Opportunity In The Air For ‘The Young Players’
Dec 2nd, 2015 by 'holic
When you have nine players from a squad of twenty-four unavailable you had better have some good young players ready to step up to the first team bench, and possibly a step further. The one time selected youngsters were used this season saw us knocked out of the COCup at Sheffield.ย In the wake of that match the manager was quoted thus.
“The occasion was too much for the young players. They were not ready to play at this level, none of them.”
I was surprised at the time, although thought later that he was caught in the disappointment of the moment and had he been asked about them the following morning his reaction would have been very different. On the night we gave debut starts to Alex Iwobi and Glen Kamara. Before the match was twenty minutes old we had a third debutant, Ismael Bennacer replacing the injured Theo Walcott. On the hour a fourth youngster made his bow, Krystian Bielik.
With hindsight I’m sure Arsene might have been more critical of the senior players around the youngsters. There was little sign of advice or encouragement being given. With that same hindsight he might have shared that he had not intended, nor expected, to have four youngsters thrown in at the deep end at the same time.
That damning comment may well be used against Arsene as he is going to need to turn to the pick of his youngsters again in the short term to bolster the bench. So with this in mind I watched the highlights of last night’s victory for the U-21s at Brighton. Obviously one match is not going to enable a balanced assessment of the youngsters, which applies equally to that night at Sheffield, but it is an indicator of current form.
Calum Chambers was brought in to gain experience in the holding midfield role where an opportunity for immediate promotion exists. Steve Gatting, the U-21s head coach gave his opinion of his performance.
“I think it was good for Calum to get 90 minutes under his belt and for such a young lad he has got a lot of experience and tonight I thought he was excellent.”
It seems as though Calum is currently seen as being ahead of his team-mate last night, Krystian Bielik, in the pecking order for the defensive midfield position. I thought the Pole gave a decent cameo in his half an hour at Sheffield, although he has been used as a central defender in the U-21s this season. With only Mathieu Flamini and Aaron Ramsey available for those deep-lying roles expect to see Calum in action there sooner rather than later.
On the left hand side of midfield, another area with a senior vacancy, we got another glimpse of Jeff Reine-Adelaide. As is often the case with precocious talent there is a danger of over-hyping the young man. Already he is referred to as “The Jeff” on social media sites. Expectations are already perhaps too high for one so young. Having said that I thought he was impressive in his Emirates Cup performances against Lyon and Wolfsburg, and he made an impression in the U-17 World Cup in Chile.
The talented French lad can expect to be at least on the bench this weekend. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Joel Campbell, and Kieran Gibbs might be preferred starters for the two wide positions, but we may just be about to see Jeff unleashed on tiring defenders at the tail-end of matches shortly.
Arsene may soon have to reflect, with a smile I’m sure, that he is very happy with the young talent available to him. (Typed with difficulty using tightly-crossed fingers!)
49 Responses to “Opportunity In The Air For ‘The Young Players’”
Cheers, ‘holic.
No cockup this time. ๐
Freestyle well done. Is the butterfly next?
Please let’s not go down that road bt8. There is only one certainty of what will follow…
Jeorge Bird on Chambers vs Brighton: “Chambers had a mixed game in midfield as he made some good interventions but was also overrun on occasion.”
https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/report-chambers-features-and-malen-scores-audacious-winner-as-arsenal-u21s-beat-brighton/
Oh and Jeorge Bird says we might see more of Iwobi soon.
Anyway I like your optimism ๐
We have thrown youngsters in the deep end and seen them swim before. I’m with H on the optimism train (what a surprise!). We’ll have to use them in some form so let’s hope they pull something out of the bag.
I am a bit disappointed though. It may be my own fault for grasping the wrong end of the stick but the post is not at all what I expected…
Boss- when are you doing the freestyle rap video?
If only we had a real onfield captain…
The reports have Jeff R-A sounding more and more like Jack Mk2 at the same age – young genius, the future of the club etc etc. I hope he’s on a better physical strengthening plan under Shad than Jack enjoyed.
Excellent ‘crisis’ summary by H2H late in the previous drinks worth reading for those that missed it. I’d hate to be in AW’s shoes, having to balance the number of injuries with the consequences of over-flating the squad. We’ve had situations in the past when a surplus of unwanted players have clogged up the club’s financial arteries (the inability to offload TGSTEL an obvious example), so the thought of giving up on half a dozen would-have-been-great-team-players-for years in one go must be a daunting, and impossible, prospect. What if the problem turned out not to be their UK upbringing, but something else which then felled all their replacements?
Better luck Arsene. Frankly I think you deserve a break, even if playing Alexis against Norwich was the daftest decision you’ve made in years. One thing is for sure, none of your critics could have done a better job for so long. And Dennis help us finding a replacement whenever that will be.
