Charlie Patino had a stunning start to his Arsenal career, scoring in the five goal demolition of Sunderland in the Carabao Cup before making another appearance in the FA Cup defeat to Nottingham Forest. With first team opportunities few and far between for the young midfielder, Patino opted to move on loan to Blackpool last season, scoring three goals and creating four assists in 37 appearances for the Seasiders.
The start of the new campaign has seen Patino join Swansea City on loan, and in nine appearances so far, he has notched up a goal and three assists in the Championship. His Swansea goal was a nominee for the club’s Goal of the Month competition, bearing down on goal before executing an impudent chip that left the Sheffield Wednesday goalie scrambling in No Man’s Land.
His early season performances has seen him brimming with confidence and he has professed his desire to fight for a first-team berth at Arsenal at the start of next season,
“For me, it’s about getting a lot of minutes and playing a lot of games,” he told MailSport. “I’ve always wanted to create a lot of chances and get goals and assists.”
“Training with them [Arsenal first team] has helped me develop on and off the pitch,” he added. “It made me really confident. I kept going back and it felt like I was part of the team.
“They’ve got some real leaders, like [Martin] Odegaard, like Bukayo (Saka) – he’s come up through the ranks – and getting advice from him and (Emile) Smith Rowe has been really good for me.
“When I first went over to train with the first team, they all came over, put their arms around my shoulder and just said, “Enjoy yourself, play with a smile on your face and express yourself”.
Patino has also taken some inspiration from William Saliba, that went out on three loan spells to AS Saint Etienne, OGC Nice and Olympique Marseille, before becoming a mainstay in the Arsenal defense and one of the best center backs in Europe,
“Saliba is a different player to me. He’s a centre back, big, powerful, so for me it’s inspiring to see someone go on loan, make a name for himself and come back and show his qualities at Arsenal because it is a massive club.
“Everyone’s journey is different. Bukayo went straight from academy to first team, Eddie went on a few loans, Emile went on a few loans, so everyone’s journey is different.
“But ultimately, it’s about getting to where you want to get to, and that’s the same for me. I want to play in the first team at Arsenal and being here is a massive pathway to help me do that.”
With the likes of Mohamed Elneny and Jorginho in the Septembers of their careers with the club, and Albert Sambi Lokonga clearly not favored by Mikel Arteta, Patino has a good platform to return to the team after a successful loan spell and make a case to pull a Saliba. However, he needs to put up monster performances for Swansea and do the business with confidence when he’s given the shot at Arsenal. Remember that Saliba was a defender of the season contender in both Nice and Marseille, and when Arteta paired him up with Gabriel, he demonstrated massive confidence that was good enough to shunt a 50 million quid signing in Ben White to right back.
I love Patino’s technical levels and I am happy that he’s seeing consistent game time at Swansea, which will bode well for his rapid development. Patino was odds on to leave the club on a permanent basis last season, but he has shown some ambition and I hope he finds his own route to the first team picture.
Sayonara.
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