"The endless possibilities, the sky being the limit: wonderkids bring our natural footballing instincts to dream big against all established wisdom and experience, and end up disappointed. With this in mind, and with Arsenal seemingly stacked with generational golden boys in recent seasons, it's odd now to look back at how Bukayo Saka burst onto the scene. There was little fanfare."
"So when Saka first stepped out in a senior Arsenal shirt against Vorskla Poltava a Scrabble answer as much as a Pointless one it was just another debut. He was good. But with respect, so were Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Youngsters who came through Arsenal's academy during Unai Emery's era were strange cases, unleashed with all the authenticity in the cause of a step-parent dropping slang."
"Was Unai really locked in with these guys, believing in their ability to challenge the elite? Or was it simply that he really didn't like Mesut Ozil? Watching Saka's early days, you'd have been brave to bet on him becoming Arsenal's greatest player of the last 20 years by the age of 24. But hey, that's where we are. The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week."
Greatness seldom appears immediately and normally requires time, experience and setbacks to develop. Early promise rarely predicts finished genius, and many celebrated young talents fail to maintain early hype. Wonderkids often inspire big dreams but frequently disappoint against seasoned wisdom. Arsenal recently featured several highly rated young players, yet Bukayo Saka arrived without huge fanfare, debuting against Vorskla Poltava. Early peers such as Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles showed similar promise. Questions surrounded Unai Emery's motivations for promoting academy players. Few would have predicted Saka becoming Arsenal's best player of the past two decades by age 24.
Read at www.fourfourtwo.com
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