Arsenal legend Ray Parlour has fired a warning to Mikel Arteta over not playing wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri too much at such a young age.
The England Under-21 international, who only recently turned 18, has enjoyed a memorable breakthrough season for the Gunners, showing himself to be one of the most exciting young talents in Europe.
Nwaneri has already played 29 games for the Arsenal first-team this season, scoring eight goals and providing one assist in total so far.
There’s surely more to come from the teenager, but Parlour is concerned that he could become like Jack Wilshere and play too much at a young age.
Wilshere also broke into the Arsenal first-team after rising up from the club’s academy, and Parlour admits the former England international clearly became too important for Arsene Wenger’s side too quickly.
Arsenal need to be careful with how they manage Ethan Nwaneri
Young players need careful managing, though, so Arteta needs to make sure he doesn’t put too much pressure on Nwaneri at this stage of his career, or it could end up costing him with injury problems later on.
That’s precisely what happened with Wilshere, and it would be an awful waste if it happened again with another fine talent like Nwaneri.
“You want to play for your country whenever you can, there’s no doubt about that and I’m sure he’s the same,” Parlour told the Metro.
“As much as you want to do well for your club you also want to develop in the Under-21s and get into the senior team.
“But you have to have plans for young players and they do sometimes need resting. You can go back to Jack Wilshere back in the day – he’d become too important for the club when he was 17 and Arsene Wenger had to play him every week because he was that good.
“That’s a good problem to have but you also look at how things ended for Jack and don’t want to repeat that.”
He added: “As a youngster, you just want to be out there playing every match,’ the former Gunners title winner added.
“If you’re playing well and scoring goals like he is you can’t wait for the next game. You try and push yourself all the way. Arsenal can still manage his minutes and take him off when he’s done the business in the first 60 or 70 minutes.
“There’ll be plans for him but all you can hope is that he keeps developing and working hard and he can become a superstar which would be fantastic for England and Arsenal.”