Oskar
Even if I was one of those fans thinking it’s all doom and gloom around Arsenal, I’d need to read this and could be starting to hope again. Well written holic.
I, as well think that on that night in Sheffield the young lads were on the one hand too surprised about how fast, how many of them were on the pitch and a couple of seniors were surprised how fast how many of them got off the pitch ๐ A wierd lack of communication nearly all over the pitch. At least we had by then accomplished the mission to kick the you know who out of the League Cup before going out ourself.
I do believe in our youth and think we have a couple of really exciting players, we will hopefully see more of. What position did Chambers play in the game you watched yesterday? AW insisted recently that Chambers has been educated in Defensive Midfield and personally I’d give a lot to be allowed to watch a training session at least to see a Bielik and Chabmers in direct action in that position. But of course, it’ll never happen ๐
We might need the next, next best thing to step up to the plate rather sharpish. Apparently Santi is out for 3 months.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/dec/02/santi-cazorla-out-three-months-arsenal-knee-injury
Holic @3,
Not sure what you mean ……
Anyway, from your post it appears things are going less than swimmingly. It’s going to be sink or swim for some of those young players thrown in, as you said yourself, at the deep end.
No point diving head first into despair – we just have to hope they can channel their energies in Greece next week and somehow crawl over the qualification line, leaving us all somersaulting with joy.
In the meantime, the manager will need to pull a few strokes against Sunderland on Saturday and synchronise the fractured parts of our team to win against Fat Sam’s Mackems.
That will help to keep us afloat until the next wave of transfers arrives.
Ahoy !
Like many things at the club these days, I’m not quite sure how or what our youth policy is actually run anymore. We have the normal academy, packed full of youthful talent. Then there are those identified by the many scouts who swoop on other academies like a magpie on heat. But how productive is all of this and how much of this is down to the expert running of the youth system?
I was one of many at The Grove several years ago that witnessed our all conquering under 18’s team. How many of those are now regulars in the first team squad? Just one. That was Jack and we all know how his career has suffered.
So who else in the current squad are products of our youth system? Well there is Hector, ex of the Barca youth system and Le Coq who was brought to the club as a 16 year old? Both are now in the first team almost by default. Le Coq would not now be at the club if his wages had been lower or there had not been injuries to our midfield. Bellerin is a bit of a mystery to me. Whilst I’m sure that many at the club would have recognised that he had talent, the fact that we bought Chambers and Debuchy for close to ยฃ30 I firmly believed that few at the club anticipated his progress.
The only other graduate is the brittle Gibbs, current understudy to Nacho.
I have been told by many, for many years now about the next, next best thing. All the world class talent that will apparently take the club by storm, all seems to disappear with a whimper. It seems to be that they are built up as something extra special before they are shown the exit door.
The current crop got a raw deal in Sheffield. The senior players on duty that night should take a large portion of the blame. That said, I saw nothing on display that made me think that any of them have a future at the club.
I have no idea what young Jeff will be like. Again, I was told in recent years that Gnabry would be a massive star at the club. Another player who has struggled with injuries but it would seem that he can’t get a look in at The Baggies.
I look back at some of the players that we have produced over the years and only hope that those days return. I do think that young players need to play first team football so I am a fan of the loan system as a way of developing players. At the moment however, I agree with Arsene. I don’t see anyone that has the ability to compete at this level at the moment for a sustained period. Let’s hope that this changes on the hurry up.
A bit slow out of the blocks Trev?
Nah, just testing the water first. ?
H2H,
Very well spilled beans in the previous bar.
Donyell Malen looks like another one to look out for based on the highlights of the U18 game against Brighton. Scored a great goal and hit the bar on what would have been another good one.
http://www.arsenal.com/academy/players/donyell-malen
Don’t test the water, just dive straight in. Use it as the springboard to the next post.
Our 2008/9 youth team swept away all before them. They beat Liverpool over a two legged final. The team below is the side that beat Liverpool at the Grove 4-1 in front of more than 33,000 people. I’m sure we had high hopes for all of them at some stage.
James Shea
Craig Estmond
Kyle Bartley
Thomas Cruise
Emmanuel Frimpong
Luke Ayling
Henri Lansbury
Jack Wilshere
Le Coq
Gilles Sunu
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
Subs
Rhys Murphy
Sanchez Watt
Charlie Mann
Conor Henderson
Cedric Evina.
Fine post Guvna. I can detect a faint hint of optimism there.
The remaining fit players and walking wounded simply have to step in and prove themselves capable, irrespective of age or prior experience. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for all young players and those who aspire to playing in their favourite position (looking at you Aaron).
As some Brummie wordsmith once said,
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune….”
Grab your opportunities fellas.
Moreover at the current rate at which our players are being crocked, there’ll soon be a coach nipping round to the Tollie pre-match to find someone who can fit in a couple of pairs of vacant boots.
