Manchester United teenager explains why he left Arsenal | OneFootball

Ayden Heaven has explained why he left Arsenal for Manchester United, playing a position he was moved into by Gunners academy manager Per Mertesacker.

Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Ex-Arsenal academy defender Ayden Heaven joined Manchester United for around £1.5m in the January transfer window, and the former Gunner has explained what inspired the switch.

“It was time for a new challenge and to experience new things, a different place in the country, different style of football,” Heaven told The Athletic.

“I felt like it was easier for me to get in United’s first team and it’s working out so far. I just want to continue it.”

Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images

Despite now representing a Premier League rival, Heaven has a lot of reasons to be grateful to former club Arsenal, including the discovery of his current position at centre-back.

The youngster had spent most of his youth career playing as a midfielder or a winger when Arsenal academy manager Per Mertesacker tried to convince the player’s agent and mother that he should be a defender instead.

“Per Mertesacker was like, ‘He’s not a midfielder, he’s not a winger, he’s a defender’,” Heaven’s mother Lisa said. “I was like, ‘No, he’s a No 6, he goes box to box’.

“Then I saw him play left-sided centre-back, I thought, ‘OK, you know’. I feel like Per always saw something in Ayden that no one else saw.”

Photo via Arsenal.com

With the benefit of hindsight, it was an inspired switch. Heaven got his debut at Arsenal as a centre-back, he’s broken into the Manchester United first team as a centre-back, and who knows whether he would have had those same opportunities playing in midfield or on the wings?

There was an opening at the back at United, with the crop of centre-backs struggling with either injuries or just not being very good at football.

It certainly doesn’t look as though the 18-year-old’s new club have any plans to move him away from his current position.