Morning all.
It’s been a while but Kev has found his mojo to write again. Lol
It’s pretty chilly in the U.K. at this time, a far cry from the warming sunshine of the Red Sea and Dubai where the Arsenal senior squad, coaching and medical staff, families and assorted youngsters are relaxing and topping up their vitamin D.
The players will be recharging their batteries, allowing those lingering knocks to heal properly and resting their minds as well as their muscles.
We must also remember the constant never-ending stress that Mikel Arteta is under and his coaching staff so they will also benefit from the change of scenery, the warmth and take the opportunity to re-focus and reframe their minds on what is ahead of them. And that is a gruelling 4 months of must win combat against ambitious, determined and in some cases desperate opponents, aided and abetted by under-pressure officials who still, despite the technology, leave us bemused by their controversial decisions.
But let me go off on a tangent because January isn’t just about the big-name transfers, it’s about the opportunity for young players to transfer temporarily to another senior club and gain some experience on the coal-face. Where win-bonuses mean a happy wife and a happy life for players at a less glamorous level. Where managers are making decisions in a dog eat dog environment and possibly trusting their careers to a talented novice.
We all like to think that our youngsters are special, that we have the pick of the best, but I’m not so sure that that is the case anymore because most Premier League and Championship clubs can offer coaching and facilities that are of a similar and in some cases higher standard than Arsenal. It’s an arms race at the academy level.
Progressing from the Arsenal academy is extremely difficult and it’s easy, perhaps lazy to criticise the manager for not blooding the kids. The manager has to give minutes to fringe players, he has to keep them ticking over whilst trying to win football matches at the apex of the sport and that leaves very little space for blooding youngsters. Those youngsters are also taking a leap of Grand Canyon proportions from the U21’s into an unforgiving environment which is competing for the Champions League and the Premier League. Not many 18 and 19 year olds have the tools or mentality to take that step and flourish so do we really want to destroy our kids before they’ve even begun the journey?
Charlie Patino has been following the William Saliba path, a path that Arteta and the club were criticised for at the time but maybe on reflection Arteta was right and we now have a fully rounded giant of a centre back. Charlie, it has been said, even commented that he wants to replicate the Big Bill path to the senior team and at this moment he’s doing really well at Swansea after a mixed season at Blackpool in 22/23. Charlie is 20 and that seems to be, in general, the age when young players make the grade these days, that’s if they’re good enough. So next summer we will see, if and when Charlie joins the tour to the United States, his patience, hard-work and diligence has paid off?
Meanwhile Brooke Norton-Cuffy has been earning a bit of a reputation at the New Den in salubrious South-East London. His buccaneering sojourns up the right flank have become his trademark even if his defending isn’t yet at the Ben White level. But Ashley Cole took a while to develop those defensive attributes so why not BNC? He is also 20, are you seeing the pattern?
Mika Biereth returned briefly from Mothwell during the Scottish mid-season break and was seen joining in training pre the FA Cup (lets quickly move on), he has also been impressing the Scots with his physical and technical ability at Fir Park and has visibly grown into an imposing centre forward from the callow youth who left us last August. Mika is, you’ve guessed it, 20.
If one of these three lads make it into the senior squad next season then that’ll be a big success for the academy but it takes time and these lads need that time to grow.
AllezKev.
PS, Arsenal are reported to have had a £22m bid for this fella turned down. Another £15m and we might get him apparently. Stop it, I know you’re pulling your hair out.
Thanks Kev.
I agree about the 20 year old players going out on loan but I’m far from convinced many, if any will get their opportunity at the club. Willock and Balogun looked the most likely of late yet when an offer came, they were gone.
I know Balogun might not be scoring a vast number of goals now but in a team which creates so so many opportunities, he’d have been a good option to have imo.
Mika will be 21 next month. Owen and Rooney had been playing 3 or 4 years in the PL at his age.
Afternoon Rico and all,
Will our 15 to 17 year olds want to hang around if they keep seeing our 18 to 20 year old players being promised the world then not getting the chance and then looking at our senior team and seeing players like ESR not being given much game time.
This is quite the predictament but if you bring players from the Academy to sit on the bench at games then might not bring any at all,to give them exposure its better to throw them in the deep sometimes…like what MU does
Afternoon Geoff, that’s the million dollar question….
Geoff, back in the day, young players if they were good enough, were usually given a debug around the 17 to 18 bracket, Brady, Rocastle, Adams, Keown, Rostron, Ross, Stapleton, O’Leary, Thomas, Davis, the list is endless but in recent years youngsters tend to be a year or two older and that because the game is more intense, faster, tactical, technical and maybe young people aren’t as resilient as they were 50 years ago?
I think that most young players are told this and realise this at academy level.
Omari Hutchinson’s brother recently bemoaned about Omari getting stick online and stating that the reason he left was because Chelsea offered him more opportunities. He is currently on loan at Ipswich which is the level he would have been at if he’d stayed at Arsenal.
Bakayo Saka was a generational talent and he came to the fore when Arsenal were crap. It’s easier to get a chance when a team is crap because of the drop off. That’s why he got an early chance.
