Arsene Wenger has revealed he is keeping close tabs on Monaco’s 18-year-old striker Kylian Mbappé.
The France youth international became the youngest ever debutant for the Stade Louis II outfit in December 2015, breaking Thierry Henry’s record, set in 1994 during Wenger’s spell in the Principality.
This season Mbappé has helped himself to six goals and seven assists in 19 appearances, including a hat-trick in the Coupe de La League, leading Wenger to compare the teenager’s talent with his former protégé.
“He is not exactly Thierry Henry but it is true that he has similar qualities and the future and talent is similar,” Wenger told the Ligue 1 show [translation via the Mirror].
“The potential is similar, after that if he has the same level of motivation, desire and intelligence that Thierry has, and the next two to three years will tell us that, then he can be very promising.
“The guys that have super talent are already playing at 18. Those who are not playing at 18 or 19 do not have that exceptional talent and he does play over here at the top level.
“He is a guy who is electric like Thierry was, can dribble, can pass and is efficient.
“We follow him, we know him very well, and he is developing well. He extended his contract with Monaco last season and so it’s Monaco who is going to decide his future. He could be another Thierry Henry.”
Does this mean we buy him like Thierry too ?
It would seem a bit counterproductive if we let him go to Juve first, maybe we should go to Monaco directly!
But, that would ruin the whole comparison.
He needs to go to Juve, be stuck on the wing and become slightly forgotten, before we make our move!
Either that or we just keep watching him. Keep watching him all the way to United, as we did the last Monaco youngster that was meant to be the next Henry (Martial).
Hey, I would happily let United be Martial’s stepping stone to Arsenal, assuming he can become a player half as good as Thierry. He seems to have real talent, but also has little support from Moaninho.
It’s a shame we have such depth in our forward line…. I kid, I kid. Welbeck is my ting.
We have very short supply of talented young strikers. Hope Wenger sign him but it all comes down to money these days. Monaco will try to get as much as they got for Martial.
Disagree, the young strikers we have at Arsenal (check our youth team) were only bought in the past few years, and they were very hyped about.
actually we have somee really talented strikers in our academy. mavididi , nketiah and malen are all players with good potential
I can’t wait to see when Nketiah will be old or ready enough to get a game. He seems to be a natural goal scorer – exciting stuff!
Kylian! What a cool name.
Why would Wenger comment on this if he really wants to sign the kid? Doesn’t this just alert a whole bunch of other teams now?
Or maybe Wenger knows all young French stars want to play for him so he’s just getting in the kid’s head early….hmm, good move then.
Used to be that every good player in France wanted to play for Wenger. Even Drogba said his dreams about playing in England was perhaps going to Arsenal. Now rich clubs show them the money.
Ian Wright made a great point on Sunday’s 606 on how some players heads are turnt towards the fame and glamore rather than the football. Rare are the players both young and old who play for the game, Alexis is a great example, not so much for the money. Wrighty always says on the show, you play to win trophies, the money will then follow you.
Wish Wright was about 30 years younger right about now and back at Arsenal.
He’s saying it because everyone knows Wenger made Henry into what he was. He’s essentially telling the kid that if wants to be the next Henry he has to go to Arsenal to for some Prof magic.
There was a time – not that long ago – when the comments under this completely unrelated article would have turned into vitriol about Tuesday’s stupid defeat to Watford and ‘Arsenic Wagner aaahhht’ comments.
So, well done us.
Wenger said if your 18 and not playing then your not an exceptional talent
I strongly disagree there are plenty of players who got rejected when young and turned into special players
I think he just meant you aren’t going to be the next Henry if you aren’t already playing by those ages. Not too unreasonable.
Well, his terrace song would write itself, so that’s a plus.
I’d be pissed off if we lost this guy to an English team. City placed a 36m bid for him last season and might probably try again this summer. Still pissed off we didn’t get Martial and he’s wasting at manure.
Martial is not that good. I think it’s hilarious that Manu spent 50m on such a player.
I disagree. I think Martial is a top talent who, like many young players before him, Is having his caree killed slowly by Maureen.
I also think he would have been a superb fit in our team.
“The guys that have super talent are already playing at 18. Those who are not playing at 18 or 19 do not have that exceptional talent and he does play over here at the top level.”
I’m sure our academy strikers like Akpom must feel joy at reading this. :-/
Was thinking the same thing reading that…what will the youngsters in the academy think
I too thought this was a bit of a binary sort of comment. Wonder what guys like wrighty think when they read this stuff too lol
Wenger is no longer diplomatic as before. Said Xhaka a DM, does not master the art of tackling like telling a carpenter he doesn’t master how to use a hammer.
Well Xhaka was never really a DM, but a deep/lying Playmaker ala Arteta was for us.
So we have not had any super talent come through our academy for a decade or so, something wrong there I recon.
Thought that for a while but good to hear from offal sources.
What about Iwobi? Bellerin? I knownthe saying. Grass on the neighbours lawn is alleays greener. But we have lots of special talent
Don’t follow , just sign that kid . I mean he knows about him for some time now. Next summer with his performances in Ligue 1 he is gonna be overpriced. What’s the point of waiting. He could have take him last summer and loaned him back to Monaco. Arsene did the same with Eden Hazard , he was among the first to spot him at lille and decided to follow …
At a certain point I don’t think players want to leave because they’re aware of their talent and their agents are telling them they can go for even bigger money if they knuckle down for a season or two more and keep improving.
We were never going to be able to afford Hazard unfortunately, his transfer to Chelsea happened when we were right in the thick of being a selling club.
Maybe…or maybe not. Iwon’t hold it against Wenger, but he did once say he chose Gervinho over Hazard because of price.
As Wenger said, it’s not just about the talent, but mental aptitude.
He could be the next Henry or the next Balotelli. It’s not FIFA, can’t just go hoard a bunch of young kids and just see what happens. To sign him would be to effectively cancel out one or Malden or Mavivdi. He may have a bit more talent then both (both are highly rated), but they may have the talent AND mental aptitude. So we’d possibly end up losing them.
pace is the future of football. looking at our team with pacy frontline of alexis-sanchez-walcot and the team city played yesterday sane-jesus-sterling . no defence could cope stop them from in their full flow. mbappe is similar player pace and with good technique. would be good backup or even a better player that walcot on our right wing
Seems like we watch a lot of players. Don’t know if it wI’ll be a signing we follow through on, because he must be worth 50m
Having seen him in a few games this season, I’d even say he looks like an even better prospect than Martial (who I think can be really good, hopefully not for Man Utd)!
I’d be over the moon if we could get him. Will surely take 50-60 mil though..
Wenger talking about a youth player we are monitoring indicates he’s not leaving…Sad
The reality is there are 6 to 7 clubs who can pay more than us in Europe. The sale of the player us not entirely in our control. The player himself had influences from manager to family members. Plus potential is early what it is. Henry had massive potential but got lost at Juve. Wenger rejuvenated his potential to actual product. I think the players who are attracted to us are fundamentally those who feel Wenger can develop them further. This doesn’t apply solely to younger players but also the likes of Ozil and Alexis who felt their careers limited… Read more »
Chelsea didn’t sign Fabregas in the same window. They signed him a year after. I can guarantee you that Wenger would’ve had Cesc back if we didn’t already have Özil.
Chelsea will hoover him up then never play him.
Sell him then buy him back at a greatly inflated price
rare to see the big man come out so publicly with an interest in a player… i think that’s particularly telling.
Straight swap with the ‘Great ‘ Yaya Sanogo
And…we tried to sign him but..we cannot compete with other teams…we need to make more money for our overlord.