Nottingham Forest youngster Arvin Appiah has had quite a whirlwind time of it lately.
The 17-year-old made his senior Forest bow in the League Cup defeat to Burton Albion at the end of October, and in what was a bad day for a fairly changed side, he came on for Liam Bridcutt in the 84th minute and seven minutes later he had bagged his first senior goal in professional football.
He came in for plenty of praise for his efforts on the day, regardless of how little time he spent on the pitch, and for those who already rate him highly in our youth set up, this was just further proof of his potential talent.
With England manager Gareth Southgate being happy to blood youngsters irrespective of their age in the senior set up, I can certainly see where former England and Arsenal striker Ian Wright is coming from, as Southgate’s former job with the Under 21 set up means he’ll always have one eye on the next potential one through the ranks anyway.
“Southgate’s got to be aware of him and I’m sure he will be. Gareth is going to be all over everybody now, especially at that age group.”
Having already been capped a number of times by the Under 18 set up, there’s no way those age groups above aren’t aware of him but that involvement will come as he naturally develops with us, and that’s how it should be.
