Hale End gave Arsenal a future superstar in ‘young Saka’

Arsenal is a club with a proud history of developing young talent and promoting them to the first team.

Mikel Arteta continued that tradition during his time, with the likes of Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Ethan Nwaneri, Miles Lewis-Skelly and now Max Dowman also getting opportunities under him.

However, when it comes to the most successful Hail End products under the Spaniard’s management, it is impossible to ignore Bukayo Saka, who has become a world-class superstar in recent years.

Fans should therefore be very excited to see another young prospect coming through the academy, who is described as a younger version of an England international.

School life on the slope

Saka joined Hale End when he was seven years old, but later revealed that it was his father who encouraged him to join over anyone else.

The Ealing-born talent made his debut for the club’s Under-18s against Fulham in August 2017, a game the Gunners lost 4-1.

The youngster finished the season with an impressive 8 goals and 4 assists in 22 games.

The following year, he played in just 6 games for the U18S and 24 games for the U23S, scoring 6 goals and providing 9 assists.

However, this was also the season in which he made his first-team debut in the group stage of the Europa League, coached by Unai Emery, away against Ukrainian side Forskla Poltava.

At this point, the exciting prospect was still seen as a left-sided attacker, making just one appearance on the right across both campaigns.

In the 19/20 season, Saka ended his time with the academy, making just one appearance for the Under-23s in a Premier League 2 draw against Everton.

The 24-year-old has played 28 games for Arsenal’s Under-18s and was involved in 22 goals, while he has played in 25 games and scored 15 goals for Arsenal’s Under-23s.

We all know how the rest of the story plays out, so fans should be excited about another Hail Ending talent who is currently being compared to Saka.

Arsenal’s next game

With players like Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly and now Dowman, it feels like Hale End can’t stop producing incredible talent and Brando Bailey-Joseph could be the next one to stand out.

The 17-year-old has been very impressive in recent months and has already put pen to paper on a professional contract, despite only signing scholarship terms with the club a few months ago.

Moreover, his current appearance is “very reminiscent of Saka in his youth,” according to one analyst.

His argument is that, like a talisman for the Gunners, there is a lot of talk around him among the other youngsters in the academy and he is just quietly doing his best in the shadows.

For example, this season he played in 16 games, played a total of 1098 minutes, and recorded 4 goals and 4 assists.

This means he will be involved in a goal on average every other game, or every 137.25 minutes, which is a pretty good number for a striker, let alone a winger who has moved between the two teams a lot.

In addition to his results, the analyst also pointed out that he had shown “incredible technical” ability in the academy, similar to Arteta’s temperamental No. 7.

This is a sentiment echoed by Hale End expert Will Balsam, who claims the boy’s “fiery feet that constantly dig into the grass make it impossible for defenders to know what’s going to happen.”

All in all, although still early in his journey, it looks like Bailey-Joseph could be the next Hale End star to break into the first team and follow in Saka’s footsteps on the wing.