Arsenal's best wonderkids from the heir to Mesut Ozil to the next Virgil van Dijk

Historically, Arsenal's academy has always managed to produce talent for the first team.

Players like Alex Iwobi, Benik Afobe and Jack Wilshere have been brought through to work with talent brought to the club at a young age such as Cesc Fabregas, Francis Coquelin, Hector Bellerin, Serge Gnabry and Wojciech Szczesny.

This season, these traditions of trusting young talent have continued, with academy graduates such as Bukayo Saka and Reiss Nelson becoming regular members of the first team squad under former manager Unai Emery and his interim replacement Freddie Ljungberg.

Arsenal also remain a club that acts as a rallying point for talent from abroad too. Gabriel Martinelli and Matteo Guendouzi are just two examples of this stratey.

Brendan Rodgers on links to the Arsenal job

But who are the most talented young players signed up to the Gunners and who has the most potential?

We used popular football management simulation game Football Manager 2020 to find out.

On Football Manager, current ability is given as a value out of 200, so the closer to 200 your current ability is, the better the player is overall, and the same applies to potential ability on the game.

All players' ages are shown as of the start of the 2019/20 season, which is 24th June 2019 on FM20.

Here are Arsenal's best prospects right now, aged 21 and under, according to FM20.

Each player has been listed with their ages at the start of the game, their positions, current ability, potential ability and a more established footballer they can come to match in the future if developed correctly.

Catalin Cirjan

Age: 16

Positions: CM/AMC

Current ability: 70/200

Potential ability: -75 (120-150/200)

Can become as good as: Ruben Neves (150)

James Hillson

ST ALBANS, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 19: James Hillson of Arsenal during a training session at London Colney on November 19, 2019 in St Albans, England. (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Age: 18

Positions: GK

Current ability: 78/200

Potential ability: -75 (120-150/200)

Can become as good as: Alphonse Areola (150)

 

Miguel Azeez

Age: 16

Positions: DM/CM

Current ability: 70/200

Potential ability: -75 (120-150/200)

Can become as good as: Lucas Torreira (150)

 

Ben Cottrell

Ben Cottrell celebrates scoring Arsenal's opener in the Fourth Round of the FA Youth Cup against Tottenham Hotspur at Meadow Park. (Harriet Lander/Getty Images)

 

Age: 17

Positions: CM/AML/AMC/AMR

Current ability: 80/200

Potential ability: -75 (120-150/200)

Can become as good as: Leon Goretzka (150)

 

Sam Greenwood

Sam Greenwood of Arsenal takes on Nathan Ferguson of WBA (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Age: 17

Positions: AMR/AMC/AML/ST

Current ability: 77/200

Potential ability: -75 (120-150/200)

Can become better than: Marcus Rashford (150)

 

 

Karl Jacob Hein

Age: 17

Positions: GK

Current ability: 68/200

Potential ability: -75 (120-150/200)

Can become as good as: Tomas Vaclik (150)

 

 

 

Trae Coyle 

Age: 18

Positions: AML/AMC/AMR/ST

Current ability: 90/200

Potential ability: -75 (120-150/200)

Can become as good as: Julian Draxler (150)

 

Nathan Tormey

Age: 19

Positions: AMR/AML

Current ability: 75/200

Potential ability: -75 (120-150/200)

Can become as good as: Jadon Sancho (150)

Joe Willock

Age: 19

Positions: CM

Current ability: 134/200

Potential ability: 153/200

Can become as good as: Felipe Anderson (153)

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 

Ainsley Maitland-Niles runs with the ball under pressure from Jonjo Shelvey (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Age: 21

Positions: RB/LB/RWB/LWB/DM/CM

Current ability: 140/200

Potential ability: 156/200

Can become as good as: Juan Cuadrado (156)

Emile Smith Rowe

Emile Smith Rowe in action against Eintracht Frankfurt (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Age: 19

Positions: RM/LM/AML/AMR/AMC

Current ability: 135/200

Potential ability: 156/200

Can become as good as: Dele Alli (156)

Bukayo Saka     

Bukayo Saka ((Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)

Age: 17

Positions: AML/AMR

Current ability: 133/200

Potential ability: 158/200

Can become as good as: Mesut Ozil (158)

 

Tyreece John-Jules

Tyreece John-Jules (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Age: 18

Positions: AML/AMR/ST

Current ability: 109/200

Potential ability: -8 (130-160)

Can become as good as: Son Heung-min (160)

 

Folarin Balogun

Age: 18

Positions: AMR/ST

Current ability: 105/200

Potential ability: -8 (130-160)

Can become as good as: Diego Costa (160)

Gabriel Martinelli

Gabriel Martinelli celebrates his first Premier League goal (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Age: 18

Positions: AMR/AMC/AML/ST

Current ability: 126/200

Potential ability: -8 (130-160)

Can become as good as: Alexandre Lacazette (160)

Reiss Nelson 

Age: 19

Positions: RM/LM/AML/AMR/AMC

Current ability: 135/200

Potential ability: 160/200

Can become as good as: Isco (160)

Matteo Guendouzi

((Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images))

Age: 20

Positions: DM/CM

Current ability: 144/200

Potential ability: 165/200

Can become as good as: N'Golo Kante (165)

Eddie Nketiah (on loan at Leeds United)

Eddie Nketiah celebrates after scoring for Leeds (James Williamson - AMA/Getty Images)

Age: 20

Positions: AMR/AMR/ST

Current ability: 130/200

Potential ability: -85 (140-170)

Can become better than: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (169)

William Saliba (on loan at AS Saint-Ettiene)

William Saliba during a training session at London Colney (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Age: 18

Positions: CB

Current ability: 119/200

Potential ability: -9 (150-180)

Can become better than: Virgil van Dijk (178)

What do you make of this list?

And, who do you think will be the first of this bunch to break into the Arsenal first team?