{"id":1953,"date":"2026-04-11T19:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T19:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=1953"},"modified":"2026-04-11T19:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T19:40:16","slug":"5-former-arsenal-youngsters-sold-too-soon-a-warning-amid-nwaneri-lewis-skelly-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=1953","title":{"rendered":"5 former Arsenal youngsters sold too soon: A warning amid Nwaneri & Lewis-Skelly links"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

The futures of Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri are reportedly hanging in the balance after a report stated that Arsenal were open to selling the pair \u2013 despite them being among the best youngsters in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Both have emerged from the Hale End academy and made their mark on first-team football and selling them would be the wrong move, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of us,\u201d Mikel Arteta said in response to being asked a question about what will happen to Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI think at the end, what it has to define this football club is to seek for the excellence and to seek for the best, regardless of whether you\u2019re coming from the academy or from abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Alas, there have been times in the past when the Gunners \u2013 under Arteta and even beforehand \u2013 have let go of youngsters far too soon. Here are the five of the best players the Gunners may look back on with regret.<\/p>\n

Brooke Norton-Cuffy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Now making a name for himself with Genoa, Brooke Norton-Cuffy was once on Arsenal\u2019s books. The defender\u2019s form in Italy could see him return to his homeland in the summer months \u2013 but the Gunners are unlikely to be among those sniffing around his signature.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because they\u2019ve already sold him once before. Initially lured away from Chelsea\u2019s academy around a decade ago, he rose up the ranks but never managed to get a crack at the senior whip in north London.<\/p>\n

A number of loan spells in England \u2013 at Coventry City and Rotherham \u2013 failed to materialise into permanent moves and he\u2019s found his feet at Genoa. Hindsight is, for sure, a wonderful thing. <\/p>\n

Carlos Vela<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Carlos Vela\u2019s situation is a peculiar one: he arrived in the capital to plenty of fanfare in 2006 but the forward went on to endure a series of loan spells at the likes of Celta Vigo, West Bromwich Albion and Real Sociedad.<\/p>\n

The latter saw his potential and pounced. The Mexican then moved to the La Liga side on a permanent basis in 2012 before becoming the face of Major League Soccer when he joined Los Angeles FC.<\/p>\n

All in all, Vela played a total of 62 matches for the Gunners \u2013 but his career perhaps proved he could have fared on a bit-part basis at the Emirates. Maybe a case of right player at the wrong time?<\/p>\n

Serge Gnabry<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

The biggest mistake of the lot. Serge Gnabry\u2019s career has certainly taken an interesting route\u2026 he was on Arsenal\u2019s books between 2011 and 2016, which is when he signed with Werder Bremen permanently. <\/p>\n

Then he moved to Bayern Munich in 2017 and the rest is history. The German forward, 30, is now a one-time Champions League winner and also has six Bundesliga crowns to boot.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, Tony Pulis infamously deemed him \u201cnot at the required level\u201d during his loan spell at West Bromwich Albion but it\u2019s clear that Gnabry has got the final laugh. He\u2019d certainly start for Arsenal in today\u2019s day and age.<\/p>\n

Donyell Malen<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Donyell Malen is a tricky one. Now 27 and currently on loan at AS Roma, the seasoned Netherlands international \u2013 like Norton-Cuffy \u2013 didn\u2019t manage to prove himself on the senior stage at Arsenal.<\/p>\n

The Aston Villa man was signed by Arsenal when he was 16 years old and many believed his future was bright; but things didn\u2019t work out. He was subsequently sold to PSV Eindhoven in 2017.<\/p>\n

Malen has since risen up the European ranks at PSV and then Borussia Dortmund before landing a move back to English soil. Selling the 1999-born star to PSV for peanuts was a poor move by Arsenal.<\/p>\n

Mika Biereth<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Another youngster who was sold too early by Arsenal is Mika Biereth, who never managed to chalk up a senior outing for the north Londoners. Could he have been the antidote to their long-standing striker issues?<\/p>\n

A nine-cap Denmark international at the age of 23, Biereth has plundered 18 goals and five assists for AS Monaco to date \u2013 and it\u2019s not unfair to say that he is far from the finished article.<\/p>\n

That said, he\u2019d thrive under the guidance of Arteta\u2019s backroom staff. The Danish centre-forward did leave England for a fee of \u00a34 million but his market value has certainly risen exponentially since then. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The futures of Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri are reportedly hanging in the balance after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}