Arsenal have a host of talented schoolboys at their disposal at present, with Charlie Patino certainly amongst them.
The midfielder joined the Gunners from Luton Town four years ago and has since established himself as one of the most encouraging prospects at Hale End.
Next season will be Patino’s last as a schoolboy and following that he will be seeking to sign scholarship terms and subsequently a professional contract, with his potential indicating that fulfilling those objectives won’t be a problem.
Patino made his debut for Arsenal U18s in May 2018 when a very young side took on Chelsea, and next season the 15-year-old will be seeking to gain further experience at that level.
Should Yunus Musah leave it could open the door for Patino to receive opportunities for Ken Gillard’s side, although it is anticipated that he will still mainly play for the U16s.
Capped by England at U15 and U16 levels, Patino is a fine passer and is also capable of finding the net when the opportunity arises.
Arsenal always seem to have talented midfielders breaking into the U18 squad, and Patino is the latest.
The youngster won’t be daunted by the step up, though, as he has coped admirably with all of the challenges that he has faced so far in the academy.
Other schoolboys to look out for next season include Marcelo Flores, another midfielder, who joined from Ipswich Town and has represented Mexico at youth level.
If Patino and Flores apply themselves correctly then they could well receive a considerable amount of game time for the U18s, which would stand them in very good stead for when they eventually become full-time scholars at London Colney.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Thanks Jeorge, yeah, plenty of talented, technical midfielders and that’s great, I hope Patino turns out as talented as the last midfielder we took from Luton – minus the injuries…
But what of defenders?
Any tips you can give us on any up and coming young centre backs and full backs coming out of Hale End..?
Dan Oyegoke is a talented right back and can also play further forward.
Thanks Jeorge, any at centre back? It feels like we have lots of full / wing backs coming through but not many centre backs…maybe just me?
i don’t want to come across as grumpy, it’s a great article and i’m sure we all hope the best for the kid yet i’m getting quite tired of the “exciting talent” in our academy… we keep reading about young names, we follow them for years, but they’re never any good. we rarely even see them around the first team squad. when was the last time we had a good youngster come into our XI? i recall smith rowe, and that was a year ago. prior to that it was nketiah, who scored a brace like a million years ago… Read more »
The issue is that exciting young player does not equal exciting first team player, the step up is massive, hence why the club has elevated Freddie’ s role. Also this isn’t an Arsenal only issue, very few clubs manage to bring a conveyor belt of young players through to their first team. Personally I think it’s because no club wants to take too much of a risk on a young players as if it fails they will be left with egg on their face