Arsenal Fans React on Twitter as Gunners Youth Team Favourite Departs for Juventus

Arsenal’s promising starlet Stephy Mavididi has swapped London for Turin, signing a four-year professional contract with Serie A champions Juventus.

Juventus had reportedly been tracking the forward for three years as his reputation had grown within the Gunners’ academy.

Mavididi was sent out on two consecutive short-term loan deals last year to continue his development and was believed to be in line to join the first team in the coming seasons.

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The 20-year-old scored no goals in ten appearances with Preston in the Championship before dropping a division to represent Charlton in League One. Mavididi hit two goals in 12 appearances for the Addicks in an impressive loan spell that showed he could have a big future at Arsenal.

At the same time the player still needed to continue his development before he was the finished article and was expected to be loaned out again this season. It seems Juventus have seen enough though and moved to tie up a deal for the forward on the Italian deadline day.

Mavididi will now continue his development in Serie A and many Arsenal fans have taken to social media to express their shock and disappointment over the deal. 

Some even compared it to Paul Pogba’s situation at Manchester United over the past the few years.

Pogba departed Old Trafford for Juventus as a youth team star and went on to make himself a household name in Italy. Prompting Manchester United to pay a world record £89m to re-sign the player just four years after letting him leave for next to nothing.

It remains to be seen how successful Mavididi’s time in Serie A will be but he has a lot of star power to learn from in their ranks, particularly fellow new signing Cristiano Ronaldo.