There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Arsenal’s new youngster Jeff-Reine Adelaide. Not much was known about him prior to the recently concluded Emirates cup, I bet many including Arsenal fans barely knew he joined the club from Lens this summer where he was actually labeled a “wonder kid”. He took his chance to play with the first team with both hands, wowing the fans and Wenger himself with fantastic displays. Now you can see lots of stuffs online like is he going to be Arsenal’s new hero? probably not, he might not even start a game next season. Is he going to be Arsenal’s next superstar? maybe, just maybe. The kid is just 17, even though he didn’t look it at the Emirates cup. He has a lot of growing up to do, and the hype will do him little or no good at all. The Gunners by now should be used to youth prodigies fizzling out after showing great promise early on in their career. For every Fabregas and Jack Wilshere, there have been cases like Fran Merida and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie.

Adelaide is a really exciting talent though, and it will take a whole lot for that sort to suddenly fade away. He has an incredible skill set, watching him play after coming in as a sub versus Lyon, you could see he was actually something special. His close control dribbling ability, the passes he made. He is not just another pacy youngster. He did enough to earn complements from Le Professeur himself .

“Reine-Adelaide is something special you know,” he said. “He is a great talent and when he came on you could see that — 17 years old let’s not forget. I don’t remember how I played at 17 but I didn’t play like that.”-Arsène Wenger

Adelaide also has incredible physical ability, judging by the way he carried the ball and muscled his way past opponents, along with his dribbling ability. One particular time against Wolfsburg he skinned Kevin De Bruyne. He also has a decent level of creativity. He set up Walcott’s winning goal against Wolfsburg during the Emirates cup finals. And also his decision making showed really good maturity which belied his age and level of experience. But let us not get lost in the excitement and forget something. He was playing with no pressure, he wasn’t playing to prove any point, nobody expected him to perform. Just looking at the way Chuba Akpom was playing, would give you a good idea of someone trying so hard to impress. Making poor decisions, like choosing to go ahead and kick the ball high into the stands instead of passing to a much more open teammate. Chuba was clearly playing with more pressure, he is one of the contenders for Giroud’s spot in the first team, and was trying to make a case for himself, though he ended up doing the opposite. Which is showing us that he has more to learn.

Chuba alongside Adelaide, Iwobi and Zelalem (the previous next superstar) need time to mature mentally, and smoothly find their way into the first team. Wenger has a good record of helping youngsters develop, there have been bad days, but the good ones stand out. Its all down to the players hard work and hunger to succeed, talent is not enough

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