Kieran Gibbs makes U19’s Championships squad; Four starlets named in England U17s

Arsenal’s promise of young English talent at the club has been proven once again with Kieran Gibbs, fresh from a spell on loan at Norwich City and an end of season appearance for the Arsenal first team, being named for the forthcoming European U19 Championships. Fran Merida is also expected to be part of the Spanish team at the same tournament.

Meanwhile, lower down the age groups there is even more young talents representing their country for Arsenal. Chuks Aneke, Jason Banton, Oliver Nicholas and former Gillingham youngster Luke Freeman all being named for the annual Nordic Tournament, where U16s first make the step up to the U17 team.

Ghanian, French midfielders on trial

While all the talk of crazy multi-million pound bids surround the Gunners, it is nice to see Wenger is still trying to persevere with his amazing scouting network, bringing the very best of footballing talent over from abroad with a view to get the next global star for a minimal price. Although a bit of quality first team signings would be more than satisfying…

The latest candidates for the Arsenal academy are a Frenchman and a Ghanian, both of whom ply their trade in midfield.

Setanta Sports claim that Accra Hearts of Oak teenager Tawrick Jibril will now undergo a trial in June to see how good the youngster really is by training with some of the very best youth talent that already train at London Colney. The 16 year old has already been linked with a move to European giants such as Atletico Madrid, and the price for the player should the trial go well is estimated at around £1m. Roma have also been acredited with an interest in the teenager.

Meanwhile the Frenchman, Francis Coquelin has already had his trial, in which he was injured and so the trial stopped short, although acording to reports by they Young Guns blog he may still sign with the Gunners. The world famous (errr..) Stade Lavallois is where he currently plays his football.

Forum topic discussing the rumours:

http://www.discussions.ghanaweb.com/viewtopic.php?t=81544&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=450d856f49fe693b3011bf24dbe5e535

Young Guns article on Coquelin:

http://youngguns.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/arsenal-in-transfer-talks-for-french-midfielder-coquelin/

Source for article:

http://www.setantasports.com/en/Sport/News/Football/2008/05/20/Premier-League-Arsenal-trial-Ghanaian/?facets/sport-space/great-britain-locale

Tony Adams to appear in Arsenal youth friendly

As reported by me several weeks ago, tonight Arsenal are sending an XI team, to be made up mostly of reserve Arsenal players such as Barazite, Fonte, Nordtveit, Murphy etc, will be joined by Gunners hero Tony Adams as they play in a testimonial match against Dorchester in recognition of Brian Benjafield’s contribution to the Magpies.

Dorchester, who have been relegated from the Blue Square Premier South this season, will field a side with names such as Magpie legends such as “Matt Holmes, Mark Ormerod, Andy Harris, Scott Morgan, Tommy Killick, Matt Groves and Owen Pickard take to the field. Current Magpie Darren Watts is also expected to feature, as is young keeper Sean Lillington” acccording to the Dorset Echo, who also report that Benjafield himself will only be on the sidelines for this match.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing a few old faces and I’m happy to get the testimonial because the idea has been floating around for a while now. I won’t be playing but I will be on the touchline assisting Shaun Brooks,” said Brian Benjafield.

“The draw for us is that we have got an Arsenal XI coming down and a lot of thanks should go to Stuart Morgan for sorting that out and helping to bring Tony Adams as well.”

It is not known whether or not Tony Adams, who has been made guest of honour for the game, will actually take part in the match itself.

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.

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.

Arsenal Youth friendly announced

 

Arsenal’s young guns will get to test themselves against a Dorchester Town testimonial team as a reward for Brian Benjafield’s contribution to Dorchester Town Football Club over the last fifteen years.

The game will take place on the 6th of May at the Jewsons Stadium which is home to the Blue Square South side. Dorchester legends will make up the opposition with names such as Mark Ormerod, Andy Harris, Scott Morgan, Steve Richardson, Tommy Killick, Shaun Brooks, Matty Holmes, Matt Groves and Owen Pickard playing as well as some of the present team. I don’t know whether any of these names mean anything to you, becauseI haven’t heard of any of them personally.

The Arsenal squad will be made up of a mixture of reserves and the youth side, and if you wish to see this game tickets can be bought at £8 or £5 depending on which stand you sit in for the 7pm kick off.

It’s not exactly huge news but as it isn’t very well publicised, any gooners living near Dorchester should check this game out for a glimpse of the potential we have at the club.

Frimpong on target as England progress

The Arsenal contingent continued to impress as Frimpong, Arsenal’s Ghanian-born central midfielder joined Freeman in scoring his first international goals, after Freeman was on target on Wednesday against Japan.

Frimpong played the full game just 24 hours previously, but again stayed on the pitch for the full 90 minutes as he clinched the game late on in the match in the 71st minute in a tight contest against European giants Germany. There were also substitute appearances from Freeman and Byles, who along with Nicholas (who did not feature) will expect to get a start tomorrow against the USA while Frimpong will surely be rested after playing two full games within 24 hours of each other.

Freeman scores as four players represent England U16s in France

 Sam Byles

In an illustration of the quality of our youngsters at the club, all four U16 players who had been called up for the Montaigu tournament started the opening fixture against Japan as the England U16s won convincingly against Japan.

New signing Luke Freeman cored in the 63rd minute for England to complete the 3-1 win, before being substituted six minutes later. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Frimpong and Oliver Nicholas both played the full game, with Sam Byles being taken off after playing 72 minutes of the game.

