'Fans love him' - Arsenal hotshot, on loan at Shrewsbury, backed to reach "the top"
Shrewsbury Town boss Michael Appleton has backed Arsenal loanee Ismeal Kabia to be playing at "the top of the footballing pyramid" in the next four to five years.
The 19-year-old has featured seven times for the Shropshire outfit in League Two and has impressed in his latest role as a right wing-back during the past two games.
A winger by trade, Kabia has demonstrated his versatility to help guide Shrewsbury to back-to-back clean sheets in the league for the first time in 22 months.
Shrewsbury emerged with a goalless stalemate against Barrow at Holker Street, before beating Cambridge United 2-0 on Saturday in their first home league win since February.
'No doubts' - Appleton backs Kabia to reach the top
On Kabia's performances at wing-back, boss Appleton said: "We'll use Kabia in the situations where we think we can get him in parts of the pitch that will hurt the opposition depending on how the opposition is set-up.
"To be fair, he's been an absolute breath of fresh air. He's been fantastic.
"Players love him, fans love him. He's been great with us as a staff. He's good at retaining information where that can be difficult sometimes at this level of football.
"He's got that and he's a young lad who is at the start of his journey. I've had a lot of them over the years where first loans start the journey.
"I've got no doubts in four or five years time, whether I'm still a manager or in coaching, that he'll be plying his trade at the top end of the pyramid."
Shrewsbury strive to develop 'young talent'
The Netherlands-born youngster, who moved to England at the age of nine, came through the ranks at Arsenal alongside first team stars Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.
Shrewsbury famously helped play a key role in the development of future Premier League stars Dean Henderson and Ben Godfrey in 2017-18, and Appleton hopes that Croud Meadow can once again become a place for young players to flourish.
"It's just a trust thing. There's a lot of clubs who've got a lot of talent out there but they don't trust to send them out to just anybody," he added.
"So I take that with a little bit of respect where over the years we've done OK with a lot of the Premier League clubs and their young players.
"They've trusted us to do that and hopefully they'll continue not just with Kabs, but come January and beyond."
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