Charlie Patino’s move highlights the difficulty of making the final step

Morning.

Let’s start today with the news that young midfielder Charlie Patino is set to join Deportivo la Coruna for a fee of around £1m. Some will consider that quite low, and I suppose it is in the English market, but for a player going to a Spanish second division club – and one which has had serious financial issues over the last few years – it’s about what you would expect for a player who still has a lot to prove.

One of the shining stars at youth level, Patino has had two loan spells (at Blackpool and Swansea) which saw him play semi-regularly enough but not convince. Last season at Swansea he barely featured in the second half of the season, and this summer when so many of Arsenal’s senior players weren’t available and the squad needed to be filled with Academy players, he was left out completely. That told you pretty clearly his future lay elsewhere.

Sometimes in football, you have to take a step back to go forward again. The fact that his father is a fan of Depor (he comes from Galicia) is probably a factor in this move too, and hopefully it’s what he needs to really kick on his his career. He’s still only 20, and time is on his side. Arsenal have inserted what I’d imagine is a significant sell-on clause into the deal, so while the fee now might be relatively small, if he develops well and gets a decent move somewhere else down the line, we’ll benefit from that.

However, his situation does highlight just how hard it is to go from one of the hottest youth prospects, someone who everybody talks about with a kind of expectation, to the first team at Arsenal (or any other club for that matter). Patino was certainly one of those who shone at underage level, but who – for various reasons I’m sure – struggled to make the step-up to the senior game. There are so many examples of that guy down the years.

I remember when we were struggling under Mikel Arteta in that bleak late-Autumn/early winter of 2020, and seeing people complain online (I know, I know!) that the manager refused to use Miguel Azeez in midfield to give the team a boost. At that time he was still a teenager, but the Academy-hype around him was such that some folks thought he was a viable option for a team in dire straits. Now, having left Arsenal to join a Spanish semi-pro team in January, he finds himself scratching around without a club while the new season has already begun.

There is a tendency to project qualities, talent, readiness, development, onto Academy players before they’re anywhere near ready. If they can do it at youth level, why not give them a chance? Of course there are countless reasons why, primary of which is the fact that going from youth football to the Premier League is a bit like driving a Ford Mondeo around a circular track, then handing someone the keys to an F1 car and expecting them to be able for it.

How many names have been on the tip of Arsenal fans lips because of what they did at youth level only to disappear into the bread and butter of the professional game because it’s just so, so hard to make that leap? From Jay Emmanuel Thomas to Arturo Lupoli, to Marcus McGuane (people went mad when he signed for Barcelona B), and so many others – many of whom went on to have really good professional careers – but their trajectories had to be different. They had to put in the hard yards to make it at a bigger club somewhere down the line. Some never did.

You look at our first team now and we’re awaiting the departure of Eddie Nketiah (close to Forest according to David Ornstein), and while I think we’re all ready for something new, let’s not overlook how much of an achievement it is for him to have played nearly 170 games for this club. Emile Smith Rowe made the step, then couldn’t sustain it. It’s why I can’t help but wonder what Reiss Nelson is doing with his career when it’s clear his talent is sufficient to play regularly somewhere else, but who seems disinclined to leave the safe surroundings he’s used to. At some point, without regular football, the game will pass him by. I’m not saying he’s going to be in a similar situation to Miguel Azeez, but why would he not push hard to make the move everyone knows he needs to make?

For every Bukayo Saka there are dozens and dozens and dozens of others who had the talent and the ability to come through the Arsenal Academy system, but never make the grade. He is a rare gem. Most of them have to accept their limitations – a very difficult thing to do at an early age, by the way – and forge a different path in the professional game.

Let’s hope it goes well for Charlie Patino in Spain. Deportivo la Coruna is a club with real history and size. We played them in the Champions League back in the day, and Mauro Silva in midfield was one of my favourite non-Arsenal players. Let’s see how Patino can react to the change of scenery and what is a big opportunity, and maybe down the line that sell-on clause will be beneficial to our bank balance.

Righto, that’s it for this morning. The latest edition of Tim’s US Tour Diary is available here, and we’ll bring you any news throughout the day on Arseblog News.

Bye for now.

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