Germany also won their game in the same group, and so the game against Germany tonight in what looks to be the group decider will be especially interesting to see, and I will give you all the details as soon as I get them.

Barazite impresses yet again as Reserves win

 

I’ve got to say that until tonight I’ve been feeling pretty depressed when it comes to the issue of Arsenal. But watching the Reserves completely outplay and outclass Pompey in every area has cheered me up no end.

In a team including Djourou returning from injury and Fabianski getting some match practice in, Arsenal were still extremely young in every other area, with everyone else under the age of 19, we consistently out muscled and out thought a Pompey side including big money signing David Nugent, Welsh international Duffy as well as experienced ‘keeper Ashdown and former Fulham player Sean Davis.

But despite the comparitively vast experience of the Pompey team, the team from the South Coast rarely threatened bar the half chances for Nugent and Davis in the first half. Arsenal also struggled to carve out openings until later on in the half, despite a lot of possession and several long distance efforts fom Fonte, Barazite and Murphy. And it was from one of these strikes that the goal eventually came from, a swerving Fonte effort falling to Murphy to score easily. Fabianski then ensured Arsenal would go in at half time with the lead by touching the ball over his bar from a header from a Portsmouth corner.

If the first half was comfortably Arsenal’s, the second half was even more so. The key to this was an increased tempo with the pass and move tactics so nearly ending in a goal on a number of occasions. All that was mssing was a second and decisive goal, but that wasn’t to come until late on. Before then there was chances falling to Barazite who constantly tormented the Pompey defence, as well as opportunities for Fonte and Murphy. It was this trio who constantly offered individual skill that Pompey did not have an answer to. The latter two of this trio were withdrawn later on though, with Fonte picking up an injury and Murphy being rested perhaps for the U18s game against Chelsea on Friday. But Barazite still got the goal he deserved, as a cross fell to the onrushing Ogogo who was clearly taken out by the until-then impressive Portsmouth left back. Up stepped Barazite to calmly convert the penalty to the ‘keepers right off the post.

Team:

———————– Fabianski ———————–

Rodgers —– Nordtveit ——– Hoyte ——— Steer

————————- Djourou ———————

Ogogo ——— Dunne ———————- Barazite

—————-Fonte ——— Murphy —————-

 Match Ratings:

Lukasz Fabianski - 6 - Had one thing to do all game, and that was comfortable.

Paul Rodgers - 7 - Got forward well, and won a lot of tackles by putting pressure on Pompey, although perhaps positionally could have done better.

Havard Nordtveit - 7 - Comfortably dealt with a player who last season was scoring for fun. Did have a few nervous moments when he let the ball bounce.

 Gavin Hoyte - 7.5 - Excellent throughout, never made a mistake, even if he wasn’t really over worked.

Rene Steer - 8 - Got forward brilliantly, defended well and showed willingness until the final whistle.

Abu Ogogo - 6 - Didn’t get into the game much, but he did cause the penalty and had a couple of good moments.

Johan Djourou - 7.5 - Impressive in a defensive midfield role against Sean Davis. Kept the play moving without ever really driving forward.

James Dunne - 6 - I am yet to be impressed by Dunne and that continued last night. He just doesn’t quite look up to it in terms of quality when you compare him with the other youngsters on show in my opinion.

Nacer Barazite - 8.5 - MOTM - Excellent technique, strength and link up play throughout the match. Looked very clever on the ball and worked to get possession back every time he did lose it. If he doesn’t become a very good player for a big club in the future, I will be very suprised.

Rui Fonte - 7.5 - I know you shouldn’t stereotype, but you expect Portuguese attackers to spend a lot of time rolling around, and that was definitely the case last year with Fonte, but not this year. This year physically he looks far better, his first touch is sublime and he holds defenders off excellently. His great shot led to the first goal as well.

Rhys Murphy - 7.5 - He was sensational for the youngsters last year, but got injured early this season and is slowly edging his way back. He drifted in and out of the game,but scred a typical strikers goal that showed exactly what he is all about. He was also tirelessly making runs behind the last man, which shows what kind of striker he is really.

Subs:

Jay Thomas (on for Fonte, ‘70) - 6.5 - Showed glimpses of potential with some wonderful passes.

 Cedric Evina (on for Murphy, ‘75) - 5 - Barely touched the ball, and the only time I can remember him recieving the ball in a dangerous position he got fouled.

Craig Eastmond (on for Djourou, ‘80) - 6 - Made a fantastic pass through the heart of the Pompey defence, but wasn’t on for long.

Ireland disappointed by Nicholas’ decision

 

Arsenal U16 player Oliver Nicholas has opted against playing for Ireland after being called up by the England squad for the U16 age group this week, as well as playing a part in England’s Victory Shield campaign late last year.

This is a blow for Ireland as he seems to be highly rated (although I personally have never seen him play before so I can’t back this up) and had played for Ireland prior to the Victory Shield. Nicholas qualified for Ireland’s national team because his grandparents came from Waterford in Ireland, but when England offered him the chance to join their set up instead, Nicholas couldn’t refuse, and Vinny Butler, the Irish U16s coach will not try and convince him that this is the wrong decision.

“I was a bit annoyed about it but sometimes players only get asked to play for England after they have represented Ireland.” He told the Irish Daily Star that “he’s made his decision and I won’t be trying to convince him to change his mind.”