{"id":404474,"date":"2021-10-14T09:16:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T08:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=404474"},"modified":"2021-10-14T09:56:34","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T08:56:34","slug":"mertesacker-names-two-arsenal-players-that-will-help-club-return-to-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=404474","title":{"rendered":"Mertesacker names two Arsenal players that will help club return to Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"mvp-content-main\">Arsenal academy director, Per Mertesacker, has said Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe can carry the club back into the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mertesacker, the duo are good enough to inspire a new generation of young talent at the Emirates.<\/p>\n<p>Saka, 20, is one of England\u2019s brightest prospects, while Smith-Rowe scored for England U-21s this week.<\/p>\n<p>Mertesacker said: \u201cIt\u2019s always been a narrative at Arsenal to give young players a chance to play at the top. We\u2019re asking Bukayo and Emile to lead us back to the Champions League. They will proudly take that but we also have to understand the context.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always been there. If you ask Bukayo and Emile they will tell you how they were inspired by Jack Wilshere, Fabregas, Bellerin. So the next generation of Under 9 players at the academy will be inspired by these players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever they will speak about the bumpy road, their learning, that journey that hasn\u2019t always been easy. The reality is that these two are exceptions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe academy staff has always given its all in delivering players to the highest level which can make a difference in our first team or in some other first team. That is hugely important to the club and will always be a priority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are giving young players the chance to learn to be vulnerable, to be exposed to the highest level and to be proper leaders for this club in two or three years\u2019 time, while acknowledging they probably need to suffer before they bring us back to glory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s my expectations. Hopefully Bukayo and Emile can take on the next level of talent into the first team and challenge them in the right way.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal academy director, Per Mertesacker, has said Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe can carry the club back into the Champions League. According to Mertesacker, the duo are good enough to inspire a new generation of young talent at the Emirates. Saka, 20, is one of England\u2019s brightest prospects, while Smith-Rowe scored for England U-21s this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":404475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2658,4427],"class_list":["post-404474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-a","tag-arsenal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=404474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/404475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=404474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=404474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=404474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}