Morning all.
Eberechi Eze, ditched by Arsenal back in 2011 when he was just 13 years old. In 2020, he told the world, or rather The Independent, just how he felt that awful day:
I was 13 [when I was released]. That was the worst one. I remember crying in my room for a solid week, my mum telling me that it’s going to be OK but not being able to get over it. Then I went to Fulham and I was finally starting to enjoy my football again. We played Arsenal a few months later but, when I went over to shake the academy manager’s hand, I started welling up. All the feelings came back.
My dream was to play for them so hearing them say no at 13 that was tough and I remember like training after I got released and I couldn’t focus. I was crying but I think that helped me so much in the other rejections because if I can get through Arsenal releasing me I can get through any other club releasing me. My mindset was if it was not going to be Arsenal I have to find somewhere else.
Find somewhere else he did and now, still at a young age of 25, he’s in the England squad. This story has probably popped up again because it’s Arsenal and because Eze is doing well.
We don’t often hear about the players who went on to have a career in the lower leagues, the Conference League or those who perhaps just drift away from the game entirely, just those who we as a club let go but “shouldn’t have” – 12 years ago.
Shock horror but Arsenal the club to let players leave at a young age only to see them enjoying a good career at another Premier Club years later. Logic says this kind of thing will happen often because to keep every academy player just because one day ‘he might’ be good would be impossible, expensive too.
Look at the number of players Arsenal have let go this summer which excluding old heads Mo Elneny and Cedric Soares, is 17. Yes, that’s a lot as far as numbers go but what a great start they’ve had to their career regardless of where they go next. They’ve been at one of the best clubs in England as teenagers and now they’re free to find their own way. It might be a sad time but if they’re good enough, they’ll have a great career in the game at whatever level they’re at. It might be that one or two of them end up back in the Premier League and if they do, good for them. I’m sure we all want them to do well.
Amario Cozier-Duberry, Karl Hein and Reuell Walters, all are out of contract this summer but Arsenal are in talks with each, clearly hoping they’ll decide to stay.
Mo Elneny talking about his departure:
It’s meant a lot to me being here for so long, it was the best eight years of my life. I love this club so much, I love the fans, I love everything about Arsenal. It breaks my heart – that’s why I refused to take to the field [on the lap of honour] because I was so full of emotion. But that’s life, my time here has come to an end and I’m very proud of what I’ve done for this club. I love these fans and I gave everything that I had. I appreciate everything they did for me, in the good moments and the bad, and they’re always going to be in my heart forever.
Good luck Mo….
Paper Talk from Sky Sports and other gossip from NN headlines.
Fulham are keen to sign Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah this summer whilst Crystal Palace and Wolves are reported to be interested in Nketiah as are Everton but they’re after a loan.
Napoli have picked out two Arsenal players – Takehiro Tomiyasu and Emile Smith Rowe – they would be willing to include in any potential swap deal that would see £110m-rated striker Victor Osimhen move to the Gunners.
The Benjamin Sesko, Ferdi Kadıoğlu and Quinton Timber rumours rumble on…
Catch up in the comments.
Morning Rico
Caught me out with your prolific posting…(from earlier)
Nice post. I’ve known people affected by MND, utterly horrible illness, with no respite.
Good luck to Kevin Campbell. I met him and chatted to him a good while back. A very nice guy, approachable, and happy to have a conversation, unlike some ex-pros.
As for being lectured by the president of Real Madrid…I’d rather listen to a class of kids playing recorders!
Eze – Good player, a bit injury prone. Not sure where he would fit in our side.
I watched Quentin Timber playing for Feyenoord in the EL earlier this season. He was seriously impressive, so definitely one to watch, although is brother is meant to be the better player.
Good morning Rico.
I watched the England game last night, (God help us in the Euros), with a special interest in Eze and honestly I don’t think we should be particularly sorry about losing him. Initially he caused a few problems for B & H but soon found himself forced into cul-de-sacs and crowded out. He then faded away and was rightly subbed.
I rather suspect that the emotions that he talks about were one of the factors in the decision to let him go.
Morning Pete. Thanks
Me too re MND, it truly is one of the cruel diseases.
Nice to hear that about KC, he certainly comes across that way on television.
Morning Cicero.
I’m not fussed over Eze, on paper a nice idea but is he better or as good as who we have? If not then leave him alone I say. Shining for Crystal Palace is different to shining for a top club.
So everyone wants ESR !
What do they all know that apparently we don’t
That he’s a really good player just needing a manager who truly believes in him…
Morning Rico and collaborators.