Could we soon be cheering a deep lying midfield duo of tabs and Steve T?
Steve T @16, I did indeed have very high hopes for a fair number of those young men.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Very constructive post. What we need at a time like this. Congratulations Holic. You provide a voice of sanity . Steve T does too. I don’t see many reserve or youth games now but follow results and reports avidly a d have a couple of friends who go regularly and filter back information.
Many years ago my mate told me there was a likely lad called Brady in the reserves that didn’t look like a footballer but was brilliant. He got that right so when he eulogises about a player now I use Brady as the benchmark.
I think serendipity has played a major part in developing young players as Steve T points out. I always liked Coquelin but I’m sure he was t part of a plan. What concerns me is whether this crop can prosper. Crowley is very highly rated but flopped at Barnsley, Maitland- Niles started well at Ipswich but isn’t so prominent now and there are very mixed views on Zelalem’s progress in what is not a great standard of football. Everything points to a big misjudgement in the summer in not strengthening given our proclivity to injuries and the readiness of the youth to step up
I think our youth team is a failure. After Jack who has been the one who has moved on to the next level and been successful??? Jonker and team were supposed to be our path finders and were to have had atleast some who could step up when needed. There is not a player in sight who can step up now when in need. No one can even make the bench and that is a sad reflection of where we stand.
Sunderland and Villa are must wins, 6 points and nothing less. If we then beat city/saints and the other is a draw december, will be set up nicely for i see the other teams dropping more points than us. Now if only we have a full strength squad to choose from. Last heard Theo should be back this weekend or worst the olympiakos game. Ramsey will get back his favourite CM role and hopefully that gets him having a sustained spell of consistently good performances.
Injuries and reasons for it is not my cup of coffee, i just find it too coincidental and too often.
I watched several youth games with that 2008/9 side. Everyone player looked to me as if they had a bright future in the game. Everyone had heard about Jack and his potential. The other stand out player for me from the games I watched was Frimpong.
Football is so money driven these days that I do wonder how much importance is placed on youth development. We do still seem to try and pick up talented youngsters from foreign fields. This then turns out academy into more of a finishing school. I would really like to know exactly how much we invest in this side of the business.
One interesting fact. 9 out of 16 of the 1994 Cup Winners Cup Final side were from our academy. Several others were players bought from lower league sides.
Bath. If we lose any more by Saturday I’m bringing my boots. The pace might have gone but I certainly make up for it with width???
๐
TTG. Lots of players seem to be announced in a blaze of glory before slowly slipping away. I have no idea if the likes of Crowley, Maitland-Niles etc will have what it takes. Even if they have I’m not sure they will get the opportunity. Not unless their loans are a massive success. I still remember when we signed Luke Freeman. He is now playing at Bristol City.
Interesting the thoughts around Brady. Sadly I’m guessing that this would have been about 40 plus years ago?
Steve T @22-
All of that! ?
Cheers for the kind ones, fellas.
=====
Thanks for the post H, must be a real slog to try and pull something out among all the negativity, so kudos for that, I’m afraid I do not find myself in such an optimistic mood.
To quote you if I may;
Calum Chambers was brought in to gain experience in the holding midfield role where an opportunity for immediate promotion exists.
I see this more as compounding the problem rather then it being any kind of viable solution, a young inexperienced square peg that will soon be forcibly jammed into the roundest of round holes. Callum is raw, he’s just learning the ropes as a CB (or so we’ve been informed) and now he has to take up the very specialist position of DM? When? After a few run outs in the reserves? Sorry, but I can’t see how that possibly could prepare him for the rigours of that position in the PL. It took years for Coq to develop, and even though his rise to prominence was rapid, it’s not as if this was a new position for him, he’d been playing there for many a season.
December is now upon us, the hectic festive period plus a make or break CL game thrown in just to make a difficult situation worse. Ramsey has made a sub appearance and had one start, not lasting the 90′, since his return, and his new partner Flamini, entering the autumn of his career and if gossip is to be believed was on the “out” list during the summer, is not known for lengthy runs in the team. Nevertheless, these two will form our midfield base for the coming month and there is nothing we can do but cross everything, wish them luck and hope for the best………… UNTIL JAN 1st.
Now, I’ve never been from the school of just throwing money at a problem for the sake of it, but this is surely a no brainer!? Once that window opens we need to be in like Flynn ready to ransack the place. If I hear any bollox about “super quality” then I think I’ll lose it. Anyone who can walk and kick a ball would be an improvement on Arteta and Rosicky at this moment in time (I’ll look for my boots too, Steve). If we fail to react, and react quickly, then I fear that the fanbase may very well turn on the management, the deeper we go into January without reinforcements the stronger the anti sentiment will get, you don’t need to have the powers of Nostradamus to predict that this could turn nasty.
