Arsenal snap up 15 year old Dutch prospect

It has been reported today by De Telegraaf, one of Holland’s biggest papers, that Arsenal have managed to convince another youngster that his future lies with the Gunners, with Turkish born Holland U17 International Oguzhan Özyakup choosing to leave AZ Alkmaar rather than wait for a chance in Holland before getting a transfer to one of Europe’s bigger clubs.

The reason that this is possible is through the current contractual situation regarding players under the age of 16, which stops potential stars from being held down to contracts keeping them at the club. This means that British clubs, for example, can raid clubs for the biggest talents and lure them here for both the clubs stature and also for the more lucrative contracts that they get. What’s more, we then only have to pay a small fee to the clubs that have been responsible for the players football education up until we sign them, with the fee being settled at a tribunal as in the case of Fran Merida if the two clubs cannot come to an agreement.

Unsurprisingly, Özyakup is a highly technical player who can play either on the right on in the middle of midfield, and like Ignasi Miquel he will arrive at the club when he turns 16. He is currently second top scorer for the B1 AZ Alkmaar side, having been moved up to the A1 category midway throught this season I believe. He has been impressing people at Alkmaar for some time, having scored all four goals in a game for the C2 side back in 2006, as well as working his way up from the Holland Under 15s to the U17s. The move to Arsenal will also take him closer to Holland team mate Jeffrey Bruma, the starlet now plying his trade with Chelsea, who, as well as obviously Nacer Barazite at Arsenal, will help him settle in Britain next season.

Thanks to http://youngguns.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/arsenal-sign-oguzhan-ozyakup-from-az-alkmaar/, where I first found out about this story.

Has the academy’s technical standard finally caught up with what is needed to succeed at Arsenal?

I’ve got to say, watching the Arsenal Reserves game yesterday, you can now see how much of a difference the fact that the academy has been around for a while now has made to the quality that we are now seemingly producing.

Yes, before we had the likes of Bentley, Cole, Sidwell and Harper, but generally speaking players who played for Arsenal have not been of a very high standard. Even the last time our reserves were winning matches, the only successful players from that reserve team were bought in from abroad - players like Larsson, Lupoli and Bendtner, with only Muamba impressing from the English side of things. Most of the other players have now dropped off the radar completely, except perhaps Gilbert who struggles on with injury and attitude problems at Arsenal.

This year though, all the players seem far more promising than ever before, particularly the English players, because the bought in players are always very good simply because they have been coached to play football from a very young age in an exceptional way. An ideal example of this is Nacer Barazite, with the young Dutchman again impressing against a fairly poor West ham team with his mix of brilliant technique and great football intelligence. But now you can see that the younger generation of English footballers, those coming through from the Under 18s to the reserves just now, are clearly more capable than ever before.

The likes of Wilshere, Thomas, Watt and Frimpong are showing that they can now make the step up to playing the Arsenal brand of football far more easily than any group of youngsters since Wengers arrival. Of course, this is only one part of what is needed for them to succeed, but it is at least looking far more promising, highlighted by Wenger’s previous claim this season that we have 13/14 year olds who have nothing more to learn technically. With this background work, we can now hope to see far more English youngsters at our club.

Jack Wilshere yesterday was brilliant, and got easily the best ovation I have heard for a player at Underhill for the reserves when he was finally brought off to give him time to recuperate before helping to lead Arsenal to the Under 18s Final by beating Aston Villa on Saturday. He showed that he has exactly what it takes to be an Arsenal player, tormenting the West Ham defence from the right hand side, either by ghosting past players, finding the right attacking pass or holding onto the ball under pressure. The watching Arsene Wenger must have been overjoyed to see that the academy is starting to give him exactly what he wants. And that was before the 16 year old Englishman curled the ball exquisitely past the keeper from 25 yards….

Jay Thomas has proved throughout this season for the reserves and while captaining the academy team, that he is has the uncommon English attribute of being a ball playing centre half, a defender who can fill in any position across the pitch and do a good job because he has the all round game that Arsenal’s almost total football style at times requires. Yesterday he out-Diaby’d the French international alongside him for presence and retaining the ball, showing that he could become a first teamer at Arsenal. The only question would be in which particular position his future lies.

