Arsenal are to lose an academy product dubbed "the best kid I’ve ever seen" by the scout who found him – as interested parties queue up to sign him.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has built the youngest team in the Premier League with a core of superstars from the club's famed Hale End academy. Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah all lead the homegrown talent at the Emirates Stadium, with Folarin Balogun set for departure and more youngsters coming through below them.
Earlier this summer, Arsenal committed the youngest-ever Premier League player, Ethan Nwaneri, to a new deal, while Amario Cozier-Duberry and Myles Lewis-Skelley have also appeared in preseason so far. But now, one of the north Londoners' best young talents appears to have one foot out of the door.
According to Welsh journalist Darren Whitcoop, teen sensation Charlie Patino is wanted by the likes of Cardiff City and recently-promoted Luton Town, as well as clubs abroad, in his bid for regular minutes away from the capital.
Journalist Chris Wheatley has previously added that the Gunners' preference for the young English talent – who is eligible to play for Spain – is to insert a buyback clause in any deal that sees him leave. Whitcoop says that this is proving problematic in negotiations.
Patino scored on his very first Arsenal appearance when he came off the bench in a League Cup fixture against Sunderland to strike. He spent last season on loan at relegated Blackpool – and has made quite the impact on scouts, with the man who discovered him, Brian Stapleton, telling GOAL that no one else compared to Patino in the Gunners' academy.
“Of all the years I’ve been scouting, he’s the best kid I’ve ever seen,” Stapleton said. “I got a tip off about Charlie from a guy, so I went over there and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He was 11 and I think he was playing in the Under-13s, and I was like ‘wow’.
“His first touch was unbelievable, his vision, his awareness of space. He was way above his years, he was on another planet to anyone else on the pitch.
“I made a phone call to my head of my department at Arsenal at the time, Sean O’Connor. He asked what I thought and I said, ‘well, I’m not coming back again. I don’t need to see any more, you need to sign this kid straight away.’”
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