Mikel Arteta has signalled that academy graduates will not receive automatic protection as Arsenal weigh difficult decisions over two rising prospects. Fans reacted with mixed views to reports the club could move on the youngsters; some accepted tough calls are part of progress, while others hoped the homegrown pair would be retained.<\/p>\n
Asked about the futures of Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, Arteta set out the club\u2019s position on development and performance. He said: “It\u2019s part of us,” Arteta said of the academy. “At the end what has to define this football club is to seek for excellence and seek for the best, regardless if you\u2019re coming from the academy or abroad.<\/p>\n
“If we can have players from Hale End, much better because the identity is there. We grow with them and they know exactly what we\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n
“But at the end they have to earn it. Not for a week, not for a month, for years. Like anybody else, it doesn\u2019t matter what department or role you have in the club.<\/p>\n
“You have to sustain performance and that has to be at the very highest level if we want to win and be where we want to be.”<\/p>\n
Nwaneri struggled for minutes in the first half of the season and was sent on loan to Marseille to preserve his development. The teenager has contributed two goals and an assist in his first eight Ligue 1 appearances. Lewis-Skelly, by contrast, remained at the club as emergency cover after a significant fall in standing. He was the starting left back last season before being displaced by Riccardo Calafiori and summer signing Piero Hinapi\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old, a natural midfielder, had looked to be establishing himself as a long-term starter but did not convince Arteta in the current title push. There are signs Arteta still trusts him: heading into Saturday\u2019s meeting with Bournemouth, Lewis-Skelly had featured in 28 games across all competitions, yet that start against the Cherries was only his second Premier League appearance this season and only the second time he had played in the league in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta warned academy graduates they must earn their place as Arsenal weigh sales of two youngsters .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303,1163],"tags":[1446,1505,1304],"class_list":["post-11455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","category-transfers","tag-academy","tag-accountability","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}