Much like the first-team against Norwich City last Saturday, Arsenal U21s demonstrated terrific resolve to prevail in adversity and secure a late victory. Their 3-2 win away to Wolverhampton Wanderers, which came after the Gunners had squandered a two-goal lead following the dismissal of Daniel Boateng, may, however, have been too little, too late to springboard a push for the end-of-season play-offs.
To reach the play-offs, Arsenal must finish in the top three of the Elite Group, a task that appears rather difficult at present given that they are currently in fifth place, languishing seven points behind Liverpool, who currently occupy the last play-off spot. To make matters worse, there are now only three games remaining and, even though they are all home fixtures, it would be some feat if Steve Gatting’s side were to take maximum points from their games against Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, two sides who have already beaten them this year.
The other remaining game, sandwiched in between those two, is the re-match against Wolves and, on the evidence of the original fixture, it should be a captivating affair. Two goals from England U19 striker Chuba Akpom, taking his tally to 18 goals in 30 matches in all competitions this campaign, looked to have set Arsenal on the way to a comfortable victory, but Wolves scored either side of Boateng being sent off for a slight tug on Samir Bihmoutine, before substitute Sanchez Watt, who has now been playing at this level for six years, struck a late winner.
Bihmoutine, strangely enough, is still contracted to the Gunners until June, but, despite having worked his way through the ranks at the club, will be let go in the summer, which is why the Moroccan left-back is currently being allowed to trial with various clubs, including Wolves.
A plethora of other youngsters are set to join the 19-year-old in departing the club in the summer. Martin Angha has already signed a pre-contract agreement with Nuremberg, Kyle Ebecilio is wanted by several Dutch clubs, the quartet of Conor Henderson, Craig Eastmond, Watt and James Shea are set to be released, whilst others, such as Josh Rees and second-year scholar Zach Fagan are likely to follow suit in being let go.
The U18s, meanwhile, who have been fielding a side consisting mostly of schoolboys and first-year scholars for several weeks now, have struggled for results since the turn of the year, most recently losing 2-0 to Manchester City last weekend. One player who featured in that game for the Gunners was England youth international Kodi Lyons-Foster, who is currently in the middle of a two-week trial at the club after being let go by Tottenham.
Speaking of Arsenal’s North London rivals, Monday’s meeting between the two sides at Underhill promises to be quite an occasion. It is expected that the game will be well attended by supporters of both sides, with the intriguing additional sub-plots being that, not only will it be one of the final games at the ground before Barnet officially depart at the end of the season, but Tottenham could also virtually secure a play-off spot of their own with a victory, something which Arsenal will certainly be seeking to prevent.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
I always thought we were ahead of the game in terms of the youth development aspect of the game, but it seems we are losing our touch somewhat. Makes you wonder how Barca do it, or how Bilbao reach the UEFA cup final with a team entirely of Basque heritage. I think we need to pay a lot more attention to our U-21s and U-18s. If we can bring up quality, INTELLIGENT young players endlessly drilled on our style of play, we could reach the stage where we are actually better off promoting from within than buy ing from elsewhere.… Read more »
You can’t copy Barca because England lack naturally gifted players that can play the Arsenal way…such talents must come from abroad, which is very competitive these days.
AW’s had 16 years to turn that situation around and hasn’t. Says a lot about him and his own limitations. Moreover, I don’t like the national slur; it’s not far off racism after-all.
I find it very hard to believe that Spain’s plethora of young talent is solely down to nature. If a player has the right mentality, such as Aaron Ramsey, and he works hard from a young age because he loves football, he will succeed. We just need to find and help these players.
He’s not saying copy Barca, but it’s also fickle saying the English don’t have the talent. Of course we do, we just clearly train the youngsters differently. I think in this example, Parisian Weetabix is saying training them from young the Arsenal moves – ingrain it. Quick forward triangular passes, clinical finishes. Make sure they KNOW this, work hard at it, and everything else will come together better. It will allow us better youth development, promotion, and efficiency Look at the purchases over the last few years for the first squad, it’s taken away that balanced basic approach. Our football… Read more »
If it was as simple as telling youngsters “pass pass pass” then everyone would be producing gems. Plus arsenal made it to the semi-finals of the next gen series which is u19 which is telling because our most promising young players at the moment are 16-17 (Chuba Akpom, Gnabry, Olsson, etc.) playing in the reserves so they are going to struggle against lads much older than them. This also means u18 don’t have there star players thus there poor run of results.
By business I hope you mean the premier league kind and not the Kroenke kind?
The youth programme seem to produce about one good egg per year in recent years: Wilshere and Gibbs (injury prone), Szczesny. Fab, Song, Clichy were sold. I am not counting the young first team buys such as Ox as part of youth programme so is one player per year enough and a success? What is the cost of running the programme as opposed to paying £5-10m for a young player who can go into the first team straight away? The club favors both but the former appears to be more expensive. Better to pay £10m for 20 year olds who… Read more »
Hey geniuses,
Since Messi broke through years ago, pray tell the last superstar to break out from La Masia and secure a first team spot with Barca or shine anywhere else. Some of you just talk without thinking and criticizing the Arsenal Youth system.
I don’t agree with the point you’re making, but that wasn’t quite what I was trying to say anyway. Basically Barca have so much control over how they shape their youngsters and their playing style that their youth players are more familiar with the playing style than proven players from abroad. So in many cases I feel they are better off promoting from within than they are splashing the cash, because it’s so difficult to get a proven player to adapt to such a particular playing style. They are almost in a situation where academy players are more useful than… Read more »
Well… they do have 15 players who either came straight through the ranks or were in their ranks and then left and went back (Alba, Pique, Fabregas) and Cuenca and Bojan are both due to return at the end of the year (the latter I admit I’m not entirely sure of the transfer proceedings). Thats 65% with more due to be added…I should have read Parisian weetabix as I’m just copying the same sentiment really… they do have an awesome setup. But that said, if Arsenal were the only noteable team in London in the same way that Barca are… Read more »
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