Arsenal headed to the United States today for their pre-season tour, but, while much of the focus was on the absence of Laurent Koscielny, there was another notable player missing from the travelling party.
Despite being one of Arsenal’s most high-profile youngsters, Xavier Amaechi didn’t make the cut, even though players such as James Olayinka and Robbie Burton did instead.
Amaechi’s omission wasn’t much of a surprise given that he hasn’t trained with the first-team this week, but it will inevitably raise further questions about his Arsenal future.
This snub comes after the winger was also left out of the matchday squad for the Europa League final last season, despite making the trip to Azerbaijan.
Last season Amaechi featured for the first-team, in his only appearance at that level so far, as the Gunners took on Al-Nasr in Dubai.
However, he failed to make an impact as he frequently squandered possession.
At youth level Amaechi has frequently impressed. He was part of the Arsenal U23 side that won the Premier League 2 title in 2017/18 and he also caught the eye last season.
Amaechi frequently creates chances, yet he isn’t the most prolific player, as demonstrated by the fact that he has only scored four times in 22 appearances for the U23s.
In terms of raw talent Amaechi is undoubtedly one of Arsenal’s best prospects, but he still has much to improve upon if he is to succeed at the highest level.
There have been suggestions that the 18-year-old may now look to move on and if that does prove to be the case then it will certainly be a shame for Arsenal to lose another prospect so soon after the departure of Yunus Musah.
With so many talented youngsters at the club, though, there are bound to be some that will get frustrated regarding their lack of playing time and it appears Amaechi could fall into that category.
Against Boreham Wood last weekend, when playing for the U23s, Amaechi gave the impression that he didn’t really want to be there as he often tried uneccessary step-overs.
Today he suffered further disappointment but it remains to be seen what the future holds for him at Arsenal.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
The grass is not always greener on the other side. Just look at what happened to Chris Willock. He is not yet at the level gnabry was. Go on loan if you want first team experience…
Where is Chris Willock anyways? He still in Portugal?
True, haven’t heard anything about Chris’ development over there.
Wasn’t he supposed to be the best of the Willock brothers?
The one thing I will say about young academy players after working with them personally (not Arsenal youth) but at other Premier League clubs. Is that they all have a fairly robust opinion about how good they think they are. Obviously every single one of them thinks they are good enough and ready to play for the first team immediately. And as important as it is for them to have that belief, it can also be a bit detrimental at the same time. Since their own personal opinion might not always be reality.. Now not to knock this player, but… Read more »
He’s been a regular for benfica B in the Portuguese second division. I still retain high hopes for him though.
Shows that not every youngster is gonna end up in Bayern. So let him go, especially if John’s comment regarding Boreham Wood game is true, then he of course he shouldn’t be considered for pre season. Dude is only 18 and already thinks he is obligated to something, ridiculous.
It’s not a thing of him not wanting to be there, for the youngster, the stopovers May be in all likelihood an attempt to catch the eye and force himself into contention for a place on the tour
Frankly, we need to be doing more to keep these players. A development plan should be in place. A clear pathway to the first team, the player should know what he needs to do. Ameachi should have loan to European team in place, preferably one with similar footballing philosophies to Arsenal.
Why we have lost a particularly young talent like Yunus Musah, I do not understand at all.
Of course there needs to be a plan/vision of some kind and I’m pretty sure BFG tried to convince him of that. But when other clubs turn your head it’s difficult. It sounds like he isn’t focused on Arsenal and/or not willing to put the effort in.
I however trust Per to improve our acadamy system.
When is Amaechi’s contract up? They should probably insert a buy-back clause if they feel it’s best to let him go somewhere on a permanent deal
People are only looking at the negatives but the fact that we’re now developing academy players who are courted by some of Europe’s biggest clubs is a sign of the good work that’s been done there.
Amaechi is a prospect. Not as high as Nelson or war. Where would you loan him to that would actually want him and play him? How do you get a loan club to play a young player?
He is talented prospect if we loan him to a lower foreign league club? Would he even want to go to?
