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Arsenal showed interest in signing Paris Saint-Germain wonderkid hailed by Pochettino

Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images
Photo by Tony McArdle/Everton FC via Getty Images
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Arsenal wanted El Chadaille Bitshiabu over the summer before the teenager decided to stay with French giants Paris Saint-Germain instead.

Fans of course love to see the big signings such as Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko arrive at the Emirates Stadium.

Yet Arsenal also need to place a focus on signing young talents for the future to complement the Hale End prospects.

Deals for the likes of George Lewis, Salah Oulad M’Hand, Nikolaj Moller, Joel Ideho and Omar Rekik were stuck in 2020 and Arsenal were keen on signing a teenage prospect this summer.

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Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Arsenal wanted El Chadaille Bitshiabu

Every year, The Guardian publish their ‘Next Generation’ articles, profiling 60 of the top young prospects around the world.

One of the players listed this year is El Chadaille Bitshiabu, who is currently emerging through the ranks with French giants Paris Saint-Germain.

Bitshiabu, 17, is a real giant at 6ft 5in tall and has been on the PSG books since arriving in 2017.

Mauricio Pochettino praised Bitshiabu as ‘physically great’ and ‘good technically’ earlier this year having watched his progress at PSG.

The defender is a regular for France at youth level and has already made three first-team appearances for PSG, who seem to believe he has huge potential.

The Guardian now claim that Bitshiabu did have interest from Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Manchester City over the summer.

Yet instead of leaving PSG, Bitshiabu chose to snub those clubs and stay with PSG, seemingly believing that he can push towards their first team.

That isn’t easy though; Christopher Nkunku and Moussa Diaby are just two examples of players who had to leave PSG in order to become first-team stars elsewhere.

Bitshiabu may well reach that point one day and Arsenal would be wise to keep tabs on his progress in the French capital to see if a deal can be hashed out in the future.