The futures definitely bright, all we need to do now is to ensure the present is just as promising.

 

Arsenal coast past Reading

Football is a strange old game. A month ago we would have considered this a simple three points to carry on in our relentless bid to win the Premiership title. Yesterday morning, I was hoping for a win just to make sure third place was more or less sealed…

And while we did play well enough to beat a poor reading side, I can’t help feeling that the whole match just proved one of our main weaknesses in the past few months - our conversion of chances. We had 68% possession, 20 shots and 12 corners. How many goals did we score? 2. That is simply not good enough for a top four team, and I’m not sure how we can really improve this ratio. Is it just the fact that some teams have better luck? Or is it that we have appalling finsihers up front? I think that certainly van Persie should have scored a couple, but he did hit the bar and the post with one shot, and we had a ball cleared off the line, while Walcott also hit the bar in the match. It is those tiny differences that have caught us out this season, yesterday it was only the difference between 2-0 and 6-0, but at places like Birmingham, Old Trafford and Anfield, it has proved the difference between taking all three points or not, and also the difference between a successful side and a side whose season has finished in April.

Nevertheless, there were other positive things to take out of yesterday’s game. Theo Walcott proved that he can make a difference as a starter, skipping past Reading players and causing them problems. Adebayor showed the doubters once again that he can be a top striker. And Alex Song definitely illustrated what a changed player he has become this season, even in his less favoured position of centre back.

Having pressured for the first half, we found ourselves 2-0 up with goals from Adebnayor and a deflected Gilberto effort at half time, and we never looked like giving up the lead from there. The second half continued in the same fashion throughout the second half as well, with van Persie’s superb free kick that came off the bar and then the post being the closest Arsenal came to a third goal, although as I mentioned earlier, Theo Walcott was played through only for his left foot shot to hit the top of the bar, and when Fabregas was put one-on-one with the goalkeeper for the second time in the match, he too couldn’t convert, with Duberry blocking his shot on the line and leaving Arsenal settle for the 2-0 result.

Alexander Hleb could well be in trouble after he petulantly slapped Graham Murty in the face in an off-the-ball incident, and if he is banned for three games, it is all that he deserves for the blatant stupidty that he showed in doing that. It’s a shame that such a good player feels the need to do that sort of thing with the game won, and he will be punsihed deservedly for it.

How much of a difference will in-club promotion make next season? - Part 2

In the next part of my analysis of what we can hope to do next season, excluding any players coming in to the club or leaving, I will look at the state of a couple of our star reserve players, and try to guess at what their roles next season will be. Will they stay in the reserves, go on loan or actually make a difference to the squad. Below is a selection of the players most likely to make a difference.

Lukasz Fabianski - Not entirely sure that you would classify Fabianski as a reserve, but his first team chanceshave also been limited and so this is where I shall write about him, rather than in part 3. Fabianski is obviously by far the oldest “reserve” player, a fact that is unsurprising given his position as a goalkeeper, and I think that the promising Polish shot-stopper can hope to see a good increase in his first team chances next season. He has looked pretty good in the majority of the Carling Cup performances that he was given this year, while making a couple of world class saves for the reserves in the latter part of the season as well. I think that given Almunia has never looked like being anything other than a solid gap-filler in the goalkeeping slot, I think within a couple of years if we do not decide to invest in a new goalkeeper, Fabianski will be number one. What this means for next season is that I can see him being given responsibility for the FA Cup and Carling Cup as he steps up to the number 2 spot after Lehamnn’s inevitable departure.

Nacer Barazite - This young Dutchman is Arsenal’s best young hope in the reserves, having scored a total of 20 goals this season for the youth and reserve teams from his wide midfield or striker positions. He has shown why Wenger bought him to the Emirates at the age of 16, and looks to be a huge prospect for the future, and I think that next season will see him get chances at first team level in the Carling Cup, and perhaps even in proper first team games come later on in the season if he continues his progression. However, it may also be just as good an option to send him out on loan rather than limit him to about 5 appearances next season, and if so I can certainly see the likes of Wigan being interested, with Steve Bruce’s relationship with Arsenal, as well as some of the top Championship teams. I think that despite his evident promise, the reserve league plainly isn’t very competitive, and so a loan spell, at least after the Carling Cup run, will be what awaits for Barazite next season. Unless, that is, he really impresses in the pre-season games this summer.

