Speaking to Football London, Arsenal academy manager Per Mertesacker has been speaking about Charlie Patino.
Patino is supposedly one of the best young talents in the country. Many Arsenal supporters are excited by what the future has in store for him while the scout who discovered him believes he could be the best player to ever come through Hale End.
This kid is just 17 years old and it seems as though everyone already has high hopes for him, and that includes Mertesacker who has been waxing-lyrical about the midfielder.
What’s been said?
Mertesacker was waxing-lyrical about Patino.
“We always knew that Charlie is very talented with what he can produce for our youth teams,” the 37-year-old says.
“The link with the first team was always there and he got some exposure this summer. He had some injuries as well. Sometimes it’s not always that easy to track a player where everything works out for him nice.
“Towards the end of the season he had an injury, so he came back into the system, we kind of exposed him, wanted to give him a proper pre-season. His plan was always to stay with the under-23s and then be exposed to the first team at some stages.”
Future star
Everything points towards Patino being a real gem from Arsenal’s academy.
The youngster is yet to play a game for the first-team, but the hype just continues to grow and grow around this player.
We can only hope that there isn’t too much pressure being put onto his young shoulders because with all this praise coming from all directions it could be very easy for Patino to let this go to his head.
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