It’s the third youth/Academy departure of the day to report on as the club have confirmed Mark McGuinness has joined Cardiff City in a permanent deal.
The Republic of Ireland U21 defender spent last season on loan at Ipswich Town, making 26 appearances for the League One side.
He’s been with the club for 10 years, and via his Instagram account sent a message, saying:
“What a 10 years it’s been at Arsenal!
“I would like to thank everyone involved at the club, players, staff and the supporters.
“I wish everyone the best of luck i the future, and I’ll always be looking out for the Gunners❤️”
Speaking to the Cardiff City site, he said, “As soon as a Club like Cardiff City were interested I was excited and I couldn’t miss this opportunity.
“It’s nice to get everything sorted early on and hopefully I can meet the boys and get going.
“My job is to stop the ball going into the back of the net. I love heading and I love defending.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to learn and improve in the next few years at the club.”
Best of luck to Mark McGuinness, and who knows, perhaps our paths will cross at some pint in the future.
Ok the sentence on the offer of Cardiff and taking that opportunity makes the move more sensible. He wanted clearity on his future and his development and not the whole, going out on loand, beeing at a place for the development for the “motherclub” and so on. It is understandable and I don’t think the club kicked him out the door or something like that. With the amount of young CBs (maybe even including White) it is so unrealistic to get to the first team in a reasonable fashion and would take years of loaning and uncertainty with it. Would… Read more »
I don’t mean Stoke, but stock in the last sentence. Though I wish we could sell CBs at a higher price, like they are talking about that one Stoke guy.
Has blogs recently become a father? Because he just dropped the daddy of all daddy jokes on the final sentence.
Bravo sir. Bravo.
Making teenager eyes roll since, well, forever.
Good luck at Cardiff, Mark.
“At some pint in the future”
Freudian slip from Blogs there
A reference to Guinness
And what a header we saw from him last summer during the friendlies!
Best of luck, Mark.
I’m sure he will have a stout future
Always thought he a was a bit too stout to make it as a top-class CB. I’ll get me coat.
He has the hops to beat the best of them in the air. Have a great future!
Beer.
Was he out of contract? If not, did we get a fee or sell on clause? Liked the look of him last preseason.
Have Arsenal’s academy produced a centre back who has gone one to make league appearances for the club since Tony Adams in 1983? I can’t think of a single one in those 38 years. Amazing.
Matthew upson?
Ignore that, apparently we bought him for £2m from Luton. The game continues…
Djourou was in our youth team and played over 100 first team games for us, grated he never reached the levels many expected though.
It is an oddity that so few have made it at Arsenal given there have been a fair few academy defenders who have carved out decent Premier League careers elsewhere (Kyle Bartley and Semi Ajayi most recently spring to mind)
Pre prem..Chrissy white and of course the legend that is Gus ceasar
Beautifully done haha –
Best of luck to Mark McGuinness, and who knows, perhaps our paths will cross at some pint in the future.