Given his excellent technique, there has been a considerable amount of hype surrounding Vlad Dragomir since he joined Arsenal and now, in his third season at the club, the midfielder is starting to perform with greater consistency and is edging closer to the first-team squad.
Dragomir’s quality has never been in doubt, but for the majority of his first two seasons at Arsenal the Romanian youngster only impressed in patches, often drifting in and out of games, performing the odd moment of magic but not having much of an impact overall.
That is now starting to change, with Dragomir having improved both tactically and physically, meaning he is ready to cope with the demands of U23 football.
Dragomir has two goals in his last three appearances for Arsenal U23s and has thrived of late, making the most of his aforementioned technical ability but also becoming more of a team player and making a more significant contribution overall.
The prospect’s progress has certainly been noticed by Arsene Wenger, who named Dragomir on the bench for the Europa League game away to BATE Borisov in September.
Although Dragomir was an unused substitute on that occasion, his inclusion in the squad indicated that he is edging closer to making the step up to the first-team and there is a good chance that he will make his senior debut for the club either this season or next.
Dragomir is approaching the stage in his development where most players go on loan for the first time but there is an element of concern regarding whether it would be a good idea for such a move to take place given the difficulties that other Arsenal youngsters have experienced with temporary transfers of late.
At the moment Dragomir is relishing playing regularly for Arsenal U23s and is certainly starting to establish himself as an important figure for Steve Gatting’s side.
With Arsenal having already secured their place in the knockout stages of the Europa League there is a possibility that Wenger could give further opportunities to youngsters in the last two group stage fixtures, especially with the home game against BATE Borisov coming in the midst of a hectic schedule.
If Dragomir continues to catch the eye at U23 level he could certainly play himself into contention to be involved in some capacity against BATE.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Thanks, Jorge! I really think the way forward for a club living within its means like us is to nurture talented youth. We cannot sustain competing with country-backed clubs to buy players. Hope the current crop makes the next step successfully!
I’m in favour of keeping these lads around the first team squad this season, we have a lot of games coming up thick and fast to blood them in: 2 Eurpoa League games and a league cup tie before Xmas, an FA cup tie first week of Jan, potentially a fourth round tie and a two leg semi in the league cup all in Jan. Add on the Europa round of 32 and fifth round of the cup in Feb, that’s potentially 10 games from the end of Nov to mid Feb for these guys to get some game time
Seeing this kid finally start performing to his promise, and seeing other youngsters like Eddie, Nelson, Niles, Willock progress, are we starting to reap the rewards of Andres Jonker?
Thumbs up if yes, thumbs down if no.
It’s a bit soon to call atm
Can we not have all this asking for thumbs stuff? I like to think this site is above all that.
Thumbs up for yes, down for no.
Thumbs down simply for having such a “poll”.
Proper hope this kid makes it, and only partly because he sounds like a Bond villain.
When/who was the last successful loan spell for an Arsenal player?
Has it really been that long?
Henry….
Jack
Jack at Bolton was a real success.
And at Bournemouth too
IMO Kelechi Nwakali at Maastricht last season.
Before that probably AM-N at Ipswich.
Mavididi at Charlton would probably have been, if he hadn’t got injured.
surely, it was szczesny. it turned out to be TOO successful.
He’s great on loan. Was brilliant as a youngster on loan for a year at brentford. If Buffon decides to go on for another year we should get him in on loan next season
I was thinking of kids rather than experienced 1st team players, but yes Szcesney and it would also have been Jack at the Cherries if he hadn’t got injured.
Other kids would have been Toral at Brum and Zelalem at Rangers.
He was a success at Bournemouth. Only got injured near the end of the season
He was a success for them but the injury changes that when you look at it from an AFC point of view.
Jon Toral was decent at Birmingham
Thanks for the article? Where do you see Vlad playing? In the Özil position?
Yes, that’s his best position, although he can also play out wide
Vlad Dragomir – he just has to make. We can’t waste such a brilliant name.
Adobe had a couple of decent loan spells at Huddersfield and Wolves.
Miyaichi did ok at Feyenoord. Shame it didn’t work out for him.
Specifically the graphics.
Miyaichi had a couple of season ending injuries sadly. I liked him alot
My fav academy player form a while, along with Wellington Silva.
I still check up on them every once in a while.
Yes he was impressive at Bolton (although very inconsistent).
JET had a good spell at Doncaster, but he was also very inconsistent. Unfortunately when he sorted the consistency, he managed to become consistently poor instead of dropping the poor points… 😮
He didn’t. He only came good once he left. Real shame, as I liked him a lot.
“only impressed in patches, often drifting in and out of games, performing the odd moment of magic but not having much of an impact overall.”
Perfect Ozil replacement then 😛
If he creates half as many chances and assists as Ozil has he would still be a great success.
What a Name!
Hope we don’t lose him to the new Lord if the Rings TV series.