This is according to the Arsenal faithful, who were thoroughly impressed by the German’s praise on the young stars at the Arsenal academy.
It’s happy times at Arsenal at the moment as the North London club are sitting in fourth place on the Premier League table with eight games remaining in the rest of the campaign. The Gunners recently took Manchester United’s place as they handed the Red Devils a 2-0 loss at the Emirates last week.
Unai Emery is working his magic at Arsenal after replacing Arsene Wenger in the summer of 2018 but there is still an aura about the 69-year-old Frenchman at the club. The legendary manager was in charge of the club for 26 long years and won three Premier League titles when he was at the helm.
Wenger’s philosophy and culture were always surrounded by youth and exciting prospects. Giving youth a chance was something that Wenger was renowned for and his legacy has now been taken over by former Germany defender Per Mertesacker.
Mertesacker became the head coach for the Arsenal youth academy after retiring from professional football back in 2017 and the former Arsenal defender has learned a thing or two from his master.
The 34-year-old Mertesacker has spoken very highly about trying to promote youngsters like Emile Smith Rowe who is currently on loan at Red Bull Leipzig and Bukayo Saka.
Mertesacker spoke to news outlet Goal about Saka and said, “He’s an interesting talent but very young. Bukayo is only 17 years old but we don’t want to push him too hard. We don’t want him to be misused, so he has to cope with the tempo. He is still a first-year scholar and has a lot of education going on. We don’t want him to think he’s good enough just to train with the first team. The manager likes him, yeah, but he has a lot of steps before he can call himself a real professional in a first-team environment.”
The ex-Werder Bremen star also went on to speak about Emile Smith Rowe’s development in the Bundesliga,”It’s really important to see him going on loan for a great experience, The Bundesliga sits right below the Premier League in terms of the tempo. Going from the under-23s to Germany then coming back to the Premier League a good step. Sometimes you get stuck in the 23s training bubble. You train with the first team which looks nice but you need the competition.”
Mertesacker’s comments went down well with the Arsenal fans as they felt shades of former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.
Here are some of the praise quotes Metresacker received;
“He’s just perfect for the job,”
“Terrific guy and has the right mentality.”
“The fact Per cares for the players speaks volumes about this ideology.”
“He sounds like Wenger,”
“There were shades of Arsene Wenger when he spoke.”