Good post on a rumour only day.
I didn’t watch England, I haven’t seen the goals and I couldn’t care less…
I always been struck at how dangerous Eze can look when he goes on one of his mazy runs. Very good player who’ll get a big move from Palace this summer but not what we need at Arsenal. Maybe the rejection he got focused his mind on proving people wrong, if so then it’s been beneficial for him. Seems a nice lad, I hope he has a fruitful career, except against us of course…
Morning Kev, thanks.
He might just sink if he goes to a bigger/better club. Who knows…
True Rico, then again I imagine people thought that about Ian Wright when he joined Arsenal?
Not that I’m suggesting we sign him, nor Olise or the centre back at Palace for that matter. Good players but not for us I feel.
Everyone, bar those at the internationals, will be on holiday still so probably nothing eventful will happen until the end of the month.
Is the Sesko deal agreed with no announcement due while he’s away with Slovenia? Let’s hope so…
Alex Kirk had a very successful loan at Bromley helping them into the Football League, I wonder if they’ll offer him a deal now that he’s been released by Arsenal, same applies with Arthur Okonkwo and Wrexham?
No mention of Charlie Patino despite a mixed Swansea loan and a lot of chat from his side about leaving?
No more mention of Mika Biereth and any Sturm Graz offer. I wonder if Arteta wants to have another look at them in training a year on to see if he can use them?
Same applies to Norton Cuffy.
There’s always one Kev… 😂
Okonkwo has now been released hasn’t he?
Good afternoon Gunner Lady and friends
It seems money is going to keep rolling in from a source who decided to move elsewhere due to wanting to play but instead joined the Chavs who did not play him…….
According to a post on an Arsenal page (????) on FB the club are set to receive a sizeable addition (£12.5m-£15m) to their transfer funds this summer with Chelsea looking to sell Omari Hutchinson. The 20-year-old spent seven years Hale End before moving to their London rivals, Chelsea, in 2022.
The Gunners included a 50% sell-on clause in the deal, which now seems to have been an excellent piece of business with Chelsea looking for between £25m-£30m for the Jamaican international.
A host of PL clubs, including Ipswich, as well as clubs in Germany and Netherlands are interested
Now I highly doubt whether any club would pay £20-30 million for an unproven player but if such a club exists who are we to refuse such an amount?
Elsewhere I found this piece of info…..
🚨At the age of 28, Carlos Cuesta, the youngest member of Arsenal’s coaching staff, successfully obtained the UEFA A-type coaching certificate last week. 🫡
🔸️He is one of the youngest people to graduate with a Type A coaching degree in this course along with Granit Xhaka, Mo Elneny, Cedric, Sam Wilson – Arsenal’s fitness coach and a number of other individuals.
🔸️To achieve today, Carlos Cuesta has gone through a journey of more than 10 years of perseverance and effort that is extremely impressive and admirable:
🔸️At the age of 18, Carlos Cuesta gave up his football career to officially enter the coaching career and he was quickly appointed to the coaching staff at the Atletico Madrid youth academy.
🔸️At the age of 22, Carlos Cuesta made a strong impression, and he was recruited by Juventus to coach at their youth academy.
🔸️At the age of 24, Carlos Cuesta made a giant leap when coach Mikel Arteta brought him to Arsenal to take on a role in the coaching staff of the Gunners’ first team.
🔸️Since then, Carlos Cuesta’s one-on-one training sessions have always been a key part of coach Mikel Arteta’s lesson plan. These sessions revolve around analyzing video, fine-tuning every detail, and correcting individual errors.
🔸️There is no player at Arsenal who has not undergone private discussions with Carlos Cuesta since he arrived at the Emirates.
🔸️At the age of 27, Carlos Cuesta is fluent in 6 languages. He also possesses very good communication skills and always receives great trust from all Arsenal players.
🔸️At the age of 28, Carlos Cuesta was promoted to one of the coach’s two close assistants.
🔸️In Europe and specifically in Spain, Carlos Cuesta is currently considered one of the most talented young coaches in the football world.
🔸️He is expected to lead professional football teams at the age of 30 – earlier than coach Mikel Arteta when he took over Arsenal.
🔸️Current coach Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal not only possesses a group of extremely talented young players but also has an equally talented coaching team…! 💪
Rico, with regards Eze Eberechi, like many others, its never ever easy telling anyone that his/her services are no longer required and that he/she has to look for another club. As a youth coach and academy director I have experienced that many times. An academy can only keep a certain amount of players, you cant go beyond that. The thing is that sometimes you get a year in which all players have good technique and tactical awareness and another year which a good number of players don’t reach that level. Now I have never been an advocate of large groups preferring each age group to have not more than 16 players 2 of which are GKs.
