Pundit issues emphatic Ethan Nwaneri claim after journalist’s ‘huge’ Arsenal reveal
Alan Hutton has claimed Ethan Nwaneri was ready to make his Arsenal debut at 15 years old.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Tottenham and Aston Villa right-back said Nwaneri will need a “secure network” to deal with being “thrown into the limelight”.
At 15 years and 181 days, the teenager became the youngest player to appear in the Premier League when he came on for the Gunners in the 3-0 win over Brentford last Sunday (18 September).
According to the Mirror‘s John Cross (22 September), there is now a “huge scramble” among agents to sign the Arsenal youngster.
Hutton, who was at Aston Villa with Rushian Hepburn-Murphy with and Spurs with John Bostock, insisted Arteta would not have taken the decision lightly.
“My first opinion was that Mikel Arteta would not throw him in if he didn’t think he was ready,” he told Football Insider.
“I know he’s very young, it’s so young, even thinking about myself doing that back then it’s crazy. I don’t believe he would have put him in to that situation if he wasn’t ready.
“The flip side to that is, everything comes at you very fast. You’ve been thrown into the limelight, the way social media is at this moment in time, it can blow a player up instantly. As long as he’s got a secure network around him to deal with all that then it should be fine. Yes he’s very young but he should be capable.
“Obviously I haven’t seen enough of him to know exactly what he’s like or what he’s like as a person. We’ll have to wait and see. We know there’s been players out there that have been given the money and the game time maybe too early and it’s affected them and they’ve not gone on to do what they should have but we’ll have to wait and see the outcome of it.“
In other news, a pundit has issued a ‘huge’ Martin Odegaard claim after new Arsenal twist.