Gibbs - Bould has been a big influence

Kieran Gibbs says that Steve Bould has been a “big influence” on his career.

The England defender was 14 when he joined the Gunners’ academy from Wimbledon in 2004 and has since become a key figure in Arsene Wenger’s first-team squad.

Bould has coached Gibbs at youth and senior level during his time at Arsenal, and the left back has learnt a lot from the Gunners’ assistant manager.

“I worked with Steve Bould in the youth team from when I was 16 so he was a big influence and now he obviously works with the first team,” Gibbs told Arsenal Player.

“He’s got experience, he’s played the game in more recent years so he knows the modern game. Football’s changed a lot over the last 20 years so it’s a different game now to what it was.

“He’s good for that because he knows what’s going on in the mind of a footballer in the more recent era. That’s his biggest asset to the team.”

Gibbs made his first-team debut in Arsenal’s League Cup win against Sheffield United in 2007 and has some advice for the club's latest crop of rising stars.

“You do realise that eventually you’re going to get your chance to show what you can do and you just have to embrace it,” he said.

“Luckily my chance came at quite a young age and I managed to show what I could do from early on. You have to always believe that you can get there and you have to take each day as it comes. That’s what I did and that was that.”