Bukayo Saka could be the last Hale End graduate left with Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson all tipped to leave this summer
Bukayo Saka could be Arsenal’s only homegrown first-team player still at the club by the end of the transfer window , the jewel in the club’s crown and a boyhood Gooner living the dream of every Arsenal supporter. The 22-year-old has already made 226 first-team appearances for the club he joined at the age of seven. He is the embodiment of a homegrown hero. It was about time he had his own terrace anthem.
Saka has started in 90.7 per cent of Arsenal’s Premier League matches since the start of the 2020-21 season; Smith Rowe has started in just 27.6 per cent of themInjuries have been a big factor behind Smith Rowe’s dwindling status, but so too were the signings of positional rivals Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz and Arteta’s attempts to make his side more functional and less free flowing. Smith Rowe can be a system player, but he is at his best when given a freer role to roam and glide.
Reiss Nelson, once regarded as Arsenal’s brightest teenage prodigy in years when he was terrorising full-backs in youth football, has featured more sporadically than Smith Rowe over the past two seasons and needs a fresh start. Crystal Palace and West Ham are among the clubs monitoring his situation.Smith Rowe, Nketiah and Nelson have accumulated 372 appearances and 64 goals combined for Arsenal. They have been at the club for a combined 38 years, just over half of their lifetimes.
The jump from academy to first-team is a gargantuan one and precious few players make it to the other side of the mountain range. It is an even trickier task for Arsenal’s current crop of young talent. Arsenal’s banter era is over. They are now the Premier League’s second-best team, not its eighth-best one.
When the Gunners were attempting to re-establish themselves as part of the elite, Saka was one of a few homegrown players trying to make it happen. If they are able to dethrone City next season, he will likely be the only one left. Arsenal’s Phil Foden equivalent.
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