Mike McGrath of the Daily Telegraph reports that Arsenal’s Zach Awe is set to leave the club this summer in search of regular senior football.
Awe’s contract expires at the end of the season, and it appears that Arsenal will allow him to leave when it does.
McGrath adds that there’s interest from the Championship in the 19-year-old defender.
Awe made 35 appearances for the Arsenal u21s this season, almost all of them starts, making him one of the busiest players in the entire squad.
As McGrath points out, the teenager has also been involved in the Arsenal first-team squad in the past, making the bench for a Premier League fixture against Wolves last year.
At around 6’4″, Awe certainly stands out physically in youth football. Despite his size and position, he also has good technique that can often catch the eye.
Yet he also had his role to play in a leaky and inconsistent Arsenal defence that gave up goals too easily in 2022/23.
It’s unfair to point the finger at any one player for those defensive issues, but each of them should take their share of the blame for the seven months the Arsenal u21s went without a league clean sheet.
That last clean sheet, away to Spurs (who were ultimately relegated) in October, was the only clean sheet Mehmet Ali’s side kept in the Premier League 2 all season.
Having said that, Awe could certainly add quality to a side where he was a better fit, and the jump in physicality in senior football shouldn’t be as much of a problem for him as for some others.
A move to the Championship could be a good match for his skillset, if the rumours are true.
