Arsenal youngster joins Manchester City

On Monday evening, Mishel Nduka posted on Instagram to officially confirm his move to Manchester City, captioning the post: “City. Let’s get to work.”

This move has been a long time coming, and Nduka had hinted at it the weekend before last by posting a farewell to Arsenal.

That message simply read: “Thank you ❤️. @arsenal”

David Ornstein had reported for The Athletic in July that Manchester City had reached an agreement to sign Nduka, with the player turning down a new deal to stay at Arsenal.

The 16-year-old is joining City on scholarship terms, with a professional contract to follow. Ornstein added that Arsenal had offered Nduka a ‘highly competitive’ long-term contract, but it seems that wasn’t enough.

Nduka has ended up leaving Arsenal less than a year after joining the Gunners from Charlton Athletic.

Youth contracts are only short term, so the Gunners were already in a position of needing to extend Nduka’s deal again.

With older players, a big transfer fee would usually be accompanied by a long contract, avoiding these kinds of scenarios. But that’s not possible in academy football, for good reason.

Yet Nduka won’t be leaving for free, as Arsenal will still receive compensation given the player’s young age. That’s likely the reason why the move took so long to complete, with these compensation deals often going to tribunals.

16-year-old Nduka made 10 appearances for the Arsenal u18s in 2025/26, as well as making his UEFA Youth League debut and making a couple of appearances for the u21s in the Premier League 2.

There can be no suggestions that Arsenal didn’t give the youngster chances way above his age group, but it wasn’t enough to convince him to stay.