Every club has their very own ‘one that got away’. Arsenal, however, appear to have more than most.
In the last decade alone, Serge Gnabry, Yunus Musah, Ismael Bennacer, Ebere Eze and Michael Olise have gone one to achieve big things at the highest levels of the game after departing The Gunners’ academy.
Gnabry is a multiple Bundesliga winner at Bayern Munich. Musah and Bennacer are team-mates at Italian giants AC Milan. Eze and Olise, meanwhile, could both lay a claim to have become the most exciting footballer outside of the Premier League’s so-called ‘big six’.
And while Dan Ballard is yet to scale the same heights as Gnabry and co, it appears that another one-time Arsenal starlet will be playing his football in a major European league sooner rather than later.
Another ex-Arsenal youngster is making big progress
“I watch Trai (Hume) and Daniel,” Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill, a regular visitor to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light to watch the duo in action, tells the Belfast Telegraph.
“And I know that Premier League clubs are watching their progress.”
Now, O’Neill might not get a particularly warm welcome the next time he arrives on Wearside. Sunderland will not thank the Northern Ireland manager for going public with the interest surrounding two of their key players.
But, still, the presence of Premier League suitors will not come as much of a surprise to the Black Cats’ faithful. Their whole philosophy these days is built around signing exciting young talent, polishing those rough diamonds with the prospect of a major profit somewhere down the line.
Arsenal sold Ballard, who joined their academy at the age of eight, to Sunderland back in 2022 for just £2 million. Reports now say that the North East outfit value the 24-year-old at ten times that fee, holding out for around £20 million amid alleged interest from Everton.
“He’s an outstanding defender. He’s a brilliant footballer,” former Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray told The Chronicle in the autumn. “I say we’re lucky to have him, but it was brilliant recruitment to bring Dan Ballard to this football club. He’s a diamond of a lad.
“I’m not sure where his ceiling is. But he’s a wonderful footballer and an old-school centre-half who puts his body on the line. And if he plays against a really strong player, he just gets stronger himself.
“He’s a warrior, amazing really.”
‘He’s outstanding’
Ballard made headlines for all the wrong reasons during January’s 3-0 FA Cup defeat to bitter rivals Newcastle United in January. He scored an own goal to gift the visitors the lead, and then gave away a rash penalty late on.
Clearly, Ballard has a lot to learn still. But you’d have said the same of Eze and Olise during their time at QPR and Reading respectively, and who is to say Ballard – if he irons out those kinks – will not end up making a similar impact in the division above to his fellow one-time Arsenal whizzkids?
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