Arsenal have confirmed that youngsters Alex Kirk and Kido Taylor-Hart have joined Bromley on season-long loans.
The National League side, managed by Andy Woodman who was head of goalkeeping at Arsenal for three years until March 2021, have previously taken Tom Smith for a season.
Both players have been sent out on loan in the past with Taylor-Hart spending time with Derby’s under-21s and Kirk playing 24 times for Ayr United.
Any day now, we’re also expecting the club to confirm Tim Akinola’s departure. The midfielder, who was signed as a free agent three years ago after being released by Huddersfield, is heading to Qatar.
All Nigeria Soccer reports he’s opted to sign for Al Bidda SC who play their football in the country’s second tier. In the last couple of years, the 22-year-old has gained experience playing for Dundee United and Chesterfield.
Our resident Arsenal youth expert Jeorge Bird says Miguel Azeez and Ryan Alebiosu are also earmarked for permanent departures.
So far this summer’s academy loan tally stands at 15.
Arsenal Academy loanees | Summer 2023
| Catalin Cirjan | A | Rapid Bucharest |
| Mauro Bandeira | A | Colchester United |
| Billy Vigar | A | Eastbourne Borough |
| Hubert Graczyk* | A | Slough Town |
| Mika Biereth | A | Motherwell |
| Charlie Patino | A | Swansea City |
| Brooke Norton-Cuffy | A | Millwall |
| Tyreece John-Jules | A | Derby County |
| Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand | A | Den Bosch |
| Nathan Butler-Oyedji | A | Cheltenham Town |
| Henry Jeffcot | A | Derby County (U-21s) |
| Brian Okonkwo | A | Leatherhead |
| Omar Rekik | A | Wigan Athletic |
| Kido Taylor-Hart | A | Bromley |
| Alex Kirk | A | Bromley |
At this point, I guess it looks like only Charlie and BNC (and potentially Mika) who are the potential players for the first team going forward, or what do you think? So much hope in some of the others over the years (Azeez, John-Jules, Kido, etc), but it never really materialized.
Reuell Walters? Ethan Nwaneri?
I think we’re referring to the players on loan not the ones at Colney.
Fine then! 🙂 I think if we have on average one academy player coming through every year and making it to the big leagues you’d have to say that’s a success, especially considering they’re now competing for places with a bunch of 100m players (not just Rice but many of our first choice players I think would fetch that if we were to sell them). Last year that was Balogun, who unfortunately didn’t stay but fetched a decent sum. The 3 years before it was Eddie, Nelson and Saka (hopefully ESR too). So if even just one more makes a… Read more »
Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely think our academy is a success and I love that we’re bringing them on to the first team. I was just reflecting on this particular set of players having followed them from their early years and all the excitement people had about their talent. It’s absolutely normal that all of these will make it to the very top. I was just trying to assess who might still be.
It’ll be interesting to see how Charlie does this season, I was fed up that Mika was injured in that horror tackle he’s a very talented young striker and I’d like to see him given a chance. Scottish football is horrible.
Wasn’t aware that Mika had been injured, that’s a massive shame after his recent goals. Just had a watch of that tackle – agree it’s horrendous from the pov of Mika and his development but think the lad that made the challenge did genuinely slip, even if he went in a bit wildly. Football generally can be horrible sometimes, hope Mika recovers asap and is back to scoring as I’d love to see more of what he can do this season!