Arsenal’s tour of the United States didn’t have the desired conclusion for Robbie Burton, with the midfielder missing the decisive spot-kick against Real Madrid.
The vast majority of the rest of the tour, however, was hugely positive for Burton, who, in the case of many observers, went from being a relative unknown to somebody who will be on the fringes of the first-team this season.
Burton, a Wales youth international, caught the eye with his stylish passing in the earlier games in the tour, and also worked diligently in training, impressing Unai Emery.
Last season Burton trained with the first-team occasionally, but this tour represented his first involvement in a match situation.
The youngster certainly wasn’t fazed by facing high-profile opponents and will now hope that he can be involved in the first-team in some capacity when the real action gets underway.
It seems likely that Burton, having impressed on tour, will come into consideration for Europa League and Carabao Cup fixtures, while there may even be a chance of him getting on the bench in the Premier League if several players are unavailable.
The majority of his football is likely to be played with the U23s, where he could be named captain and will be one of the most experienced members of the team.
It will certainly be intriguing to see whether Burton’s performances at U23 level, which haven’t always been consistent, will now improve as a consequence of his involvement with the first-team.
Burton’s aforementioned penalty miss may be a source of frustration to him for a while, but it shouldn’t take anything away from what has been a very positive pre-season for the prospect so far.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Arsenal please get me fucking strong and tactical defenders!!!!!…..I’m done with this shit!
If you’re done with it leave. Can’t take clowns like you anymore.
Fans like you are the reason why we are stucked…happy with mediocrity i guess
That’s such a boring and frankly mediocre reply!
You need to get a dictionary and look up what “mediocre” actually means.
Replacing the likes of Mustafi and Sokratis would be a big step forward. Trouble is, they’re both so “good” that nobody wants to buy them. Funny that.
When did everyone suddenly turn against Sokratis? He’s certainly good enough for us right now. Beyond Pool and City (who realistically aren’t our rivals) he’d be in with a shot of a starting position anywhere else in the league, especially with Alderweireld leaving.
I didn’t turn against him, did you?
He’s decent, but I don’t know that I’s say he’d start everywhere else in the PL. But as last night was witness too, he’s also card-prone. He was the second most yellow carded player in the league last year. A certain amount of aggression is OK. But if he’s out for a red or yellow accumulation, he does us no good. Or even if he has to play at half speed because he’s gotten a yellow 5 or 10 minutes in.
If there is a player that should be out of the Emirates is Mustafi, Jenkison, Iwobi and mikhy… We should dispose them as early as possible… A though Mustafi seems undisposable because no one is interested in his errors… He should be tried in midfield where pressure is limited.
But it is no secret we need a left-back and at least one proven center-back for next season…
Remember we shipped in more goals than the likes of Newcastle and wolves who had just been promoted…
We could also use some strong and tactical fans – and less of the football manager playing brigade.
Just for Carling Cup and Europa League?
Sorry but i see this lad is way better than Guendozi. His passing skills, defensive skills are very impressive. All credits to Ljungberg! I really hope Burton can play along with Ceballos instead of Guendozi or even Xhaka.
I still remember the match against Palace last year when Emery was forced to rotate the squad and start El Nanny and Guendozi in the middle. What a disgraceful perfomance by both players! If only Emery had guts to promote young players from the academy like what Pochettino does every year…
Jesus christ
I can’t understand why some people attack Guendouzi. He’s a 19 year old who did incredibly well playing in a huge number of games in his breakout season in top level football. Yes maybe towards the end of the season he didn’t come on and solve all of our midfield problems but people were suddenly expecting him to cover our entire defence whilst producing Ramsey like runs in to the box and Ozil like through balls, he’s not that player.
All that, plus in another country with another language.
I know this might sound batshit, but I’ll say it anyway cos that’s what I do… I have been wondering recently why we have so many bloody good promising forwards and attaching midfielders in our youth ranks and yet we are fucked for defenders. I have been asking myself where are the 19 year old defenders breaking into the first team? And it struck me today that it is because Freddie has been in charge of them and he is by default fashioning them into his own moud. And maybe having Bould there instead we might see in two or… Read more »
Ballard is a good defender, a year on loan and he’ll hopefully return and be part of the senior set up.
