“I love him so much he’s extremely talented…He’s my future captain”: Mikel Arteta has already unveiled Arsenal’s next captain and he’s academy starlet

Hale End. It’s not quite La Masia but Arsenal’s academy system has very quickly become revered across the country.

While the Gunners have always had a habit of producing top young players, in the last decade it’s taken on a particular level of prominence.

From Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe to Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman, the conveyor belt of talent has consistently provided Mikel Arteta with some of the finest young talents in the country.

For Nwaneri and Dowman, the goal will be to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors and there is every chance they will.

The generational academy duo have become the two youngest players in Premier League history and the world is their oyster. They look ready to dominate English football for years to come.

While Nwaneri looks special, Dowman looks next level. He’s burst onto the scene at an almighty rate of knots and aged just 15, is already impacting Premier League games. It’s echoes of Lamine Yamal’s rise at Barcelona.

While Arsenal will hope they have another Yamal or Saka on their hands, expectations must be tempered, just as they had to be when the latter burst onto the scene under Unai Emery.

What happened when Saka burst onto the scene at Arsenal

Arsenal supporters don’t have much to thank Emery for but he was the manager who spotted Saka and gave him his first-team debut.

The date was 29th November 2018. The competition was the Europa League. The opposition were Vorskla Poltava. Saka appeared from the bench in a 3-0 win aged 17 years, two months and 24 hours. The rest, as they say, is history.

Just a few weeks later, Saka made his first start for Arsenal in a 1-0 Europa League victory over Qarabag. Then, in the New Year, he made his Premier League debut in a 4-1 win over Fulham on 19th January 2019.

At first, Saka appeared on the left wing but made a seamless transition across both flanks. It was from the right side that he scored his first senior goal.

While he should have scored in that game against Qarabag, firing at the goalkeeper from a matter of yards out, he did finally find the net nearly a year later.

The Europa League was a fine competition for Saka to develop in and it was on the continental stage that he scored in Arsenal colours for the first time, bagging in a 3-0 win over Frankfurt.

While the England international has now found a home on the right wing, much of the embryonic stages of his career played out at left back or left wing-back.

Indeed, he has played at left-back 21 times in his club career. During Arteta’s first match in charge of the club in December 2019, Saka was fielded in that position. He even made his England debut in that area of the pitch.

It’s rather remarkable, therefore, that he is now one of the best wingers in world football. Arsenal journalist Charles Watts even went as far as to say that the club’s number 7 was “the best right winger in the world” in 2023.

Now, in 2025, Saka has very much lived up to that billing, winning England’s Player of the Year on a couple of occasions and proving he is the man for the big occasion for club and country. He stepped up and scored at a vital moment at the Euros in 2024, netting against Switzerland and bagging inside the Bernabeu last season.

So in 2025, seven years after Arsenal’s best player burst onto the scene, where is the next Saka coming from?

Arsenal’s next Saka has emerged from Hale End

Be it luck, be it the hard work of those behind the scenes at academy level, Hale End has had enormous success in recent years at producing players ready to be integrated into the first team.

Last term, Nwaneri featured on 37 occasions for the Arsenal senior side, scoring nine goals and supplying two assists. For a 17-year-old, it was a remarkable campaign.

However, the teenager is not the academy darling anymore. Dowman is the shiny new toy and he’s making his own impact.

While yet to score at senior level, the 15-year-old has showcased why he is rated so highly. He won a penalty against Newcastle in pre-season and won another spot-kick against Leeds in the 5-0 win at the beginning of the season. He did so by using his dazzling dribbling ability. Few in the game have as good close control of the ball as Dowman.

Yet, while both will naturally draw comparisons to Saka – being left-footed and playing off the right – it’s Myles Lewis-Skelly’s rise that evokes the strongest comparisons to his international colleague.

While many onlookers spent much of last season waxing lyrical about Nwaneri, it was actually Lewis-Skelly who enjoyed the brightest rise, quickly overtaking his good mate and becoming one of the first names on the teamsheet.

But, like Saka, he has emerged on the scene out of position and in the same role too.

Lewis-Skelly is a midfielder by trade and that is where the Gunners envisage his future. Yet, his development so far has been best served at left-back.

Standing in for an injured Riccardo Calafiori last term, the 18-year-old enjoyed a standout season, eventually being nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Season award.

While ill-discipline cost the youngster at times, being sent off on two occasions, he was particularly vital during the club’s run to the Champions League semi-finals.

Speaking on TNT during Arsenal’s win against Real Madrid in the Spanish capital, Premier League great Rio Ferdinand said: “I’m sorry, is Lewis-Skelly really 18? His date of birth is right, isn’t it? He looks so calm and so cool in and out of possession. Before the game he was on a call, just talking and chilling. He is special.”

So, like Saka, he broke through at left-back despite it not being his natural position, and he’s got the composed, mature personality that his fellow Hale Ender possesses.

The problem for Lewis-Skelly, as Thomas Tuchel recently outlined, is his game time.

Last season was a special one for the teen, one that saw him also earn his first England caps. He even scored on his international debut. He’s an unbelievable talent, alright.

Yet, Arsenal’s squad is now stacked. Calafiori is fit again and the academy graduate is still awaiting his first Premier League start of the campaign.

Quizzed on whether Lewis-Skelly would be in next summer’s World Cup squad if he doesn’t play regularly, the Three Lions boss said: “Maybe it becomes a problem for him, yeah. To just be a good citizen in camp will not be enough over the course of a year.

“You have to perform at club level on a regular basis. In the last camp he got the credit, that I was convinced we have to take care of him and nominate him because we accelerated his career. It was our responsibility after we called him last season.”

We do have to remember that the Arsenal gem is still only 18. Even if he doesn’t make it to the World Cup next year, his time will no doubt come.

However, like Saka, it may not come at left-back. Arsenal’s sparkling number 7, the club’s poster boy, eventually made it on the right flank. He’s captained the club, he’s played 200 times in the Premier League, contributing 55 goals and 51 assists.

As club insider Hand of Arsenal once revealed, however, there is a belief that Lewis-Skelly could well be a “future captain” too, and he must now channel his inner Saka to get there.

A change of position to midfield will come at some point and it’s when that happens that he’ll get to really push on and explode. Just you wait.