Although Ethan Nwaneri is regarded as one of Arsenal’s young crown jewels, they almost lost the teenager to Manchester City in 2023.
Nwaneri became the Gunners youngest ever player when he came off the bench in a Premier League victory away at Brentford in September 2022, but a year later, City pushed hard to sign the by-ten 16 year old, and intense discussions took place in the background between the defending Premier League champions and Nwaneri’s representatives.
It took the combined efforts of a number of people at Arsenal, including Mikel Arteta to convince him to stay, persuading him that there was a path to regular first-team football at the club.
Nwaneri will turn 18 next month, and it is widely expected he will put pen to paper on a new contract, committing his immediate future to the North London side, with even the possibility of a double signing ceremony mooted, with fellow Hale End graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly also in line to sign a new contract.
