Arsenal Women have re-signed young defender Anna Patten from the University of South Carolina. Patten came through the Arsenal academy and made her first team debut alongside fellow academy graduate Lotte Wubben-Moy, who also left the club in 2017 to undertake a scholarship in the US.
21-year old Patten can play at right-back or centre-half and initially joined the Gunners at the age of 12, before spending four years in the States to study and play in South Carolina for two years, prior to which she spent two years at Florida State.
“It’s such an amazing feeling” Patten told Arsenal.com. “Obviously I’ve been at the club since I was 12, so to be back and be able to fully sign for the team really is like a dream come true.”
“I’ll always look for signings from within and if we can promote players, that’s what our academy is there for,” added manager Joe Montemurro. “But also, to be able to be creative with the signings and so on – we think that she suits the Arsenal mentality, the style of play we want and the beauty of it is that we can work to improve her. It’s not as if she’s a ready-made player, there’s still room for improvement so it’s exciting going forward for all of us.”
Welcome home, @PattenAnna ❤️ pic.twitter.com/lqi5wWGhzC
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) January 7, 2021
Welcome home!
Great video.
The Academy exodus continues to be reversed!
Is she available Saturday she might be needed!
Oh forget Saturday some of us (and not the fans) have been stupid!
Great video; I just hope that she can help us close the gap on our rivals and we don’t seem to be able to bit Man City and Chelsea anymore; even Man U have crept up on us.
Florida State University
The Guardian was wrong, it seems.
She started at Florida State then did two years at USC