Arsenal: Bukayo Saka no longer just youth prospect

Bukayo Saka is one of many Arsenal academy graduates breaking into the first team. But is time to start thinking of the 18-year-old as more than just a young prospect? Is he now a full-time first-team player?

The transition from youth prospect to fully-fledged, first-team contributor is an extremely difficult one. It has seen many extremely talented footballers fall flat in the past; it will see many more falter in the years to come. But at some point, the change in perspective, standing and expectation must come, because if it doesn’t, the anticipated career will disappear into the winds.

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For some, it comes quickly, emphatically, and, dare I say, easily. Wayne Rooney transferred from teenage sensation to regular starter in no time. Michael Owen, Jack Wilshere, Hector Bellerin all made similarly speedy transitions. Once they were in the starting XI, they never looked back.

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For others, the process is a slower, more gradual one. Aaron Ramsey — partly due to injury — took three or four years to truly establish himself as a first-team player. The same went for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, is happening now with Phil Foden and plenty of other young prospects. There is not a wrong or right way. As long as the transition is eventually completed, the only thing that is lost is time, and at such a young age, that is not the greatest worry in the world.

Nevertheless, whether it happens quickly, slowly, smoothly or clunkily, the process must be completed. And once it has, the expectations for the individuals immediately change. Having a few bright touches here and there is suddenly not good enough. They must be consistent, reliable, impactful on a weekly basis, all the while executing the more nuanced elements of their position, the parts that some seasoned veterans are still yet to master. The perspective shifts.

This season, Arsenal are beginning to see the shoots of Bukayo Saka as a first-team star. The winger may only be 18 years of age, but he made his first start in the Europa League, scored a terrific goal, assisted another, and was subsequently rewarded with three successive starts in the Premier League, including in a major contest away at Old Trafford.

It might be a little soon to call Saka a fully-fledged first-team player. Three league starts is not the largest sample size, after all, and he has benefitted from the absence of Alexandre Lacazette through injury. But given Unai Emery’s management of Saka in recent weeks, resting him during lesser matches in the EFL Cup and Europa League and substituting Nicolas Pepe ahead of him, it seems as though he is now seen as a genuine starting option.

And that changes things for Saka. That brings a level of expectation that he must now meet. Those brief moments of brilliance, while still exhilarating and exciting for what they mean for the future, must be repeated. He must hold-up play, draw fouls, track runners and press high. Saka cannot be a complementary young buck, if he is to be used like a first-team player.

Whether this change in reputation and expectation has yet come, I am not so sure. It is still early days. But Saka is shining in an Arsenal shirt, and, while one day it won’t be, for now, that is more than enough.