According to The Athletic, Arsenal are set to extend Charlie Patino’s deal by two years via the activation of a clause in his existing contract.
The 19-year-old has been on the club’s books since 2015 and is widely regarded as the most promising academy prospect of his year group.
Mikel Arteta handed the England youth international his first team debut in the Carabao Cup last season and he made his mark within minutes by opening his Arsenal account to round off a 5-1 win against Sunderland.
Two weeks later he made his first start as the Gunners lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round.
This season, Patino has been a mainstay in the centre of midfield for Blackpool. Sent to Bloomfield Road on a season-long loan, he so far has 18 appearances to his name and a brace of goals and assists.
His performances in the Championship have alerted a number of clubs to his qualities with reports in Spain claiming Barcelona are interested in signing him.
That Patino holds a Spanish passport via his father probably fuelled such talk but it’s going to come to nothing.
Quite where Patino fits in at Arsenal remains to be seen. Time will tell if he has the qualities to challenge the likes of Martin Odegaard and Granit Xhaka for a place in Arteta’s starting lineups next season.
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The Patino snippet forms part of an interesting article by @Gunnerblog that covers the many reasons why contract talks tend to take longer than expected.
🔺Arsenal likely to trigger 2 year Patino extension this week
🔺Why deals take so long to negotiate
🔺Competition for Nwaneri & Lewis-Skelly
🔺Saliba update
🔺Board oversight on contractsAll this and more in big contract read for @TheAthleticFC 🔴⚪️#AFChttps://t.co/bnB80v7PT5
— gunnerblog (@gunnerblog) December 23, 2022
Great news. This guy is going to be special.
I’ve never been a huge fan of “the new…..” labels as it creates a lot of pressure for young players.
But looking at Charlie Patino, I think the most apt comparison is a combination of Fabregas and Wilshere. Wilshere’s combativeness and Cesc’s vision and maturity.
He could well be absolutely sensational.
Well, I’m happy you haven’t put too much pressure on him.
😂🤣
Let’s just hope he doesn’t have Cesc’s love of Barca and Jack’s injury record.
Hopefully he gets a season long loan at a lower premier league club where he gets to play 90 minutes every week than sit on the bench and get the odd game here and there next season
Yeah, I’m conflicted on this one. Part of me would like to see him integrated into the squad sooner as he’s just 19 and simply too good for the Championship.
But if we have CL football then we will be less likely to blood our youngsters in group matches. Plus he might have Xhaka, Partey, Lokonga and Tielemans in front of him.
Maybe a Crystal Palace esque loan would be best. But part of me thinks, this kid is ready.
This raises the conflict of adding to the squad. For instance fat gooner said on another thread that he’d like to see Arteta sacked if we don’t add to the squad this window. If we add a load of players and close off the route to the first team to players like Patino, then how do we maintain a sustainable strategy of attracting and developing young talent rather than doubling money on ready made options?
That’s supposed to read “spunking money” not “doubling money” – ironically we’d double money on developing our own players, which won’t happen much if we spunk money on ready made options
I guess it depends on our recruitment plans in midfield, and what we do with Sambi next summer. But it’s true that, with CL hopefully back, there won’t be as many rotation for European games.
If he does go out on loan again, I’d like to see him in a foreign league rather than a bottom PL club. It seems to be beneficial for these young guys to go abroad and discover very different environments.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a relegation threatened Premier League team who would play a 19 year old loanee in CM 90 minutes every week. It’s unlikely.
Another season in the Championship is an option, or abroad to broaden horizons.
France or Netherlands are interesting options for our youth players as there’s a wider range of quality between the top and bottom teams.
One week you could be playing against PSG, Marseille, Ajax, or PSV. And then the next week you could be playing against players of Championship level.
🎵Charlie, Charlie! 🎵
🎵Charlie, Charlie! 🎵
Born is the King of Emirates doesn’t quite roll off the tongue but there has to be a King Charles song in there somewhere!
Our squad next season could have a Charles (Patino), an Edward (Nketiah), a William (Saliba), and a Harry (Clarke).
Royal Arsenal indeed.
Luckily, no Andrew.
We’ve had some great Charlie songs over the years.
The ‘Born is the King of Highbury’ for Charlie George and the Westminster Chimes for Charlie Nicholas.
Here’s to another great chant for young Patino in the near future.
I’ve been reading Blackpool fan sites and forums to see how they rate Patino and they RAVE over his performances so fingers crossed he can make more steps forward in the future.
Ironically, Blackpool have drawn Forest in the FA Cup third round this season.
So why DOES it take so long to renew contracts? Did anyone pay to read this thing?
Main takeaway: first Martinelli, for example, talks to Arteta/Edu about long-term plans, etc. If both sides want him to stay at Arsenal based on those issues (which clearly has happened), then you go to money, length, etc.–and that’s Martinelli’s agent talking to Edu/Garlick etc.; Martinelli and almost certainly Arteta not part of this. And honestly, no one is in a hurry for a lot of reasons. James points out that delaying a new, much better contract also saves the team money (though you can’t push that too long without risking the player’s good will). And a million other little things.
Much of it is down to squad dynamics in my opinion. We’ve been in awkward positions over the last few years with the likes of Ozil and Auba earning 3 times the wage of other first team players. This causes issues, especially when those high earners are not performing. Now we have a young squad the wages are on a much more aligned parity – I believe Jesus and Partey are our top earners at around the &200k mark, and those further down the scale are not miles off and can realistically look to get parity with consistent performance. For… Read more »
This is the thing about The Athletic; they harp on about how they “provide the best sports journalism in the world”, but won’t let us read a single article to decide if we want to buy in. Ornstein is supposed to be some sort of authority on happenings at Arsenal, yet everything I’ve read or heard from him is either already common knowledge or many of us would’ve assumed anyway. Fabrizio Romano levels of no sh*t, Sherlock.
Make him return in the summer, then send him on a year to Borrusia Dortmund for another massive loan. That of course is after the contract has been extended for up to six years.
He’d adequately replace Jude Bellingham for them, while also preparing him for the rigours of the PL, in addition to gaining massive experience in the league and on the continent.