Mikel Arteta has warned Arsenal will probably be ruthless over the futures of their prized academy children with the club open to offers for Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.
The Gunners are prepared to sell members of their first-team squad this summer to assist fund one other big transfer window.
Sales of youth team players will represent pure profit on the balance sheet on the Emirates with Arsenal on the lookout for a combined fee of £100m for his or her two 19-year-old stars.
Lewis-Skelly enjoyed an outstanding breakout campaign for the club last season but has been limited to only one starting appearance within the Premier League this term, third alternative behind Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapie.
Nwaneri also did not get a look-in, managing just 165 minutes of Premier League football before getting the green light to hitch Marseille on loan in the course of the January transfer window.
Manchester United are excited by Lewis-Skelly as they consider long-term options at left-back to switch Luke Shaw while Nwaneri could have no shortage of suitors with Chelsea exploring an audacious move for him last 12 months.
Arsenal have a wealthy history of promoting their Hale End academy stars but have also shown they may be ruthless, collecting big fees after deciding to sell Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah lately.
And while insisting young players from the club are a part of Arsenal’s identity, Arteta has warned they may not receive any special treatment.
‘It’s a part of us,’ Arteta said when asked concerning the club’s academy.
‘At the top what has to define this football club is to search for excellence and search for the very best, regardless when you’re coming from the academy or abroad.
‘If we are able to have players from Hale End, significantly better since the identity is there. We grow with them and so they know exactly what we’re on the lookout for.
‘But at the top they must earn it. Not for every week, not for a month, for years. Like anybody else, it doesn’t matter what department or role you could have within the club.
‘You could have to sustain performance and that must be on the very highest level if we wish to win and be where we wish to be.’
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