Havard Nordtveit - Nordtveit has had a very assured first season in the reserves, and being made captain has certainly indicated that his Arsenal future looks birght. However, he is still very much learning the game, and I doubt that he will make any difference to the first team squad next season. Defending is very much something that you need experience for, and I think it will be another couple of seasons before we see his true potential. I wouldn’t rule out a loan move for him, however, and if he impresses there he could see himself in the first team set-up quicker than expected.

Vito Mannone - Mannone, at the age of 21, is still very young indeed for a goalkeeper, and will look perhaps for another loan spell next season as he seeks first team experience to propel his career onwards. He may take the step of moving to third choice goalkeeper following Lehmann’s departure, but rather than that I would expect instead for an experienced goalkeeper to come here on the cheap much like Mart Poom did.

As for the likes of Gavin Hoyte, Paul Rodgers, Rui Fonte, James Dunne and Rene Steer, I do not think that they will be any closer to the first team squad than they have been this year, although loan spells for them will undoubtedly give them a better chance. In particular Rodgers and Steer have impressed me, but I think unfortunately at a big club like Arsenal you have to have exceptional talent to succeed rather than good determination and good performances, and so it is very possible none of these will make it at Arsenal and after loan spells will leave the club as Jay Simpson will surely do this year.

How much of a difference will in-club promotion make for next season?

I was watching the footballing masterclass from Arsenal’s reserves at times against a very weak Derby side, and that got me wondering: what are the roles destined for the likes of Barazite and Nordtveit next season, along with returning loanees and the current players just outside the best 16? And more importantly, how much of a difference will these players make to the situation of not having enough squad depth to compete for the entire 38 games AND challenge for silverware in other competitions?

It has always been the plan that with each passing year, the conveyor belt of footballing talent will all get one year older and with that be promoted within the squad, and while this year the players on the fringe were that year too young, that year too inexperienced, will next year be different?

Over the next week or so I will be doing an article on each aspect of promotion inside the club - Loanees, Starlets, and Fringe Players, and see how much differece a year could make in our squad depth.

I shall start with the returning players from other clubs, starting with Carlos Vela.

Loanees:

Carlos Vela - A lot has been said by Arsenal fans about the 19 year old Mexican without him ever kicking a ball for Arsenal, and at the moment the trend seems to be to say he won’t be any use next season whatsoever, and that people saying he will be our saviour are wrong, yet no-one is calling him that by any stretch of the imagination. While he won’t be a first teamer immediately, not for a good few seasons most likely, he has the talent, the speed and the skill to make a difference off the bench, to change games as Walcott and Bendtner’s brief has been this year. He has spent two seasons playing first team, week in week out football, first for Salamanca where he was loved, and now at Osasuna in the second best league in the world, where he has drifted in and out of form like any 19 year old in the top leagues. An established Mexican international, he’ll add a bit more much-needed depth for the left wing position after a couple of months settling in England.

Mark Randall - Has struggled to break into the Burnley first team after a very promising couple of substitute appearances his first team chances have been limited very surprisingl. However, Wenger has always rated him highly, and I would expect his next season to be crucial in deciding his future. He has two options: to stay and fight for glimpses of first team action, or to tackle another loan spell at a Championship club for another season and see where it gets him. I would advise the latter because I can’t see him helping with Squad depth next season, with his game time more likely to be counted in minutes than hours.

Kieran Gibbs - After his great performance against Inter Milan in pre-season with the first team last summer, and then promising reserve performances followed up by another impressive game at Sheffield United in the Carling Cup, a loan spell at Norwich looked to be almost a finishing school before joing the first team squad next season. But the chances at struggling Norwich have been few and far between, never getting enough time to prove his quality, and the excitement surrounding him has died down. I think that most likely pre-season will decide his season, with the same choices as Randall has available to him to choose between. Purely because he is a wide player as well as being more versatile than Randall, sticking around could get him closer to the first team than another risky loan spell could, but I won’t be sure until he has pre-season with the first team this summer.

