Currently, there are 7⃣1⃣players who have come through the IFA JD Academy’s residential and regional programmes attached to professional clubs in England and Scotland. 5⃣1⃣ of these players are on professional contracts, while the remaining 2⃣1⃣are on scholarship deals😎

🚨Myles Lewis-Skelly on his conversation with Thierry Henry that convinced him to stay at Arsenal: 🎙️ Reporter: “Myles, there was a lot of talk about your future. What happened that made you decide to stay at Arsenal ” 🗣️ Myles Lewis-Skelly: “I spoke to Thierry and I told him I was thinking about leaving because I wanted to play more and I wasn’t sure what my pathway at Arsenal looked like. He listened to me and said, ‘Myles, you’re looking at this the wrong way.’ I asked him what he meant. He said, ‘Don’t look at the players ahead of you and ask why they are playing. Look at them and ask yourself what you need to do to make the manager unable to leave you out.’ That stayed with me. Then he told me something I’ll never forget. ‘You’re at Arsenal. You’re not supposed to be comfortable. You’re supposed to compete.’ He said, ‘When I was young, I wanted to play every minute too. But you have to understand that becoming a top player isn’t just about getting minutes. It’s about what you do with the minutes you get.’ Then he looked at me and said, ‘If you leave because you’re afraid of competition, you might get more football somewhere else, but you’ll never know what you could have become here.’ That really hit me. He told me, ‘Stay. Work. Make Mikel Arteta trust you so much that leaving you on the bench becomes difficult for him.’ That was the conversation. I went home and thought about it for a long time. I realised I didn’t actually want to leave Arsenal. I wanted to earn my place. So I stayed. Now every training session feels different. I’m not looking around thinking, ‘Why isn’t it me?’ I’m thinking, ‘What do I have to do so next time it is me?’ And now I’m starting, and Arteta looks at me knowing he has to start me. Thierry didn’t promise me minutes. He gave me a different way of looking at the competition. And that changed everything.”

Spot on from @Carra23. Via @WeAreTheOverlap 👌