Until then we just have to soldier on, but when the times comes action is needed. Hoping that the youth can help us out is more romance then realism…….
I do like a bit of romance in my life though.
*sends H2H a beautiful bouquet of flowers*
*blushes*
*the sight of H2H blushing silences the whole bar*
The bar is quiet when we are in a mini-slump. Understandable GSD. I’d sooner all of the aggravation went on elsewhere.
Several tips of the hat to H2H for excellent posts.
One question: where do all the great DMs learn to be DMs? Surely they have to start somewhere as DM rubes.
Defence Ministry ?
Good posts here and in the previous drinks H2H. I hope Arsene’s press office is paying attention.
Like Mormons, Santi and Le Coq seemed to work best as a pair, Trev. Ministry of a sort.
The difficulty of young players getting a game at the club or out on loan reinforces my view that clubs should be allowed to play a ‘B’ team in the lower leagues. It would ensure that the youngsters get regular competitive games and play together in ‘the Arsenal way’. Would so many of that 2008/9 youth team have scattered to the four winds if they felt they had a better platform from which to compete for a first-team place?
Agree Ned (#29). Every defender is a ‘specialist’ in the position they fit best, but top class ones should be able to make a decent fist of covering any defensive position (as Sagna and Nacho have shown at CD). If Cal can’t manage to play out of his ‘specialist’ position (whatever that is) occasionally, perhaps he isn’t good enough to be in the squad.
Oskar
Is Trev still testing his water? The pregnant(?) silence from him is worrying…
Oskar
I see my name has been mentioned above.
There is much to admire in Mr Holland’s recent posts but his prediction of possible nastiness is not foreseen in the runes. We will survive the plague of injuries cast upon us.
After all, nobody would say it is the end of the world – would they?
They are already trotting out the old standby “rumor” about William Carvalho.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/12032305/Arsenal-look-to-William-Carvalho-to-solve-central-midfield-injury-crisis.html
Cheers H!
Big opportunity on Saturday indeed; – to get totally rat arsed and shout abuse at the sad mackem bastards and whatever cunt turns up to referee!
Will be Pins beforehand and Tollie afterwards. See you at some stage.
Come on you Arsenal!
Top man Esso! ๐
Bobby Madley is the referee.
Sounds like a local comedian who is the “star” of a small town panto.
Ominous omens.
Sunderland – worst team in the league apart from Villa? *check*
Manager – biggest cunt alive who has the Indian Sign over us? *check*
Referee – inexperienced and sounds like a clown? *check*
๐
@ Cynic #40 What can go wrong lol… Arsenal please just win. COYG!!!!!!
big batch o stout
three months in a dark room
havin’ a good wee think de itself
now ripe for slurpin’
bottles on the bar
for them as wants em
bring back yer empties please
i’m not made o fuckin money
๐
we are the goon squad and we’re coming to town
beep
beep
have a nice friday ‘hol n ‘hols
drink up
slainte
SteveT@16:
The members of that Liverpool youth team that lost that 2008-09 Youth Cup final have barely risen to great heights, either. Only one of the starting XI is playing in the Premiership (on loan at Norwich, and the only one still with Liverpool). Two are playing in the Championship, one in League One, and one in the Northern Premier league. One is playing in the Scottish Premiership, one in Denmarkโs Superliga, one in Australiaโs A-league, one in the second division of the Bundesliga, and two seem to have dropped out of football altogether.
It is really tough for a kid to make it to the top.
Allardyce hasn’t had the Indian sign over us for yonks. We ate his West Ham team for breakfast. He’s a gum- chewing fat lump
Would love a stout, cba, but likely to be red wine with a chunk of fillet for me this evening.
At least it will get me out of the four walls of the office/studio/spare room for a while.
Guide to mixed consumption of beer and wine, or vice versa, for those who might have been considering it. ๐
http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-24783,00.html
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Who would dream of such a thing bt8? Certainly none of the regulars of this fine establishment. ๐
Meanwhile, Ivan wants all those attending to remember to bring your boots tomorrow. ๐ฎ
Interesting read, opportunity is definitely in the air for a number of youngsters at the club but in a strange way I’m not sure it’s the right kind of opportunity. Once again as a club we are faced with an injury crises before Christmas like no other side in the league and with so many first teamers out it makes it that bit harder for youngsters to come in and play without pressure in way they could if being introduced slowly alongside the world class talent our squad holds. This sink or swim scenario must be quite damaging for a youngster if it doesn’t go right, I don’t want to bring up examples from previous years because as a club we’ve come on leaps and bounds but you have to wonder with the youngsters out on loan at various clubs developing in a natural way are the ones left at the club really ready for the pressure of a title challenge both before and after Christmas??