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Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri 'wanted by Chelsea, Manchester City'

By Ben Knapton, Senior Reporter | 06 February 2023

Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri 'wanted by Chelsea, Man City'

Chelsea and Manchester City are reportedly interested in 15-year-old Arsenal wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri, who became the Premier League's youngest-ever player this season.

Arsenal wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri is on the radar of both Chelsea and Manchester City, according to a report.

The 2007-born midfielder became the youngest player to ever play in the Premier League when he came on as a late substitute in the Gunners' 3-0 win over Brentford back in September.

Nwaneri was 15 years and 181 days when he was brought on by Mikel Arteta at the Gtech Community Stadium, breaking the previous record set by Harvey Elliott.

Nwaneri has not made any further first-team appearances for the Premier League leaders since that one-minute cameo, instead continuing his development with the youth team.

Already competing consistently at Under-18 level, the 15-year-old has registered two goals and three assists in the Under-18 Premier League, and he has three goals from nine games for England's Under-17s.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta pictured on November 12, 2022 © Reuters

Arsenal are understood to be working on a new contract for Nwaneri to ward off interest from elsewhere, but some of the Gunners' direct rivals are keeping an eye on the situation.

According to the Secret Scout - via football.london - both Chelsea and Man City are keeping a close eye on the teenager's development and have earmarked him as a potential future star.

After making Nwaneri both Arsenal and the Premier League's youngest player of all time, Arteta explained that he had a gut feeling about the Englishman, but warned him that he may need to take a step back before taking another leap forwards.

"It was a feeling that I had yesterday, I don't know why," arsenal.com quotes the 40-year-old as saying.

"The first day I met him I looked him in his eyes and everyone was telling me about him, Per [Mertesacker] was telling me about him, and because of the injuries we only have 12 or 13 senior players yesterday to put in the squad and we decided to bring him, and that's it.

Chelsea head coach Graham Potter during draw with Nottingham Forest on January 1, 2023. © Reuters

"It's one step, one experience, so enjoy it and congratulations! It's just one step and all the steps in your career are not forward and you have to know that.

"You can go forward then backwards and then forwards. You fall, you go back - that's, unfortunately, this industry and the football career of any player."

However, one of Nwaneri's admirers in Man City were recently charged by the Premier League with over 100 alleged financial breaches spanning a nine-year period between 2009 and 2018.

The Premier League champions have been accused of failing to disclose accurate financial information, inappropriate manager and player payments and also failing to cooperate with UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules.

Man City could potentially be hit with fines, transfer bans, docked points or even stripped titles if found guilty of the breaches.