Marseille Leading Chase for Arsenal Starlet Ethan Nwaneri on Loan

Marseille are in talks with Arsenal over a loan deal for Ethan Nwaneri after Arsenal changed their stance on a temporary move for the teenager. The 18-year-old midfielder has started only four of his 12 matches this season, playing just 515 minutes, compared with 16 of his 37 appearances last season. Fulham have also been interested in a loan deal but Bournemouth denied they wanted to sign him. Last summer, he attracted interest from Borussia Dortmund before signing a new long-term contract at the Emirates. Nwaneri was not in the squad for the 3-2 win away to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg last week. He started in the team’s first two rounds of the competition. Mikel Arteta has said that few 18-year-olds had played as many games as Nwaneri, who made his 50th appearance for the club last month, having become their youngest-ever first-team player when making his debut aged 15 years and 181 days against Brentford in September 2022. “I want to see how many examples there are in English football with that number [of games] and age,” the Arsenal manager said of Nwaneri. “If somebody were to tell him or any of us two years ago that number with the squad we have, probably we would go, ‘Hmm, it doesn’t sound very realistic.’ ” Advertisement Marseille, who are third in Ligue 1 and face Liverpool in the Champions League on Wednesday night, are managed by the former Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Roberto De Zerbi. Their squad includes the veteran former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and the ex-Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood.