Although Arsenal have a rather large first-team squad, the option for clubs to name nine substitutes for Premier League matches means that it is possible that some youngsters could be involved at some stage.
One player who is pushing for involvement is Ryan Alebiosu, with the 19-year-old having progressed very well since he signed professional terms ahead of this season.
Alebiosu, a product of Arsenal’s Hale End academy, was previously mainly deployed as a winger but struggled in terms of his end product as he didn’t score many goals or create a lot of chances.
Over the past couple of seasons Alebiosu has mainly been deployed as a right-back and he has adapted very well, demonstrating that he is capable of making important defensive interventions.
In addition, he is now much taller and stronger and is becoming increasingly tactically aware. Alebiosu is also now starting to provide more of a threat in an attacking sense while taking care not to neglect his defensive duties. He has also demonstrated his versatility by filling in on the left side of the defence when needed.
Alebiosu has been training frequently with the first-team squad in recent weeks and will hope that he will be called upon at some stage.
This time last season he wasn’t even sure that he would be given an extended stay at the club, but now Alebiosu has taken his chance to excellent effect.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Hey Jeorge, just a tad curious – any South American in the academy who you think has the potential to prosper?
We had quite a few back in the AW days.
Luigi Gaspar is the only one, but he hasn’t played this season because of injury.
Marcelo Flores’ parents are from mexico, no? So I guess he counts, even though he was born in Canada or whatever 🙂
Both are North American countries I’m afraid
Tim Akinola once met Ricky Martin.
Mexico is in Central America
According to Google its in North America
No, it’s not
It is
Gaspar? sound fishy…
He is Edu’s son, but is apparently really quite talented. Let’s be fair, if he’s anywhere near as good as his dad he’ll be a handy player!
Jeorge actually did a piece about him a little while back:
https://arseblog.news/2020/07/luigi-gaspar-eager-to-impress-for-arsenal-u18s/
Sounds good – let’s hope he keeps progressing
Hey Jeorge, any chance we can start a Balogun fandom group? We need to keep the kids and if the fans can play a part that’d be great.
Balogunner4lyfe.com
In addition to the nine substitute bench rule, they should also allow a ten minute cameo to allow players who feel they may have a strain to allow the doctor to look at them for that extra ten minutes for assessment and allow an U23 player that 10 minutes.
After that ten minutes is up then they have the choice of
1. Letting original player back on
2. Keeping the U23 player on
3. Substituting the U23 player for another player.
This would give youth players a chance to play competitive minutes
And especially in Arsenal case where sometimes Mikel understanding the game state clearly helps us, as he did last season to great effect with his substitutes