Harry Clarke is another good defender, Dom Thompson is coming along, Zach Medley also has promise.
I see a lot of quality from the academy in midfield and forward options but there’s yet a real defender to come through… I think we should improve our focus on defensive display right from academy so that we can produce quality in those areas…
Interesting thought. But did we get a lot of defenders when Bould was in charge of the youth team?
It is curious though, how few youth central defenders I can recall. Over the years we have had quite a decent group of prospects especially in the LB and RB positions. Gibbs, Cole, Justin and Gavi Hoyte comes to minde, though I don’t recall if they were all academy players or prospects brought in from elsewhere
It’s also still likely a follow on from wengers philosophy, it’ll take a few years to balance things out
Lol, Hoyte brothers. They were lucky to even get a sniff of the Arsenal first team. And don’t get me started on Djourou and Senderos either. We haven’t had a real quality defender break through from our academy since CASHLEY, which is a shame but this could be said of most top teams in the country. It is easier to give youth a chance to flourish as a forward, if not in midfield, where mistakes result in wasted opportunities but the risk associated with defense where a mistake results in an opposition goal is more damning and a direct result… Read more »
Great point about the difficulties of vetting/testing defenders. Of course many of those I mentioned were simply not good enough, I agree. But then again, the same could sadly be said about many of the forward prospects which got our hopes up at some point.
Didnt Isaac Hayden come up as a CB?
Now plays at Newcastle, mainly as a midfielder.
Then we had the spanish kid, Miquel, I think.
There was one more, but the name escapes me.
We let Pleguezuelo go. We are happy with Mustafi, so what?
Pleggie wasn’t better than Mustafi as hard as that might be to accept.
You’re right… Its all sort of batshit what you’re expressing
Xhaka’s penalty was the worst thing I’ve seen. Robbie should hold his head high
Xhaka is our worst player every year, one of our worst signings ever, Any youngster should be better on his position than xhaka, Thank you Wenger for xhaka which we also paid a 40m for him.
well that’s mildly hyperbolic.
I like how the prices of these players keep growing with the years (and the disappointment)
Exactly I can’t believe we paid £200m for Mustafi!!!!
Worst £1b we ever spent.
Hope Burton takes his chance like Willock did. For all the noise about players going abroad and making it, I think people have a confirmation bias. Chris Willock is still at Benfica B, Marcus Maguane plays mostly for Barcelona B that got relegated to the Spanish third tier. I can’t help but to think that they would have spots to grab in competition with other youngsters on the wings and in MF for Arsenal if they had stayed. So much luck is involved in how a player makes it to the top.
If there is something many Gunners will be looking for is seeing Willock introduced in the game against Newcastle…
We should stop trying to sign Zaha and let Saka, Gabriel battle for spot on the wings when we switch formations
LANWJ (Like a new Welsh Jesus)
Ceballos will be jealous.
Let’s just leave him to develop without all the hype and pressure. I remember once upon a time, Zelelem was the next big thing.
Are we no going to talk to that Pass to Nketiah or was that Xhaka.
I’d guess he’ll be putting in a lot of penalty taking practice.
He’s a good prospect who generally did very well on tour.
I hope he makes the step up to 1st team level in the future.
Not his fault by any means young lad.
More seasoned players who want the captains armband or want to ‘lead by example’ fluffed their own lines.
I prefer missing out on CL due to having a young squad than missing out due to “experienced”players bought didn’t have the lvl of quality our club requires. But then again, the only reason for not buying would be either poor scouting or insufficient funding, also Premier League being highly physically demanding requires patience with youngsters, we can hope for a few of them to confirm their talent, mature their performances, but not realistic to expect them to be part of the starting 11 regularly anno 19/20
Ah yes, Robbie Burton. The heir to Burton Snowboards Inc.
Plans to buy Arsenal outright when his inheritance comes through, with the clause that he starts in the nr. 10 role every single match.
Young lad stepping up – like it! COYG!