Fran Merida - Another difficult loan spell for a young gunner saw Merida travel back to Spain, with Real Sociedad signing him just before Chris Coleman was sacked as manager, and this was where it went wrong for him, as the replacement manager refused to start Merida, giving him a few minutes at the end of each game for no reason whatsoever. But that manager was also replaced I believe, and since then things have immediately looked better, with the young Spaniard netting the winner on his first start after the latest sacking. He has also been given a new long term contract recently and with that news I think that we shall see him around the first team set up next year in much the same way as Denilson was this year, playing the odd game as a substitute and starting Carling Cup games, gaining experience all the while.

Jay Simpson - The first thing to say about Simpson is that he has tried hard, both at Arsenal and now with Millwall, but I think he lacks the quality needed for Arsenal and a decent Championship club will come in for him and sign him for around £500K-£1m after his impressive spell at Millwall in League One. He has won several different awards there and no doubt a Wolves, Leicster, Crystal Palace type side will see him as a good substitute and one for the future and take him on.

Vincent van den Berg - Never has been impressive at Arsenal, and while I can’t say I know how his loan has gone I severely doubt it has been good enough to keep his career with the Gunners going. Therefore he will be leaving in the summer for pastures new as far as I am concerned.

Pedro Bothelo - Pedro has had a promising season at Salamanca so far, and will continue in Spain next year before coming to England in the summer of 2009.

Jay Thomas and Rhys Murphy withdraw from England friendly to help Arsenal play-off push

England Under 18 duo Rhys Murphy and Jay Thomas have both mysteriously withdrawn from England’s friendly in Hartlepool on Wednesday, against Austria Under 18s.

Replaced by Wolves’ Kyle Bennett and Leeds United’s Tom Elliott, it seems as though they have both taken the option of dropping out in order to push for success within the Gunners fold rather than further their fledgling international careers in this latest England friendly. Both players finished the game against Millwall, ruling out any injury reasons. Rhys Murphy got on the scoresheet in that game for his sixth goal of his season after a terrible injury prone start to the season for last years top scorer. With 35 appearances in total for the reserves and youth team, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has proved to be the mainstay in Arsenal’s youth set-ups, and with vital games coming up both players have chosen club over country it seems.

Despite his two team mates dropping out, Gavin Hoyte has remained with the Enland set up for the friendly, with the young centre back obviously deciding that with him being used mainly in reserve games rather than Under 18 fixtures, he would be better off keeping with England for this match.

 

UPDATE: However, both Rhys Murphy and Jay Thomas did not play a part in the game against Bristol City in the Under 18’s league game that clinched the title for the young guns, and so there is now a possibility that they are in fact injured despite both players playing the whole game against Millwall in mid week. I will keep the story updated when I find out the true cause of them dropping out.

UPDATE 2: Rhys Murphy and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas named on subs bench for Derby V Arsenal reserve clash.

Pedro will be staying in Spain for another season; Richard Law returns from Salamanca

Tribuna de Salamanca, the local paper for UDS, have reported that Arsenal’s agreement will continue as it has been despite Salamanca struggling with debt. As I first bought to your attention just over a week ago that Richard Law, Arsenal’s South American representative, would be meeting up with the President of the Spanish club to check up on how their financial crisis would affect the partnership, but having met with officials at the club on Wednesday, Arsenal are confident that as long as Salamanca stay in the second tier of the Spanish leagues, the agreement will remain, allowing more non-EU players to be farmed out to allow them to get their Spanish Passport to make Work Permit issues easier. 

Richard Law also reportedly confirmed that Pedro would be staying in Spain with Salamanca for another year, while more players will be loaned to the club next year, with Tribuna de Salamanca stating that any player that is loaned out would not have to be South American necessarily either, possibly leaving a place open for UDS to sign a non EU player, or perhaps for Arsenal to provide them with a quality youngster from another continent, such as Africa. There had been speculation that Pedro could apply for a work permit in the summer, but this seems not the case from everythng that I have read so far from Spanish sources, and so my guess would be that like Carlos Vela, it could just be wishful thinking from Arsenal fans wanting to see him play, rather than actual rumour.

