below suggest.
It was all the rise for Arsenal’s teenager this season. He is featured 26 times for the first team in 2024/25 And as Rice says, this is only the beginning.
Lewis-Skelly vs Albania | |
|---|---|
Minutes played | 89 |
Touch | 87 |
Precisely leave | 69/74 (93%) |
Key passes | 0 |
Duels have won | 3/3 |
Lost possession | 7x |
Clog | 2x |
Successful dribbles | 1/1 |
Statistics via Sofas. | |
Arsenal hopes that his career does not go in the same direction as another of the best talents in Hale End.
What happened to Myles Lewis-Skelly from Arsenal
Thanks to each academy, there are thousands of players who have never made the note, ending up falling from football.
For many, they stay in football but find themselves in the football league. Then you have the elite, the players who note, a graduate of the Academy and thrive at the highest level.
For Ainsley Maitland-Niles, this story is certainly true. A trade midfielder – like Lewis -Skelly – he made his debut for the senior team on December 9, 2014.
It was equality in the Champions League with Galatasaray where Arsene Wenger presented the adolescent in action as a substitute for Aaron Ramsey.
He was only 17 and 102 days old, making him the second youngest player to have represented the club in the Champions League, behind Jack Wilshere. His future looked brilliant.
Maitland-Nile career by position | |
|---|---|
Position played | Apparitions |
Midfielder | 95 |
Rear right | 79 |
Central midfielder | 52 |
Defensive midfielder | 30 |
Left -back | 26 |
Left midfielder | 22 |
Central defender | 3 |
Attacker’s midfielder | 2 |
Statistics via Transfer. | |
However, with a number of the best field circles in his own way, the graduate of the Spréement Academy ended up playing more as aile or rear. You can see where we are heading here with Lewis-Skelly comparisons.
He even made his debut in England on the left back, appearing in this position due to injuries elsewhere.
However, while Maitland-Niles seemed to have enormous potential, he was never extremely eager to settle like a great-back and wanted to play in the midfield.
Indeed, by heading towards West Brom in 2021, Sam Allarcyce noted: “The problem with Ainsley is his position. His only position he wants to play is the midfielder in the center.
Well, in this spirit, his future was never going to be in Arsenal under the current manager. In the summer of 2023, his contract expired and he left for free transfer. Lyon came to call where, by coincidence, he still plays back.
During his first campaign in France, he made 29 appearances, attracting attention with two goals and four assists during this quarter, the 27 -year -old played 34 times, marking one and providing five assists.
“I am very mature in my mind and I understand how football works. Sometimes it is time to let go of a club that was so dear to you and you have had so many years with it. So it was more a process to try to move on to my family and for myself.” – Maitland-Niles a year after its exit Arsenal.
Its figures and overall performance at Ligue 1 have in fact seen calls for inclusion in England, with French football expert Matt Spiro commenting in December: “Ainsley Maitland-Niles should now be in conversation [for England]. He plays the best football in his career with Lyon. “”
So, even if things did not go because he would have hoped for the Emirates, it’s nice to see the original Lewis-Skelly of Arsenal prosper elsewhere.
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Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly are two of the best talents to emerge from the Arsenal Academy.