Gnabry mk2
Or Chris Willock Mk2.
There’s Emirates Ball&Spa for you. Taking care for your own is one thing, cocooning them is another. He can try it out at Britania for a change.
Not good enough. Probably Nelson will get the nod into first team. Saka also pushing. Then there’s Nektiah and we just added Martinelli. Very competitive space. Regardless we will still need a more experience player out wide to add this season and balance off Iwobi. Plenty of options in market so we have to be patient and await the apex buyers to spend their wad. Thereafter – Ziyech, Fekir, Zaha, Mariano, Vasquez, Lozano, Neres, Everton, Thauvin, Carrasco. Price will cool down but we need to hold our nerve and not get crazy on Zaha or buy an over rated Malcolm… Read more »
“In terms of raw talent Amaechi is undoubtedly one of Arsenal’s best prospects”
Jeorge, you tend to write as though literally every one of our youth players is an amazing prospect. I enjoy your coverage, but your overly optimistic slant makes it hard to evaluate who might realistically make the step-up to the senior team.
I was also disappointed at the lack of the “while Amaechi usually plays as a x, he is comfortable at y and has even been used at z” paragraph that we’ve come to love
Yup that’s how you motivate..
…
I guess its quite good to teach these young lads that everything (especially in football) doesn’t come served on a silver plate and just because you do good games in u-23 doesn’t mean you got what it takes on a higher level. They need to grow mentally and sometimes you can find out who’s up for the job by doing this kind of treatment.
he might be very talented, but Nketiah has been putting up unreal numbers in the u23, Smith-Rowe matched Amaechi’s goal tally in the Europa League, and Nelson was a first team player for a club in the Champions League. If he thinks has deserves to be on the same level as the others, he is deluded somewhat
Never understand why people get so angry about young players leaving……who the vast majority of posters have never even seen play. For every Gnabry that proves the club messed up letting him go there are dozens who didn’t prove them wrong. It is a tiny minority of youth players at big clubs who make it at the top level….and for 99% the main reason is they just weren’t quite good enough. That’s top level sport.
Right, and the market for the good enough ones is ultra-competitive now. Barca just signed 16 yr old English prodigy Louie Barry from West Bromwich Albion, City signed his 16 yr old teammate Marvin Rodger, and Liverpool poached 16 yr old Harvey Elliot who’s the jewel of Fulham’s academy.
At Arsenal we like to think everything is down to bad strategy or internal problems, when what’s happening is the major clubs are fully in the academy space turning player’s heads left right and center.
Well said, it makes me angry at how many “fans” are prepared to believe only negative stuff about the club.
TBH, we’re quite well adept at doing that ourselves; it’s usually how we court other club’s academy prospects too.
Is the report in the Guardian about Kos boycotting US tour true?
Yes
He looked like he wasn’t taking it seriously and didn’t want to be here so why would he get taken on tour? Unless it was to try to drive up his price. But do we even have him on a long-term pro contract anyway?
12 months left on it
Sounds like he’s got a bit of an attitude problem
Possibly and that’s the last thing we need right now.
As the evolution to my name shows, and my past posts are concerned, it’s pretty clear I’m pro-youth and been pretty critical of our club’s handling of youth players in recent years and last season. However, I don’t think I can do that here. Amaechi hasn’t shown enough yet to get the call up. Worse yet, Arsenal seemingly specialises in attacking midfielders and we now have a bunch of them all roughly around the same age. Nelson, Smith-Rowe, Saka, Amaechi, etc. Just no way all of them will get the development time. But attitude is a big thing, and by… Read more »
Ultimately it’s a good sign that big clubs are interested in so many of our academy players, it’s a sign that it’s doing well. Think of all the talented youngsters we’ve poached from other clubs, especially La Masia. It’s just part of the game, swings and roundabouts. However that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to keep hold of our biggest talents as best we can. It’s surely a bit unnecessary NOT to bring him on a pre season tour if that has any influence on his decision to stay at all. It wouldn’t hurt us at all to bring him… Read more »