England head coach Thomas Tuchel made the right decision not to call up Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri, but the 18-year-old is still a safe bet for the 2026 World Cup squad, expert Charles Watts believes.
Nwaneri was tipped to make Tuchel's first squad for the Three Lions' upcoming World Cup 2026 qualifiers against Albania and Latvia, having enjoyed a breakthrough 2024-25 season with eight goals across all tournaments, form that is apparently set to earn him a new five-year contract.
However, Tuchel resisted the urge to bring the Premier League's youngest-ever player into the seniors, and Nwaneri instead earned his first call-up to the Under-21s, who take on France on Friday evening and Portugal on Monday.
Nwaneri seemingly had a strong chance of making the first team with Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke out injured, but speaking to Sports Mole, Watts believes that he will have as good a chance to break into the senior squad even when the duo return.
Asked if Saka and Madueke's comebacks from injury could jeopardise Nwaneri's hopes of selection in the future, Watts replied: "Not if he keeps playing the way he's playing. He's not just a right winger - we see him as a right winger now because Arteta has been using him there. But I think before this injury crisis happened, you're asking us where Nwaneri plays, I think we're probably looking more central.
"I still think he'll play plenty of minutes, even when Bukayo Saka comes back, because how long have we sat here saying that Arsenal needed someone top, top quality to be able to rotate with Saka or maybe even Martin Odegaard. They have that now and haven't had to dip into the transfer market and spend £50m, £60m, which is fantastic. So you've got to take advantage of that.
"This time has been so, so important for Nwaneri, his development and really becoming an established first team player. But he's absolutely played too much. You've seen in recent performances, certainly in the league anyway, that he's having a little bit of a dip, which is totally understandable.
'No rush' with Nwaneri England call-up
"He's such a young kid, he's been thrown in and asked to do stuff that at the start of the season, none of us would have predicted. We all thought he'd play some minutes, but not starting week in, week out in the Premier League.
"The Under-21s is a good stepping stone for him now, probably maybe even at the start of next season, we'll have to wait and see. There is just absolutely no rush when it comes to him."
While Nwaneri had to be content with a spot in the Under-21s, fellow Hale End graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly - who is also yet to make his debut for Lee Carsley's side - was promoted straight to the seniors for the March international break.
The 18-year-old benefitted from a lack of other fit left-backs - in particular Luke Shaw and Lewis Hall - to make Tuchel's maiden selection, having unexpectedly won the trust of Mikel Arteta in the 2024-25 campaign.
Summer signing Riccardo Calafiori, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney are all below Lewis-Skelly in the left-back pecking order, while he faces competition from Dan Burn, Tino Livramento and Levi Colwill to start for England.
Watts can envisage Lewis-Skelly making his full debut for England between now and the end of the month, and the Gunners expert also expects the teenager to be unfazed by the whole experience, while also giving Nwaneri his approval for a World Cup place.
Watts reacts to Lewis-Skelly England call-up
"I could certainly see him starting one of those games," Watts said of Lewis-Skelly. "The options aren't exactly fruitful for Thomas Tuchel when it comes to the left back. We don't know what formation he's going to play yet either. Is it going to be wing backs? Is it going to be four at the back? We've seen him play wing backs before, so we'll wait and see.
"But it was a deserved call-up for Lewis-Skelly, no doubt about it. As soon as some of the injuries start to happen to other players in his position, you felt it's going to happen. I like the fact he didn't call up Nwaneri.
"Although I'm sure he'll be in the World Cup squad, I don't think there was an absolute necessity to put him in right now. Making the step up to Under-21 is enough for him - in an ideal situation, the same would have been said for Lewis-Skelly.
"But because needs must and the players who'd dropped out in terms of the left back situations, it just made sense. And he'll be fine. He's a really good kid. He got a proper, sensible head on his shoulders, a really strong support network around him with his family.
"I'm sure he'll deal with it. If he is asked to start, which I do think he will do in at least one of the games, I think he'll absolutely cope with it perfectly well, because he's stood up and coped with everything he's had to deal with so far since he's come into the first team at Arsenal. And I'm sure he'll just look at England as another stepping stone on his career."
Lewis-Skelly was not even born when Arsenal played their first match at the Emirates Stadium in 2006, but the 18-year-old has shown no signs of cowering into his shell since making the left-back position his own.
The Hale End starlet memorably mocked Erling Haaland's celebration in February's 5-1 win over Manchester City, having previously been insulted by the Sky Blues striker, although he has also fallen foul of the rule book twice.
Watts backs two England players to mentor Lewis-Skelly
Lewis-Skelly has received Premier League red cards against Wolverhampton Wanderers - which was later rescinded - and West Ham United this season, and he was also fortunate not to be sent off in the 7-1 Champions League thrashing of PSV Eindhoven.
Given Lewis-Skelly's lack of experience and maturity - at least in a disciplinary sense - Tuchel talked up the need for a "parental vibe" with the teenager, and Watts has full faith in the German to manage him properly.
"Arteta says it himself, he knows that Tuchel's a very good coach," Watts added. "He's got good coaching staff around him. There's people like Declan Rice who are absolutely going to take Myles Lewis-Skelly under his wing. Harry Kane's a fantastic leader, role model, he'll be perfect for him.
"I've already seen a lot of the pictures from St. George's Park and Declan Rice is not far away from Myles Lewis-Skelly in a fair few of them. The England squad, it's not like it used to be. The whole clique thing from back in the day of the golden generation, Man United this side, Liverpool that side, it's not really like that.
"Gareth Southgate, for all of his faults in terms of what he did on the pitch and some of the decisions he was making tactically, what he did behind the scenes was fantastic. It was absolutely needed at England and brought everyone together.
"Even though Southgate's gone now, I'm sure that's going to continue behind the scenes. So I don't think Lewis-Skelly will have any sort of issues. If he does need any help - which to be fair, I don't think he will - but if he does, there'll be players there he can turn to and who'll look after him."
Lewis-Skelly has broken into the Arsenal and England first teams at a time when the Gunners have struggled to retain some of their top young talents, most notably Chido Obi Martin and Ayden Heaven, both of whom jumped ship for Manchester United.
Will Arsenal England call-ups help retain Hale End talents?
Reuell Walters and Amario Cozier-Duberry also turned down the chance to continue their careers in North London, joining Luton Town and Brighton & Hove Albion respectively, and the Gunners are also at risk of seeing Max Dowman poached by rival teams.
The 15-year-old phenom cannot sign a professional deal until his 17th birthday in December 2026, but Watts - who has already emphasised the need for a clear pathway at Arsenal for young players - has affirmed that Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri's rises mean that Dowman and his fellow budding pros have no need to follow the Obi Martin or Heaven path.
"You don't really have to look at what's happening with Ayden Heaven at United," he concluded. "Fingers crossed that injury is not as bad as it looked, by the way, because that was horrible to see against Leicester. But they don't have to look at these players at different clubs. They just have to look at what's in front of them at Arsenal.
"And you've got two players who at the start of the season, we thought would be in and around it, maybe get a bit of game time. But no, they're playing constantly. One of them was very much talked about to be in the England squad. He didn't make it, but it was talked about. The other one did make it, and is probably going to start for England.
"It just shows you you will play and you will get minutes if you warrant them. It's a great example for players to look up to coming through at Hale End. I just I don't buy into the fact that people will be looking at what happened with Aiden Heaven, how quickly he's gone into the first team."
Watts also gave his insight on what the future might hold for Fabio Vieira at Arsenal, as the Portuguese playmaker thrives on loan at boyhood club Porto. body check tags ::
