Gunners hopeful in up-coming Bukayo Saka
Bukayo Saka, 18, has gone from acting and learning to play left-back to starring in Arsenal’s attack.
Jamie Carragher marvelled at his “composure and quality” on the ball. The notoriously hard-to-please Roy Keane talked up his “lovely” performance. Even Cesc Fabregas voiced his approval. “Saka is a player,” he wrote on Twitter. “Eighteen years old and showing great maturity.”
Arsenal and Manchester United’s 1-1 draw at Old Trafford last month was a drab affair, another reminder of how far the two clubs have fallen since the days of their epic rivalry. For Bukayo Saka, though, it provided a platform to further enhance a rapidly growing reputation.
At 18 years and 25 days old, and making only his seventh senior appearance for Arsenal, Saka became the youngest player to start a Premier League game between the two sides. And at a ground where players far older than him have crumbled, there was little evidence of his inexperience.
In fact, Saka’s starting spot now looks more secure than that of the £72m Nicolas Pepe. Unai Emery described Saka as an “important player” after the Manchester United game and started him again in the 1-0 win over Bournemouth. The academy graduate will be confident of keeping his place against Sheffield United on Monday Night Football.
Saka provided the first glimpses of his raw talent last season – most notably with his man-of-the-match showing against Qarabag in the Europa League – but, much like one of his driving runs down Arsenal’s left flank, his progress has gained momentum in the new campaign.
The winger scored his first senior goal in the 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt last month, finding the bottom corner with a curling finish from 25 yards out, and there have also been three assists, including the smart through-ball for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s equaliser at Old Trafford.
His work is natural and he is improving. He is helping us now as an important player.
Unai Emery on Bukayo Saka
It’s that ability that has propelled Saka into the spotlight, moving him above fellow academy graduates Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock in Emery’s pecking order, but what’s just as encouraging for Arsenal supporters is that he is demonstrating the right character too. Saka is confident and mature on the pitch and humble off it.
“Respectful, very hard-working and always willing to learn,” is how club captain Granit Xhaka described him recently. They are traits recognisable not just to those working in Arsenal’s academy, which he joined at the age of eight, but also the staff at Greenford High School in Ealing, west London, where he was a student from the age of 11 to 16.
“He was a role model of a student,” assistant head teacher Mark Harvey, who also taught Saka PE, tells Sky Sports. “A lovely and respectful lad with a really nice attitude. He just carried himself in such a nice way.
“Sometimes you can teach students who are exceptionally good at football, but when you get them on a pitch, they just hog the ball or they want to show off with it. Bukayo wasn’t that sort of guy at all. If anything, he played down how good he was, which was really nice to see.”
Saka was training regularly with Arsenal by the time he started at Greenford, making the long journey from his family home in Ealing to the club’s north-east London academy several times per week, but it is a testament to his attitude – and aptitude – that he never allowed his studies to suffer – even when his football commitments required time out of school.
“He did his GCSEs with us before he left and he did very, very well,” says Harvey. “All of his grades were high, particularly in English and Maths. He also did business studies, he did RE, he did combined sciences. He just did very well across the board, which is amazing considering the amount of time he had out of school with his football.
Read Also:Olivier Giroud: No regrets over leaving Arsenal
“We tried to work with Arsenal as much as we possibly could. We knew how studious he was and the grades he was getting, so we were flexible about allocating him time out. His family were really supportive and always ensured he would do his homework, which for us was the key thing.”
Saka threw himself into his football with the same dedication, rising through Arsenal’s youth ranks and breaking into Freddie Ljungberg’s U23s soon after his 17th birthday. At the same time, he was faring similarly well in England’s junior sides, impressing coaching staff with the manner in which he embraced an unfamiliar position.
“He caught the eye in the same way he does now,” Neil Dewsnip, England’s former U18s coach, tells Sky Sports. “He was very quick, powerful and could hurt defences, whether that was as an out-and-out left winger or indeed as a left-back, which is where he played for us at the start of last year.