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How Good is the YOUNGEST PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYER EVER Actually?

In September of last season, 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest player in Premier League history when he debuted versus Brentford. So how good is he ACTUALLY?

There is a large number of Arsenal fans that are of the opinion that 16 year-old Ethan Nwaneri is destined to follow in the footsteps of legendary midfielders Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fabregas. The similarities being that all three of them are Hale End graduates who contained a level of maturity and natural ability that allowed them to dominate youth levels far above their age, causing them to debut at absurdly young ages. With Fabregas going on to become one of the legendary midfielders of the game, and Wilshere going on to become one of the best talents of the game until a series of injuries hampered his development, it’s large boots to fill; but it’s not hard to imagine that Nwaneri is next up in that line of legendary Arsenal midfielders. Even Jack Wilshere himself hailed him as one of the best players he's ever seen at that age. But there’s a catch. At the same time us fans witnessed Wilshere and Fabregas debut at 16, we also watched Jose Baxter and James Vaughan steal the show at that same age just to falter out into irrelevancy and never reach anywhere close to the hype. So this now leaves us with the real question: Will Ethan Nwaneri follow in the steps of Wilshere and Fabregas, and become a world class player? Or will he succumb to the same fate as Baxter and Vaughan; fizzling out and never reaching the heights fans expected.
Now, no matter how you put it, his debut was not just a case of a player being brought on just to shatter a record. He earned it and it certainly was not received overnight. Nwaneri has been consistently playing years up his entire career, and his talent has been impeccable since the very beginning. As an 8 year old, he was brought to Hale End. At 10, during a trial that included academy players from all over the country all in hopes of earning a scholarship at the highly regarded St John’s preparatory, the coaches asked Nwaneri to leave… not because he wasn’t good enough but rather he was so brilliant that the coaches couldn’t evaluate any of the other kids due to his superiority to all of them. It wasn’t fair, everyone looked like beginners in comparison to this absurd talent. Fast forward to 2021, when he had just turned 14 years of age, Ken Gillard, after watching Nwaneri dominate in the U15’s & U16’s all season long, would call him up for a U18 match vs Reading. It was supposed to just be a debut. The season was almost over and at the end of the day, he was still way too young to be playing with this age group consistently. Most of his teammates were 4 years older than him… But by the end of the game, Ethan would have scored a phenomenal goal in a 6-1 win. He would receive the ball, fake out his defender and release a dazzling shot from just outside of the box that would nestle into the top left corner. It was picturesque. Arsenal would post his goal on their main twitter, captioned “imagine making your Arsenal U18 debut… at 14 years of age… and scoring a goal like this”.
Now despite an excellent debut for the U18s, he wouldn’t get the full nod to the side in the following season. In February of last year, he received his very 1st call-up to the three lions playing for the under 16s, despite being 14. His next opportunity for the U18s would come only a few weeks later, when he would get the start against none-other than Reading… And he would do it again. By the 28th minute, Arsenal were up 2-0, and Nwaneri had dished out both assists. A month later he would score vs Southampton before heading off to the Mondial Minimes with England’s U16’s. He would shine against Mexico, scoring a goal and getting an assist as well. But the side would get easily dispatched by Brazil, where Madrid’s prodigy, Endrick put on a solo show bringing Brazil to a 3-0 victory, knocking England out of a potential spot in the finals. When he returned, he would score one more goal vs Norwich, to end off a very successful season. Well he wasn’t truly part of the team just yet, it surely wasn’t due to his skill level, as he had netted 3 goals, and assisted 2 in only 417 minutes of playtime.
Sure, Nwaneri was already on the radar for some more invested fans, but it would really be this past season where he'd earn the reputation of arguably being the finest young talent in Great Britain. Now 15 years old, he would be officially promoted to the under-18s and in the third game of the season, in the youth North London derby, he and teammate Omari Benjamin would steal the show. In the 17th minute, with Arsenal already up 1-0 Nwaneri would play a flawless trivela setting up Benjamin for his second. He was relentless all game and finally, 53 minutes later, he would

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