New signing aiming for fast track to Arsenal first team | OneFootball

Arsenal’s first signing of the summer transfer window was the 17 year-old Lino Sousa, who joined from West Brom despite having many offers from top clubs around the country.

He is usually a left-back but can play in the centre of defence or on the wing when needed, and you can certainly say the youngster is very talented. Having played for the U18s at West Brom since we was 16 shows how highly regarded he is and why he caught Arsenal’s eye.

He is also very ambitious and has made it clear that the reason he chose Arsenal was because of our record of promoting youth players to the first team. “It’s an amazing feeling,” Sousa told Arsenal.com. “I’d like to thank the club for giving me this opportunity to be here and I’m just excited to get going to be honest.

“I’ve seen that obviously recently things have started to change a bit around here and a lot more young players are coming through and there’s a pathway there. That’s what I’m hopefully looking to aim to do and just progress into the first team one day.

“Bukayo and Emile are two players that have done it and there’s plenty more, and hopefully I’ll be able to add to that list one day.

“I just want to get my head down, get back playing, get into that under-23s team and then hopefully be with the first team for pre-season.”

Well, we really have to admire the young man’s confidence, and he looks like a real prospect for the future. As the West Brom coach Peter Gilbert said last year: “Lino’s an athletic full-back, reads the game well, has a lovely left foot and it’s not often a 16-year-old plays an entire season with the 18s, but that’s credit to him because he has so much potential,”

He sounds like winner to me. Hopefully in a few years he will challenging Nuno Tavares and Kieran Tierney for a place in the first team.