Nwaneri got his debut for political reasons but he’ll make the breakthrough in his teens because he is extra special. I’ve heard him described as one of the top three players of his age group, that’s special…
Geoff, I want to see our youngsters given a chance and I enjoy seeing our young players given chances but top level football is more unforgiving now that it has ever been at any time before.
Charles Sagoe Jnr got his debut at Brentford in the League Cup, he did ok, nothing special, he didn’t do anything that made me sit up in my seat, he held his position on the wing and if you can recall that game didn’t get the ball that often from team mates who tended to look for other options. What did that mean? Did they not trust him?
When Sagoe got the ball he pretty much returned the ball and kept the recycle going, I don’t recall him skinning his full-back and whipping over a cross. Maybe he was playing to orders?
Afternoon Rico, yes I’ve got a bit of the writing bug back, I’m glad your pleased, others less so… 😄
If Balogun had smacked in 10 goals I’m sure the media would be all over it, thankfully he’s scored only 4.
The same happened with Willock, he scored a hat full whilst on loan and since he signed for Newcastle they’ve dried up. I like Willock and he’s no worse than Vieira who cost us more, but at the time we were rebuilding in other areas and needed to sell to balance the books. I think we got good transfer fees for both players and it’s something we need to do better and more often.
As for Owen and Rooney and Fowler and many others, they were special players, just like Saka…
Derek, I know that many point at the PSV away game as the opportunity to blood a few youngsters and that is true, but in general this season we’ve not had hardly any games where it was safe to play the youngsters.
When you are maybe one goal in front or even two goals, it’s still risky to throw on a youngster given how quickly a game can change and that’s been the case recently where injuries have seen a few more of our youngsters on the bench.
Our cup draws have been terrible, Brentford (a), West Ham (a) and Liverpool (h). I’m sure if we’d drawn Sutton or Barnet or Farnborough that the managed would have been more experimental but you can’t win, play the kids and lose and you still get slammed. Everyone, including me, is an expert after the fact.
I thought the idea of the academy was to have the young players ready to step up at around 17 / 18 but as I said if you don’t give them a chance then why should they hang around. I might be wrong but other clubs give their young kids a small taste every now and then to keep them hungry to succeed but for some reason Arteta doesn’t seem to rate or trust his bench players yet alone or academy players.
Kev, I’m glad that Rico is giving you some minutes, it must be a relief to be off the bench. 😉
I’m not sure it’s all sunbeds and a little light jogging for our tired and weary squad, I did read that Arteta was talking about the break being a chance to train hard as there are no games to immediately prepare for.
Arsenal have made a £22m bid for Getafe striker Borja Mayoral and there is also talk of Interest in Newcastle striker Alexander Isak who could be available if the Magpies don’t qualify for Europe in the summer.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
ARSENAL’S FIRST JANUARY SIGNING!!!
Emily Fox signs for Arsenal! From arsenal.com :- We are delighted to confirm the signing of United States international defender Emily Fox on a permanent transfer.
The 25-year-old right-back joins us following a spell at North Carolina Courage in the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States, where she made 19 appearances after joining in January 2023.
Afternoon Kev. Like you I love seeing the youth players get their chance and taking it yet seldom do they, yet at other clubs they do. Maybe the answer is that they’re not seemed to be good enough but what irks me is the money wasted on players who turn out to be poor signings.
😂 Cicero
I’d like to have seen more younger players get minutes in the cups, especially the League Cup..
Nobody on the blogs writes about the Arsenal youth with more knowledge than Kev. Great post.
I love Arteta but there have been too many times where I thought he should be giving more minutes to our backups like Nelson, for example.. even some small tastes of meaningless minutes to Nwaneri, Cozier Duberry.. I think he could do a little bit better.
Didn’t Patino score a nice goal for us when given a small opportunity a couple seasons back? It seemed an inspiring moment.
This one?
In my opinion, signing players does not mean reinforcements in the team.
Depends on the signings Jm.
Thanks JNYC, it’s just my opinion for whatever it’s worth.
Geoff I think you missed my point but never mind…
Cicero, I was going to ask for a transfer if I wasn’t allow to sound off by the Boss. 😉
Anytime Kev. 😂
I think we have found a discussion for the end of season break.
our Academy and the young players coming through.
The latest striker target is Dutchman Joshua Zirkzee, currently playing for Bologna, aged 22 and 6 foot 4 tall. He has previously played for Bayern Munich where he scored a hatrick on his debtor their second eleven. He has also played for Parma and Anderlecht. He has represented Netherlands at u 15, u16, u17, u18, u19 and u21.
Cicero if the Zirkzee rumers are true, at least he has height on his side.
Zirkee is meant to be pretty good…
Good morning Rico, according to the Telegraph, Bologna will want £50 million for Zirkzee but are unwilling to sell him in January. Bologna sporting director Marco Di Vaio described the striker as “a unique player”.
Morning Cicero.
I’m not surprised but money talks.. lol
New post up now