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.