The biggest problem arises between the age of 12-17 when players are growing up physically. Some are late developers and although they have the skill they are easily pushed over or aside. Then you have big players who are strong but their technical/tactical levels are not up to required standard. Once for example, that is 19 years ago, I was coaching an under 17 team who were technically very good and very intelligent tactically for their age and it was one of the best I have ever coached but the tallest outfield player was just 5 ft 6 inches. We could literally joke about with some of the opposing teams and made fools of them but when push came to shove we suffered at the hands of set pieces and counter attacks. We were not strong and it showed.
Now I had to tell some of these players that they would never make it at the club i was coaching in back then and time has proven me to be correct….but the look on their faces when I told them was like a knife in hot butter through my heart. Its like a necessary evil which unfortunately many coaches of players between the age of 12-19 have to go through.
According to Spanish news outlet 𝐀𝐒 (sic) (?????), Arsenal have submitted a bid to sign one of the orchestrators behind Girona’s special season 𝗩𝗶𝗸𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝘀𝘆𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗼𝘃.
The Ukraine international shone in the 2023/24 campaign with eight goals and seven assists across 30 appearances in La Liga, cutting inside from the right flank on his left foot to great effect.
AS believe Mikel Arteta sees Tsygankov as a perfect fit for his Arsenal side, and is determined to beat AC Milan to the 26-year-old’s signature.
The Spanish news outlet add that the man from Nahariya has a €30m (£26m) release clause written into his contract, and Arsenal have already approached Girona to discuss a deal.
AS add that the Gunners have also made a bid – although the exact amount of this offer is not mentioned.
Tsygankov – who is also wanted by West Ham – is said to be happy and settled at Girona, although he would consider a move this summer, but only to a UEFA Champions League side.
For those of you who know little about the Ukrainian forward, he has been compared to Bale by UEFA – to give you an idea of the type of winger he is.
I still feel that Arteta should buy a left back, keep Zinchenko and play him on the wing. He can play there and share wing duties with Saka, Martinelli and Trossard. I prefer if he sells Jesus, Nelson and Nketiah and buy Sesko who can rotate with Havertz as a CF.
Now that Elneny is gone and maybe PArtey follows suit, I feel that Arteta should sign Amadou Onana from Everton. The latter need to sell and I feel that he would not command the same fee as Guimares or other midfielders who are top. At 6ft 4 inches Arsenal would have a very strong and tall midfield spine….Rice 6ft 3 and Onana. But we still need to sign a back up midfielder who shares duties with Jorginho for rotation purposes. That is why Quinton Timber should also be added as well.
Onana is tried and tested in the EPL and knows it well. Timber will take time to settle down. But with his brother helping him I think he will do so quickly
I like Cozier Duberry but he’ll get better chances elsewhere. Onana is not Arsenal level .. not even close. He is a Bissouma level player. Spurs type at best.
Afternoon Devil, you’ve been busy. lol
Arsenal should do like Internazionale do…..sign young ones on long contracts and send them on season long loans across Europe. With players like Cozier Duberry, Nwaneri, etc we should do that. That is why ACD should be held to and loaned to a German/French/Spanish/Italian club.
It can’t be a nice thing to have to do Devil but in reality, players should know deep down whether they’re good enough. Admittedly, not when really young but late teens, their own path should be clear in their own minds, and their parents. Accepting you’re not good enough is a totally different matter.
Arteta might think differently though Nigel. He might see a player who can improve greatly at and with Arsenal.
Rico that’s true… Arteta has a strong history of improving players. Man City players raved about him as well as what we see at Arsenal so far.
Certainly the older players Nigel, Xhaka, Havertz, Trossard, Odegaard and Rice for example. It’s the youth/younger players who don’t seem to be going up a level.
That’s probably why so many are leaving Rico. By the start of the next season I believe we will have strengthened the squad by the purchase of good quality and, Importantly, younger players. We will have a squad which can play together for several seasons without too many nearing the end of their careers. This will allow time for the next generation to grow into the replacements which will eventually be needed rather than going into the transfer market and paying for those replacements.
If Arteta want’s to get rid of so many young players it doesn’t say much for the academy.
I think so too Cicero, just as I think the three Arsenal are hoping to keeper will leave too. I probably would in their shoes because of the way Arteta seems to work and that’s not by using younger players. That’s not a criticism in itself because I understand he came into the club to make us better, stronger and more competitive.
