‘Stay patient, work hard’published at 15:22 British Summer Time
15:22 BST
Image source, Getty Images
Arsenal included eight academy players in their squad for their pre-season tour of Asia and they will be hoping to emulate Ethan Nwaneri in breaking into the Gunners’ first team.
Nwaneri is still just a teenager himself, but has advice for those hoping to follow in his footsteps.
“The first thing was just to keep patient, keep working hard every day at your craft, and have the long-term vision in the back of your head, but just be ready when it comes,” he said.
“It’s a good pressure that [the academy players] are going to be watching you, so you need to show them the right things. It means a lot that the young generation is looking up to me now because when I was their age, I was looking up to the Hale End graduates and the Arsenal players in general.
“Reiss [Nelson], Bukayo [Saka], Emile [Smith Rowe] – so many players. Ainsley Maitland-Niles – all these players I was looking up to when I was young. You don’t compare, but you’ve shared something, like a moment. They’ve been where you’ve been, and you’re trying to get to where they are.”