Lino Sousa stepped onto the field against Lyon and impressed at left back. Signed in January of this year, although that feels some time ago now, the full-back was the sole acquisition by Arsenal in the window that remained with the club after the end of the month.
Arsenal agreed a deal for Matt Turner which was completed in the summer whilst Auston Trusty returned on loan to the Colorado Rapids. Sousa however was integrated into the under-18s before getting opportunities for the under-23s.
In less than a year he has made a significant impact already and was a regular feature in senior training sessions despite still having to reach adulthood. Mikel Arteta’s attention was caught by Sousa early on football.london understands and there’s hope he has a future at the club although there are challenges.
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Sousa spoke to The Athletic about how the senior left-backs were helping him. Interestingly he also references playing in the inverted style that Arteta’s starters have been operating with.
"I speak to Zinny as well,” he said. “Both him and Tierney are really nice and helpful in training.
“It’s what Mikel wants, so whatever the first team do, we try to mirror it to prepare ourselves to make the big step up. Just having that diversity and variety, whether I’m out wide or play centrally, it’s good for me."
Yet it is these players that represent the barrier to Sousa. Oleksandr Zinchenko is 25, Kieran Tierney is 25 and Takehiro Tomiyasu recently turned 24.
All three players have performed well at left-back and still can for the foreseeable future for the club unless any decide they wish to move on. Sousa has a decision to make regarding his future because, with his development, youth football is not going to be reflective of the challenges he needs to face like so many Arsenal youth graduates to the senior level.
It could be that a loan program is established but the likelihood remains for Sousa that with the trio of aforementioned senior options at the club that an opportunity in the first team remains some years off. Whilst on loan, should he perform well, interest is sure to grow.
If two or three options remain ahead of him, how Arsenal can convince Sousa to stay when consistent starts at a good level are available in the future would be a challenge. Arteta himself will be responsible for showing Sousa a pathway.
If not, sporting director Edu needs to use talents like Sousa to demonstrate learning from the failures of Arsenal’s transfer past, specifically with sales. The talent coming through with Sousa represents not only a great potential future for the Arsenal first-team squad but the potential to make money in the market as they have failed to do all too often.
Chelsea and Liverpool have been great masters of this strategy and the Gunners need to adopt it if they want to achieve their elevation to the top level. Arteta and Edu will be key and players like Sousa could be at the centre of it all.
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