Arsenal: Konstantinos Mavropanos has a long way to go

Konstantinos Mavropanos may have enjoyed a quick rise up the ranks in the half-season he has spent at Arsenal, but let’s not get too excited. He still has a long way to go.

It’s very easy to get overly-excited about young players. Such is the joy at watching a talent develop in the youth teams, graduate to the senior squad and then break into the first team, it is not difficult to abandon reality a little and slip into the land of make-believe and unhinged optimism. I have done it with many Arsenal players in the past.

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Even in this current squad, there are players that I was hoping — and sometimes expecting — far more from. Danny Welbeck. Aaron Ramsey. Hector Bellerin. Rob Holding. Some of them have had very good careers, but such were my unreasoned dreams, they have fallen short of them, not that that is necessarily their fault.

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And now there is another prime example of a player making me look far beyond what I should be. Konstantinos Mavropanos enjoyed a meteoric rise in his first half-season at the Emirates. Within a week of just training, he had gone from a sure-fire loan candidate to a member of the first-team squad. Then, just four months later, he was starting three successive Premier League games, ahead of fellow young centre-half prospect, Rob Holding.

Of those three games, Mavropanos was excellent in two of them, a loss to Manchester United and then a win over Burnley in Wenger’s final home match. This is what sent my, and many other’s, hysteria going. Suddenly, Arsenal had a hard-nosed, physically imposing, tough-tackling but composed and controlled centre-half. And all at only 20 years of age and three starts for the club.

Obviously, that is not quite true. He would not have suffered an ignominious red card against Leicester City, hauling down Kelechi Iheanacho as the striker raced through on goal after nicking in to steal the ball out of the back pocket of Mavropanos, if he was all of those qualities. But that is what my rose-tinted mind wanted me to think.

So now, as he prepares for his second season in north London, assuming that he is not loaned out, I have to make sure that I pump the brakes on my expectations for him somewhat. In those two games, as well as the shift in Wenger’s thinking, and the endorsement that he received from Sven Mislintat and co. by the very fact that he was signed in the first place, Mavropanos showed enough for my ever-so-easily-enamoured heart to fall for his potential, however foolish that may seem.

He still has a long way to go. At this point, he is no better than fourth-choice, with Calum Chambers, Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi all above him in the pecking order. Then there is the return of Laurent Koscielny and the presence of Holding. It may be difficult for Mavropanos to play whatsoever, nevermind play and play well. And even if he does find his way onto the pitch, he must then be consistent enough to earn and keep his place there. At 20, that it a huge ask.

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So, yes, Mavropanos is a massive talent that I am extremely excited about. But let’s not get too excited. He has a long way to go.