How Manchester United signed Ayden Heaven
The former Arsenal youngster offers one of very few positive storylines to come out of Old Trafford this season, as his January transfer to Manchester United proves a resounding success.
Ruben Amorim gave a glowing review of January signing Ayden Heaven after the 18-year-old defender made his Premier League debut against his former club on the weekend:
“Ayden is so relaxed, sometimes he is too relaxed!"
“I think we have a real player there.”
It’s likely that some of the comfort exuded by Heaven on the ball stems from his days playing as a midfielder for Arsenal’s younger age groups before he was moved to centre-back as a first-year scholar.
Ayden Heaven was named alongside Ethan Nwaneri in Arsenal’s 2023 scholarship intake, but their trajectories have since taken them down markedly different paths.
Nwaneri - who became the youngest Premier League debutant of all time in September 2022 at the age of 15 years and 181 days - now finds himself a first-team regular under Mikel Arteta, with Bukayo Saka’s unfortunate (yet timely for Nwaneri) injury absence offering a free-run at Arsenal’s right-wing position.
The now 17-year-old has taken to the opportunity like a duck to water, with eight goals and one assist in 1080 minutes this season - averaging a goal contribution every 120 minutes.
After being bestowed an obscenely early - arguably premature - taste of senior football, followed by a prolonged stint away from the pressures of the first-team setup, Nwaneri’s decision to stay and trust Arsenal’s promises of a pathway despite keen interest from many of the Premier League and Europe’s biggest clubs now appears an astute one.
Heaven conversely deemed a move away from the Emirates to be most beneficial for his development, and so began to explore his exit options towards the latter stages of 2024.
Among the clubs interested were Eintracht Frankfurt, Barcelona and of course, Manchester United.