Arsenal have an outstanding academy that has seen the rise of some of the best talents in the country.
Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah have all graduated from Hale End in recent years.
There are plenty of other exciting prospects who could come up through the Arsenal ranks in future.
One of those is Catalin Cirjan, an incredibly talented midfielder who has been making waves in the youth setup.
The 20-year-old joined Arsenal from Romanian outfit Viitorul Domnesti back in 2019.
Cirjan has made 56 appearances for the Gunners at age level, and is now in and around the first-team setup.
According to The Athletic, Arsenal insiders think very highly of him.
‘Arsenal think so much of Cirjan that renowned knee specialist Andy Williams has been in charge of his operations at 14 and 18,’ they added.
Cirjan, who Jeorge Bird has described as “excellent technically”, has endured a difficult time over the past year having suffered multiple knee injuries.
‘HE TOLD ME THAT I AMAZED HIM’
The youngster has now spoken to London World about the support Mikel Arteta gave him following his injury setbacks.
Cirjan praised the Arsenal boss – who knows what it’s like to be sidelined through injury long-term – for his kind words.
“[Arteta] knows what I’ve been through,” he said. “He was also in a similar situation [with a long term injury].
He told me that I amazed him and that he admired me for the strength with which I came back after the operations.
“I am very grateful to Mikel for the way he talked about me. Even more as these words come from the team manager of the moment, in the best championship of the world.
“I have great pride to be coached by Mikel and I try to learn as much as possible from him, especially since my style of play is very similar to the one he had as a player.
“He always asks me to play with courage and makes me give everything to training with him.”
Cirjan is a top talent who has been compared to Gunners cult hero Tomas Rosicky.
It’s great to see him going from strength to strength, and hopefully it won’t be long before he makes his Arsenal debut.
Maybe we could see an EFL loan move and then, who knows, he could be the next Saka, Smith Rowe or Nketiah.
source: hitc.com
