Inside Arsenal's academy grand plan to develop the next Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly | OneFootball

Ahead of FA Youth Cup clash with Manchester United, Arsenal Under-18s coach Adam Birchall explains how the club is nurturing its young talent

Academy stars Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri have enjoyed breakthrough seasons at Arsenal

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Arsenal Under-18s head coach Adam Birchall can’t help but break into a laugh when he is jokingly asked if Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly could play in Friday’s FA Youth Cup quarter-final with Manchester United.

Not that Birchall minds. Producing players for the first-team is his job and all Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri have done is create an opportunity for others to shine, with Friday’s showdown with Manchester United, in front of 10,000 fans, a perfect chance to do so.

“I think Ethan and Myles are a good example of how all the players are on different journeys,” says Birchall.

“We’ve got really talented players throughout the system and it just creates other opportunities for our talented players to step up and show what they’ve got.

Adam Birchall’s Under-18s face Manchester United in an FA Youth Cup Final at Emirates Stadium on Friday

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“This is a very young group compared to recent years. I think we’re the youngest in the competition. We’ve got 15, 16-year-olds in the squad.”

Those 15-year-olds include midfield Max Dowman, who has regularly trained with the first-team this season. Centre-back Marli Salmon is another and he played for Arsenal Under-21s last week.

Back in September, Jack Porter became the youngest-ever player to start for Arsenal when picked to play in goal against Bolton in the third round of the Carabao Cup at the age of 16.

The challenge for Birchall and the rest of Arsenal’s academy staff is to nurture that talent, and the club offer an elite environment.

Sessions, even those at Under-9s level, are filmed to get players used to analysing their own game.

For those playing in the Under-16s, training is filmed with bird’s-eye cameras that are controlled remotely by those editing the footage on-the-fly indoors. Players have access to psychologists and nutritionists, too.

Arsenal place a big emphasises on activities away from football, encouraging youngsters to engage in community work and adopting a hybrid system where players stay in school while training.

“Where other academies will have maybe a full-time programme, we really believe that they should be at school, should be around their friends and developing that personal side as well,” says Birchall.

“I think that’s where [academy manager] Per [Mertesacker] is really clear here in our academy around better people make better players.

Max Dowman, the 15-year-old who has trained with the first-team this season, will feature against Manchester United

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“Ultimately, when they come in here, it’s about the environment, the culture of the lads that are in here full time to really embrace them and staff to help them with that.

“That would be the biggest challenge, I’d say, because talent-wise, they have it. It’s just helping them feel comfortable around the pressure and all the rest of it.”

Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri have become role models for the way they conduct themselves both on and off the pitch.

On the morning of this interview, Birchall received a text from Lewis-Skelly about how he had been reading up about detachment theory. Despite breaking into the first-team, Lewis-Skelly has continued with his studies and is undertaking AS levels in business studies and Spanish.

“He’s quite often walking past speaking Spanish,” says Birchall. “But that, again, is role modelling.

“If I’m a young player and I’m looking at him, he’s showing what being a strong young Gunner is about. It’s about that constant strive to better yourself.”

The challenge of developing young players is even harder in the modern era with the growth of social media.

Academy players can regularly have assists and goals from their youth games clipped up and go viral.

Media exposure comes at an earlier age than before and part of the work Arsenal have to do is preparing players for that.

“It is the challenge of the world we live in,” says Birchall. “You need self-awareness.

Arsenal place a big emphasises on activities away from football for their academy stars like Lewis-Skelly

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

“Part of that is helping them understand and giving them the mirror as much as possible to look a bit deeper and understand, because they live in a world where they’re told what they want to hear, some of them, and not what they need to hear.

“When I grew up here at the academy, it was constantly what you need to hear. It wasn’t sugar- coated.

“But for our young lads, if we have a lad who’s potentially, I can think of a few examples, getting attention, you could call it that, we might go actually: ‘What is it you want to get better at that’s not to do with football?’

“So we’ve had lads do charity work and give back, and just refocus them away from themselves and giving back.

“I do think the coach has a huge role to play in this. It’s one thing I do think is very important. It’s like a classroom, and the culture and the environment you set, and the standards you hold, and you as a role model yourself over a long period of time, has a knock-on effect to players.”

A key point that Birchall stresses is how the path to the top is not linear, even for Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri.

Overcoming adversity is part of the process and sometimes players can learn more from defeat.

“What you can’t have is a straight road to success, because when the challenge comes, how are you going to deal with it? You learn no coping strategies,” says Birchall.

“I remember once in Japan, where we got to the final against Barcelona [in a futsal tournament]. We went 1-0 up, Myles played the ball through to Ethan, he scores.

“First kick of the game, we’re thinking, oh Barca - and I don’t think we touched the ball after that. But again, brilliant experience. They didn’t win. I remember how hurt they were after it. It was about capturing those moments as well.”

Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri were treated like any other academy player, which is a key part of Arsenal’s approach. Everyone is equal.

There are, of course, the ones who get away and Manchester United are a reminder of that.

Over the past year, academy players Ayden Heaven and Chido Obi Martin have both left Arsenal to move to Old Trafford.

“Being at Arsenal for I think 25 years now, what you would love is that they all go through and they play for our first team, because you end up caring so much about the boy, you love the club,” says Birchall.

“So, that’s perfect. But, the reality of football is that it’s not that. I still speak to lads [that have left] - there is one at Northampton, one at Colchester, one at NEC [Nijmegen], one at AC Milan.

“They are everywhere and, absolutely, once you know them and care about them, if they can go on and try to live their dream, I am so proud and happy for them. That’s the main thing - happy for them.

“Whether it’s here or elsewhere, a professional career is why they are here. That’s why this academy runs, to produce players.”