Arsenal fans may not realise it, but they may just have completed one of the greatest coups of the summer transfer window.
Yacine Adli is set to be captured by the North London side from Paris Saint-Germain, after the Ligue 1 champions failed to persuade the 17-year-old midfielder that their club offered him the best path to professional success.
He will join a long list of talents frittered away by the Parisian side before they have even had the opportunity to shine, from Kingsley Coman, now a star at Bayern Munich, to Dan-Axel Zagadou, whose emergence at Borussia Dortmund last season suggests great things ahead.
Just as Coman before him, Adli is the jewel in the academy’s crown, yet he is poised to depart for a less-than-princely fee. Indeed, PSG will struggle to recoup a week’s worth of Neymar’s wage for the price they will get for their top young talent.
The Gunners are the latest side to profit from PSG’s profligacy with their youth system, which was eased somewhat under the guidance of Unai Emery, whose path from Parc des Princes to the Emirates Stadium has been followed by Adli.
The 17-year-old will have noted this, particularly after being given the nod of approval to make his senior debut on the last day of the season in a scoreless draw against Caen.
Those seven minutes, though, are the only top-level football that Adli has under his belt.
“I hope it’s the start of a great journey,” he told Le Parisien in the aftermath.
That it may well be, but it was also proved to be the end of the road with PSG, despite the player pledging “patience”.
By appearance, he bears a striking resemblance to PSG midfielder Adrien Rabiot. Both are tall in stature, with the same main of long light-brown hair.
Adli, though, is a different type of player than Rabiot – at least for now. While the 23-year-old is primarily a holding or box-to-box player, his younger version is much more of an advanced player.
Standing at over 6ft1, he is not the type of player that one might expect to find in an attacking midfield role, yet that is the position he is most suited in. He has also been used off the right, where his height and build can make him look somewhat awkward.
While his stature is the most striking thing about him at first glance, during a match it is his technique that comes to the fore. He offers an impressive range of passing and has the capacity to unlock defences due to his reading of the game, which is superior to many players his age.
This was perhaps shown to greatest affect during the UEFA Youth League, in which his performances caught the eye of many top teams, including Barcelona, who could not fail to notice him when the sides faced off at the last-16 stage of the competition earlier this season.
While others, such as Timothy Weah, who already has USA senior caps, may have reached the first team more rapidly, that did not stop Adli being named the outstanding talent of PSG’s academy in 2017.
And this improvement is something that Adli has put down to the work of Emery’s coaching staff.
“I’ve improved in the technical and tactical domain thanks to David Hernandez, who I’ve watched a lot of videos with and which has helped me a great deal,” he told Goal. “What can I improve? Everything.
“I’m looking a lot higher and I have many things to improve.”
Adli may not be the finished article, but for a compensation fee in the region of only £250,000, one of Emery’s first signings may also prove to be one of his most important.
