Arsenal hit gold on “unplayable” Hale Ender

Arsenal have a proud history of producing incredible talent through their youth system.

Hale End has been responsible for legends from years past, such as Liam Brady, David O’Leary, and David Roecastle.

That tradition has carried on through the eras, with Cesc Fàbregas, Ashley Cole and even the injury-riddled Jack Wilshere all spending time in the famous academy.

That same system also produced arguably the club’s best player in the current squad, Bukayo Saka, and it looks like there is another wave of promising prospects coming through, including one youngster who is already worth millions more than a former youth player now making a name for himself in France: Mika Biereth.

Biereth’s impressive rise

Arsenal signed Biereth from Fulham’s academy in the summer of 2021, and following several loan moves to RKC Waalwijk, Motherwell and finally, Sturm Graz, he was sold to the latter for just £4m plus add-ons in the summer.

Now, it could be said that agreeing to that much money plus a sell-on clause for a youngster who’s never even played for the first team was smart business from the Gunners.

Yet, considering he had racked up a tally of nine goals and four assists in 22 games at the back end of last season, it did feel like they could have asked for more.

This season has proven that to be true, as the Danish youngster was able to chalk up a tally of 14 goals and five assists in just 25 games for the Austrian outfit before the winter transfer window opened, in which he secured a £10.8m move to AS Monaco.

On the French Riviera, the former Gunners’ prospect has simply gone from strength to strength.

In just ten appearances, totalling 688 minutesthe 22-year-old has been able to score ten goals and provide two assists, meaning he’s averaging 1.2 goal involvements per game, or one every 57.33 minutes.

That means that in 35 appearances across both clubs this season, Biereth has scored 24 goals and provided seven assistswhich begs the question: was selling him a mistake?

Well, regardless of the answer, Arsenal can at least rest assured that one of their new academy stars is already worth considerably more than him.

The Hale End star worth millions more than Biereth

One of the few positives from this season is that when we are talking about a new Hale End star, at least a couple of players could come into consideration.

However, in this instance, it is most certainly Ethan Nwaneri who has gone from an exciting prospect for the future to an essential part of the first team at just 17 years old.

Granted, the injury crisis in attack has somewhat accelerated his integration, but from how well he’s played this year, you’d have no idea this is his first proper campaign of senior football.

The often “unplayable” teenager, as dubbed by Wilsherehas made 26 appearances for the first team this year, totalling 948 minutes, in which he’s scored seven goals and provided one assist, meaning he is averaging a goal involvement every 3.25 games, or every 118.5 minutes.

Unsurprisingly, this has seen his valuation soar, with Football Transfers pricing him at up to €37.5m, which comes out to around £31m, or just over £20m more than Monaco paid for Biereth in January.

Ultimately, with how badly Arsenal need a striker at the moment, there is a strong argument to be made that selling the young Dane was a mistake.

However, any annoyance stemming from that decision should be quickly forgotten, as in Nwaneri, it looks like they could have a future superstar on their hands.