Another thing that was also confirmed was that the Salamanca youth team would again visit Arsenal facilities this summer.

See my original article on this same story here:

(http://thearsenalway.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/arsenal-to-check-up-on-salamanca/)

Positive Focus - Theo Walcott

Try to ignore the fact that we have let a five point lead slip to a 6 point deficit in the league. Try to ignore the almost certain loss that we are going to have tomorrow. And even ignore the Merseyside robbing that we got on Tuesday, and focus on the only positive of this week: Theo Walcott.

Hopefully there is some cheer in that, if not anything else just at the moment as an Arsenal fan. So I give you the lowdown on all the quotes of praise coming Theo’s way over the last few days, from Kolo Toure to Sven Goran Eriksson.

“That run was amazing, to take it from his own penalty box to the other one. The pace he has got, I don’t think there is anyone better. He was like Maradona. The competition is obviously big at Arsenal. But I believe Theo is ready to play regularly in the first team.”  Sven Goran Eriksson, Former England manager and current Manchester City coach

“He is making a big impact. He has it in the locker to be a great player. That special thing can make the difference. I know patience is not the biggest quality in society but we need to have it. He’s going to be a striker but at the moment he’s a winger - not a midfielder.”  Arsene Wenger, Arsenal manager

“I was delighted with the impact that Theo Walcott made on the game - the run he made for Arsenal’s second goal was incredible.”To go past so many players with such speed and balance is one thing, but to have the composure and awareness to pick a pass at the crucial moment showed great skill and maturity. There can be no disputing Walcott’s ability.”  Fabio Capello, England Manager

“For a few months now Theo has been on fire. Theo is very quick and is playing some good football. Playing up front alongside him is brilliant.”  Emmanuel Adebayor, Arsenal’s leading scorer

“Theo’s run was fantastic, with a great pass at the end, Theo is a good player and is improving every time. I think Theo is going to be one of the best players in England.”  Kolo Toure, Arsenal defender

“It was a fabulous game and Theo Walcott, the English kid who came on for Arsenal, gave a stunning performance.”  Sir Bobby Robson, former England manager.

“I think there’s been a massive improvement in his play since the Birmingham game and it wouldn’t surprise me if Wenger starts him in the final league games. He just needs a run in the team to build up his confidence and he has certainly shown he has the potential to make a real impact.”  Nigel Winterburn, Former Arsenal defender

Now lets hope he starts tommorrows match, because if anyone deserves to start after the last month or so of poor team performances, it is the young Englishman.

Why?!

I really still don’t understand, and its been almost 24 hours since the game began, how we managed to lose that tie. I haven’t got a clue where to begin, but begin I shall.

The match started with only one team in it, with the fantastic atmosphere we can only dream of hearing at the Emirates giving us the impetus it seemed, rather than intimidating the players. This was just as I had thought, and as we ran rings around the far less technical Liverpool players I thought we were in for a fantastic European night for Arsenal. This feeling was strengthened further when Diaby deservedly gave Arsenal the lead, with fantastic one touch build up play leading to Adebayor’s cut back being smothered by Reina, but only as far as Flamini, who expertly controlled and distributed to Fabregas, who passed to Hleb who passsed to Diaby who scored. 1-0 to the Arsenal then, and we didn’t stop there.

Oh no, we started to humiliate our opponents with our sublime range of passing into feet, working the ball wide, working the ball left and creating a couple of decent chances, and with another couple of nearly-chances with the final ball just not appearing. But, just as with Arsenal’s season, as it started to look too good to be true, it was bought crashing down to Earth. Liverpool had a corner swept into the middle to Hyypia, who had somehow outfoxed Senderos to head home completely unmarked, despite Fabregas’ best efforts to block the ball with his head on the line. Flamini then was forced off with an injury, and replaced by Gilberto, making Arsenal seem to have something missing in the midfield, with the mobility of that area of the pitch halved by the Brazilian’s introduction. Liverpool had some possession, and a lot of long balls that were coming back to Liverpool players, but they couldn’t muster a chance between them, and so the half ended all square.

