Championship interest emerges in teenage Arsenal talent | OneFootball

Arsenal looked likely to be the team to break the Manchester City monopoly in the Premier League this season, but football sometimes has a habit of throwing up unexpected results, and the Gunners were on the receiving end of quite a few of those in the final months and weeks of the 2022-23 campaign.

The Gunners ended up finishing second-best to Pep Guardiola and City in the end, but they will return to the Champions League next season and they're expected to spend big this summer.

Such is Arsenal's need for trophies and success though it will no doubt see many of their talented academy graduates fall by the wayside as they bring in more new players with not many of them making it to the first-team setup.

Charlie Patino is one young Gunners player who is set to depart on a permanent basis this summer following a loan stint in the EFL with Blackpool, and another is set to follow in his footsteps in the form of Zach Awe, who is attracting interest from Championship clubs, according to a report from The Telegraph.

Who is Zach Awe?

Awe has been at Arsenal in their academy since he was a child in 2012, but he has risen through the ranks to become a key part of their under-21's squad.

An under-16's England international who hasn't quite been able to make it into the older youth squads, Awe made his debut for Arsenal's under-18's in August 2019 as a 15-year-old and became a regular at 16 in the 2020-21 season.

Awe also made his under-21's debut for Arsenal in 2020 when he was just 16 years of age and was named on the bench for the first time in his career at senior level in a February 2022 Premier League match against Wolves.

Almost an ever-present for Arsenal's development squad this season with 23 appearances in the Premier League 2 competition, Awe also tested himself against EFL clubs in the EFL Trophy, playing against Cambridge United, Ipswich Town, Northampton and Stevenage, scoring in a 3-1 victory over the latter.

Even though it is claimed that second tier clubs are keen to sign Awe on a permanent basis, the identity of those teams is unknown.

Unlike the aforementioned Patino, Awe has not spent time away from the Emirates Stadium on loan during his career yet, but performances at under-21 level have seen him attract interest.