Morning all.
According to ESPN, Arsenal are set to sign 16 year old Ecuadorian twins Edwin and Holger Quintero. Both are at Independiente del Valle right now, the club who once had Piero Hincapie and Moises Caicedo on their books.
The report states that the Quintero family have been in London this week to finalise an agreement which would see both move to Arsenal when they turn 18 in August 2027. Holger plays as an attacking midfielder while Edwin plays on the right wing and both have represented Ecuador at under-17 level.
Another player set to join Arsenal in 2027 is Victor Ozhianvuna who was signed earlier in the year from Shamrock Rovers but he should arrive in the January.
I think it’s great that Arsenal are looking out for the academy and let’s be honest, if we don’t snap up these bright young stars, other clubs will. Chelsea for one. The better our academy is, the better our first team might be in years to come. There’s no guarantee all three above will be Arsenal super stars in the future but it’s a cheap risk worth taking in my opinion. Plus, it’s not like it used to be when we signed youngsters but very few good first team players. Not many of those youngsters went onto to play for the first team on a regular basis, Anelka, Fabregas and Walcott being just three of the exceptions.
Back to the first team though and as far as our attacking players go, things are looking up. Madueke and Martinelli have now featured in two fixtures each, Odegaard had a brief return in the week before a second runout against Chelsea and in addition to them, Jesus was on the bench at the weekend too. Hopefully, Trossard will be back in contention for tomorrow’s match against Brentford. However, nothing seems to well for Arsenal all at once as just as our attacking players return, our defence has been struck by the injury curse with both Saliba and Gabriel out of the side so there’s a good chance both Hincapi and Mosquera will be paired together again tomorrow night. The more they play together, the better the partnership should become.
The officials for tomorrow’s game are: Tony Harrington is the man with the whistle while Steve Meredith and Sian Massey-Ellis are his assistants. Sam Allison is the fourth official, with James Bell on VAR and Blake Antrobus as the assistant VAR. Must be honest, only Sian Massey-Ellis is a familiar name to me. Harrington was born in Yorkshire and has only officiated one Arsenal game, a 3-1 victory over Southampton however, he has officiated Brentford on many occasions back when they were a Championship club. Harrington would have to be one of the worst referees in the world to be as bad as Taylor was on Sunday.
Brentford won’t make things easy for us tomorrow, why would or should they but I can’t see them being as “dirty” as Chelsea. Disruptive I’m sure but hopefully there will be no potential bone breaking challenges from either side.
Catch up in the comments.
Arteta on injury news…
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta:
On William Saliba: “I’m not going to be able to help you much today because we have a training session later on. Until that happens, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the doubts that we have. “He had a little niggle, but I think it will be a matter of days, let’s see if he can be available tomorrow.”
Leandro Trossard: “A matter of days too.”
Kai Havertz: “A matter of weeks. Let’s see how he evolves in the next few weeks. He’s doing really well, doing stuff on the pitch. I think he needs some time.”
Gabriel: “Which Gabi? We have a lot. Big Gabi? He’s doing really well, but he needs weeks as well.”
Perhaps Saliba and Trossard should be saved for Aston Villa,I’m not underestimating Brentford but I back us against anyone at home.
Makes sense to me Limey. Natural rotation..
Afternoon Gooners.
Afternoon Rico, not a lot to report since the battle of the bridge, a lot of post match revisionism and comment from those in the media who aren’t worth listening to but never shut up regardless. It is what it is I guess.
Yeah, I’ve been going on for awhile about Arsenal spreading its net wider than London when scouting for youngsters. So those two South American lads sound very interesting and of course there’s bound to be other youngsters our academy are watching, trialling and signing all the time. The age restrictions are an obstacle but always there’s a way around them.
I was watching YouTube yesterday and a video of an Arsenal youngster by the name of Luis Munoz popped up, he’s only 13 and I know that these vids can make players look like Maradona but I’m telling ya if he’s only half as good as he looked on that video then we’ve got another Max Dowman…
Luis Munoz: remember that name!
Afternoon Kev, I’ve locked that name in my brain. Trouble is, after a nights sleep, I’ll have forgotten it.. 😜
I just watched the YouTube clip. He is amazing for such a young player..
Unbelievable skills for such a young player.
And we go again tonight , there seems no time to digest the last game before the next one comes along.
In the 108 games since the season started we will have played 21 club games and if you add in the 6 internationals , it equates to one game every 4 days.
This shows the obvious need for a squad but we have to accept that when you build a league winning squad you cherry pick players from abroad and they also play internationals at all four corners of the world.
During 29 days of October we played 6 games with a 2 match international break thrown in It’s little wonder that the players are dropping and showing signs of fatigue and are falling to muscle injuries .
And on another subject during that month 5 of those games were at home and with the recent trips from Norfolk for Bayern and Spurs the credit card is maxed out and I reckon that my season ticket will be appearing on exchange until at least after Christmas
Should read 108 days
Good morning Rico and all
Raining here. And at home sick with a cold. Breathing through mouth and cant taste anything. yukkkkk
Good post Lady. But tbh, although signing youngsters makes me feel excited about it, especially as I see lots of youth games, I am always wary of how things pan out. Atm I am thankful that Arteta, having seen first hand what happened to JW10, is introducing every youngster under 20 slowly bit by bit unless the situation (MLS) requires it. They are getting gradual game time because their bone and muscular structures need good recovery while still developing. A player reaches full skeletal and muscular maturity at the age of 22 for the men. For the women its 18.
I see many youngsters during gametime on regular basis. So much promise from many. but in a few years down the line only a few make it. Once i went to Brunico in Italy where Internazionale had their training camp. And in an area housing around 10 pitches each divided into small areas of 4v4, 600 children (roughly) were playing. Around them the coaches where walking, saying nothing but observing and taking notes. At the end of the hour only 7 were chosen. 7 out of 600. I talked to one of the coaches and he told me that out of those 7 only 1 or 2 might make it up to youth level. Many things need to be taken into account.
So as you pointed out, there is no guarantee that they will become first team material. But it still gets me excited.
However, having said all that, if you want to see football in all its raw innocence go to youth games or outside on the street. That is real football.
Morning Gooners
Morning Rico, yes that’s a great video even if some of the goalkeeping was WSL level… 😂
It also gave you access to videos of our two Ecuadorean youngsters and they both have that silky, quick-footed control you get from South Americans, that’s looking like some really smart business!
Despite some forgettable results from our U21’s and U18’s the academy is sourcing and developing some really exciting talent and that, after all, is what an academy is for, it’s not an end in itself it’s a mechanism for developing elite quality for the 1st team and in that it’s being successful .
Morning Kev, Devil, all.
Definitely feet on the ground re the kids, football at their age is fun, later in life it’s serious with very different challenges but, like Kev, im glad we as a club are out there spotting young talent before the likes of Chelsea snap them up. A low risk deal..
You picked a few crackers though Potter.. Pun intended.
New post up.
Hope you feel better soon Devil.