The second period started how the first had ended, plenty of possession for Liverpool with the ball seemingly unable to stick to an Arsenal player for longer than a few seconds at a time. But Liverpool lacked the invention to harm Arsenal and Eboue could and should have made them pay when played into the area by Toure, but for some reason Eboue found himself lacink any footballing intelligence, something which is vital in these situations, and duly shot from an impossible angle rather than cross the ball with reina out of position. Of course, as has been the case in the last month or so, we are inevitably punished for these misses, and when Torres recieved the ball in the area, who then swivelled and shot in to the top corner with barely a hint of movement from either the two Arsenal players with him or the Arsenal keeperit seemed as though we didn’t actually want to stop him from scoring.

But soon we had a chance to equalise. The goal had spurned us on to play better once again, and Adebayor should have scored when a ball towards van Persie ran on into the box to the unmarked Adebayor, who took a hopeful swipe at the ball which, obviously, missed the target hopelessly. But all was not lost (yet) as Walcott had other ideas. Up against the team he supported, he recieved the ball on the edge of his own box, before skipping past one challenge after another, showing lightning pace, before cutting the ball back in the opposite box to which he started the move from, into Adebayor’s path who couldn’t possibly have missed if he had tried. Arsenal should have then closed out the game, Theo Walcott playing on the counter for a killer goal to seal a momentous victory that would have seen the teenager finally hailed for what he is - a potential star of the world game.

But again as with the latter part of this season, nothing ever goes according to plan - within a minute of Theo’s wonderful assist, we were behind again, and there would be no going back this time. Toure was pointlessly jumping around behind Babel when there was a covering Arsenal defender who could have dealt with the situation almost certainly, and Babel, an Arsenal fan, took the decision of falling down. Had this been at the Emirates last week, Babel would have had more chance of a yellow card for diving than a penalty for his fall, but up stepped the referee to deliver the killer blow to Arsenal’s hopes this season.

Gerrard shot and Almunia got absolutely nowhere near a fantastic penalty, and with time running out we were found with all our players in Liverpool’s box bar Fabregas, who was on the right wing just inside his own half, the ball wasplayed through and Babel, despite having a huge advantage over Fabregas in terms of pace, only just managed to get to Almunia to stroke it past him before the young Spaniard arrived to see all Arsenal hopes diminish.

Brilliant line-up announced for the Emirates Cup

Arsenal have surpassed themselves this year with massive European giants Juventus and Real Madrid, along with Hamburg, travelling to North London to help their pre-season preparations in August this year.

The inaugural Emirates Cup will hopefully become a fixture in every year’s pre-season calendar, and with the likes of Robinho, Buffon and Van der Vaart amongst many others all hopefully making an appearance against The Gunners.

Once again there will be two games on each day of the weekend from the 2nd to the 3rd of August, and like last year there will be three points for a win, a point for a draw and a point for each goal they manage to score. With the attacking prowess that the like of Real and Juve are bound to offer, this should be a wonderful weekend of entertaining football for every Arsenal fan to enjoy.

This is what Edelman, Arsenal’s Managing Director, had to say on the tournament:

“After the huge success of last year’s tournament, we are very proud to be hosting the Emirates Cup again in August.

“We are also delighted at the calibre of the three visiting teams to this year’s Emirates Cup. The combination of Arsenal, Real Madrid, Juventus and Hamburg will offer an extremely entertaining weekend of football for the supporters at very good prices, and will also provide the teams with a very competitive level of pre-season preparation.”

Here are the fixtures in full:

Saturday 2nd August 2008
Real Madrid C.F v HSV Hamburg (2pm kick off)
Arsenal v Juventus FC (4.15pm kick off)

Sunday 3rd August 2008
Juventus FC v HSV Hamburg (2pm kick off)
Arsenal v Real Madrid C.F (4.15pm kick off)

This pre-season tournament adds to the already confirmed game that is to be played against Stuttgart on the Wednesday before this set of games.