I suppose the hope of the academy is that every now and again, a real start comes through.
Most academy’s are probably the same Geoff as far as success stories go. There are few but I think they’re great as they give youngsters with talent a start in the game. They may not make it the club they’ve been with but I suspect the majority go on to have a good career in one of the leagues.
Bonjour everyone
Bacary Sagna: “I would love to see Marcus Rashford at Arsenal. I think if you added Rashford to Arsenal’s attack, with the pace that he has, Arsenal would destroy the opposition. Adding Rashford to an extremely talented squad would be a frightening prospect for Arsenal’s rivals.”
“From day one the Arsenal fans have shown me so much love. They have been patient with me through injuries. Times when it has not gone well they have stuck with me.”
Happy 27th birthday to Kieran Tierney
I hope Arteta gets his head around to playing you and you settle the differences you might have had with Martinelli (according to various past articles which I have read)
Geoff, Arteta doesn’t decide who the academy keeps and who it releases, that surely is the remit of Mertesaker.
Along with the youth coaches.
What are these differences then Devil and who is the source?
I’ve never heard anything of that nature, and whilst not all players get on I’m sure that Arteta wouldn’t allow things to fester.
Hi Kev.
When KT was playing with MArtinelli there were games in which they weren’t passing to each other. I had read in various articles that Martinelli did not get on with KT and preferred playing with someone else behind him. Especially as KT liked to overlap and attack and did not like staying back in midfield to protect Martinelli.
I read that more than once in various articles.
Kev I didn’t say Arteta picked the academy player, but did have a hand in who works at the academy, however I still feel haveing players at the academy under 16 is a waste of money.
I dont agree with you on that Geoff. Its of paramount importance that all clubs have kids even at 8 years old. Sometimes you get players who already show you, even at such a young age, that they will one day be good. The stats rate at pro clubs is that only 1 in 1800 at age 10 make it to top level football. I am talking across Europe not for example confining it to just one country or one top division.
But such groups are important for every club.
What counts most is that they get good coaches especially at such a young age. For example elite clubs in the Spanish Primera Liga you get Uefa ‘A’ coaches who are working with players as young as 8-9 years old. Its important that young players get the best coaching up till the age of 16. Between the ages of 10-16 is the golden age of learning in anything let alone football. If there is no good grounding and education during these years practically many things would be lost. During this age they have to focus on technique and practice it until it becomes and intrinsically innate skill.
The whole academy system is a sham. Not just at Arsenal or in the PL. This goes all the way down the leagues.
Thousands of kids are fooled into thinking they will be the next Messi. Parents get sidelined by the coaches and the kids then can’t be bothered with school, because you don’t need an education when you get Messi money for kicking a ball.
The reality is 1 in 1000 will make it playing professionally. The rest will be dumped. The academies are hoping that by sweeping up vast numbers of kids they will get lucky with a few.
I’ve heard of young kids (5 years old) having their biometric data taken followed by requests for parents and grandparents data. Sounds like eugenics to me, with one goal…to make money.
As said in the post, these kids/teenagers know deep down how far their career is going to go and at what level. I’m with Pete, too often it’s the parents who whilst trying to encourage them, set their aims and expectations far too high. One only has to look at ourselves if we played sport, our dreams might be high, but inside we always know how good or how far we can go.
Potter mentioned on here many years ago that the gulf between under 21 league football and first team football is too great. Until that’s sorted out and the gap is reduced, things will never improve imo.
Its not always like that Pete. You do get clubs who do exactly what you say. But you also get clubs who dont fool the parents and tell them of all the pitfalls.
Internazionale FC of Italy for example have a system (which I saw myself) in which they open the training grounds once a week for children between 8-12. They split the pitches into 4 against 4 areas and give them a ball to play. Then coaches go around looking at the players without commenting. Once they had around 120 kids playing 4 against 4. Out of that lot only 3 were chosen to return for further trials.
Rico, until clubs like Arsenal are allowed a B club in the lower divisions the gulf between under 21 league football and first team football which Potter mentioned, will remain as it is, too great.
Even between the first division and the EPL there is a difference let alone between the u21 and first team. But its quite less, and it will be of utmost benefit to both club and the English National team.
Exactly Devil..
There is a new post up.
Ok Dev, I did a bit of Googling after posting my comment and Tierney was full of praise for Martinelli and kinda blamed himself for not being able to adapt. As you know so well the media have a way of spinning things and turning something perfectly innocent into a crisis.
Anyway Kieran isn’t coming back, sadly, so it’s all a bit redundant.