Good Afternoon Fellow Positives,
If you like your action end to end and of about 96 minutes duration you will have enjoyed that game as much as did. It is good to squirm on the edge of my seat, in a nice way, until Mr Marriner thankfully put an even contest beyond doubt.
Of our brave lads it is a while since he has earned the accolade, or deserved the award to be honest, but Danny was on top form today and his three key interventions ensured we took the thee points. His downward clip to PEA for the opener was exquisite, a fortnight ago Danny would not have managed it. It has been a slow process returning from injury to recover that extra half yard of pace and split second of mental sharpness. Trying to find game time in such a talented squad must be frustrating, but today the Mancunian was very, very good.
Of our other lads Xhaka and Mo worked well in midfield, tidy and combative. Cech chipped in with a couple of decisive 2nd half saves, and Hector and Reiss Nelson worked well together to stymie Tadic and Bertrand. I would have liked to see Reiss be a bit braver in taking open the opposition with the ball at his feet but a good hour nevertheless. Rob Holding came off the bench and contributed a useful 20 minutes at a time we were wobbling. The young defender is not averse to hoofing the ball hard and a long way – Shkodran please note.
For the Saints I thought James Ward-Prowse and Holberg stood out. If their current employers do suffer relegation I cannot see either of them will be playing Championship football next season. If Saints had managed to get a point this afternoon it would have been deserved – but keep that quiet – strictly between us.
High jinks at the end. I thought Stephens unlucky to get a straight red. No idea what Mo’s card was for, according to the commentator “raising his hands” (?)
The bigger picture is of course that apart from an enjoyable run out against the Saints we rested a few key players, and set out for Moscow with a run of 6 straight wins which does no-one’s confidence any harm. Life is too long to say anything definitely; always say perhaps.
Enjoy your Sunday.
Positively Arsenal 
Now this is funny. Poll’s take
‘A routine game turned sour when Marriner allowed a confrontation — caused by Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere — to develop, which led to Jack Stephens’ understandable frustration after having his shirt ripped apart.
Stephens clearly went too far in his attack on the Arsenal man but it seemed wholly unfair to dismiss the Southampton player, with his shirt in tatters, and allow Wilshere to escape with just a yellow card
His push on Cedric Soares appeared fairly innocuous but, under advice from his assistant, Marriner dismissed the Arsenal midfielder’
Mewling-‘wholly unfair’- about the Stephens sending off, and wanting Jack off,too, even though no red offence, if Stephens had to go.
Afterthought Elneny? ‘What about Elneny? Oh… he saw red,too.’ Well, ‘innocuous’, and not worthy of actually commenting on whether innocuous means right, wrong, ridiculous, or anything else. Who cares?
The Stephens one, the unfair one, is the one that deserves the scrutiny, the emotion and feeling rather, or something.
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mandy we actually hired a goalie coach last summer Sal Bibbo, from Nike Academy, he was formerly Reading FC’s keeper coach. We have over the last couple of years signed a few staff from Reading FC.
some reports said we also signed up another goalie coach Andy Woodman too, but not sure if we did not not.
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yeah Rich, Poll blames Marriner for sending off Stephens, “should have stopped it before it happened”, of course he implies that he could have stopped it by booking Jack.
It is laughable that he implies that despite jack not committing a sending off offence, that Marriner should have sent him off along with Stephens, just to be fair like.
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Abdullah Raja
@rabdullahkhan
5h5 hours ago
In the Premier League 2017/18:
Alex Iwobi: 20 appearances
2 goals
5 assists
(What a flop)
Alex Chamberlain: 33 appearances
3 goals
5 assists
(He has significantly improved under Klopp)
So I guess Iwobi only needs one more goal in 13 appearances to significantly improve
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In all this “ox transformed by Klopp” thing I can’t fathom why we don’t hear about how Klopp has transformed Dominic Solanke, the 20 year old striker he signed from Chelsea last summer, after all its 0 goals in his 23 games for Liverpool so far.
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Yes Eduardo, heard we have now recruited further in the gk coach dept, still think it strange Jens apparently has no input, but who knows.
As for the elneny red card, worth remembering who the fourth official was, none other than Mr Dean. Ok he raised his hands, but that was soft, don’t think Messrs Kane or Dele would have gone for that. A cursory glance at deans record of officiating Arsenal games says quite a bit, and we don’t tend to do well under this referee, who was once banned for fronting a gambling firm, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/feb/27/newsstory.sport4
A ref who reportedly changed his stated allegiance from a merseyside giant to tranmere, and who once, over a period of time gave is an unfeasibly , impossibly low win rate then dancing Dean seemed to take a liking to the spuds. Then there was west brom this season.
Wish he would just retire, but remember wishing that of Manc Riley, and look what he became
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When Lehmann was hired, Wenger said Lehmann is coaching GKs and assisting Bould on defensive coaching. Why would we think Jens has no input on keepers? And yes, we’ve also hired Sal Bibbo as GK coach.
I don’t believe Szczesny’s offense would have been limited to complaining about the coaching. Would Wenger begrudge any player wanting to get better? He wants them to think for themselves and figure out solutions to problems. If this takes them towards questioning the coaching this is surely not unexpected nor undesirable, nor will it be unprecedented I’m sure.
Szczesny by his own account needed to grow up and going to Italy helped him do that. I don’t know why we have to interpret every statement as a ‘dig’ on someone. Sure, maybe all was not well with Gerry Peyton. The hirings would indicate that there was room for improvement. Just like with the injury side of things, or the contracts and scouting stuff. Doesn’t mean that Peyton (or Colbert or Law or Rowley) is incompetent.
Also on Szczesny. He’s going to be a great GK. No one is going to displace Buffon at Juventus while he’s still playing. Regardless of him being in decline or the backup being better now. He’ll probably retire this season and Szczesny will be the No1. Basically that would have been his gig at Arsenal too if we hadn’t decided to sell him. Be backup to Cech and eventually replacing him (probably would have done it this year)
If indeed the cause of his exile and banishment was criticising coaching, I think Wenger is wrong. But it has to be more than that surely.
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The criticism of Wenger has gone from ‘only buys kids’ and ‘can’t handle egos’ to now ‘can’t develop kids’ and ‘panders to egos’.
Solanke must just be shit because Wenger never held him back.
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Öle Gunner
@OleGunner
The refs are bent or very useless.
Regarding one particular individual who should not be allowed within a mile radius of any sporting contest, or even upon an online poker game: that is considerate and generous assessment. Commendable.
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< regarding one particular Actor…
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http://www.goal.com/en/news/1862/premier-league/2016/11/30/30035972/i-introduced-yoga-to-arsenal-reveals-jens-lehmann
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shard the szczesny thing was two separate incidents, in fact two different seasons.
on jens coaching the keepers, he stated recently that he does very little goalkeeping coaching, in fact most of what he does with them is done as part of overall defensive training. Jens from the moment he went into coaching said he was not looking to be a goalkeeper coach, but a coach, all aspects of coaching a team.
on gerry payton and tony colbert, there are some reports that with the new arrivals both these guys roles have changed, Payton is now said to be in charge of the goalkeeping coaches, and doing much less hands on coaching with the keepers himself. Also Colbert’s role changed so that he still does his end of the fitness work, but he is also in charge of other fitness guys at the club that do same fitness work as him. Both guys do more admin, along side their previous work, but with that work role slightly altered. No point bringing in fitness experts if they are not allowed do their stuff, and anyone who thinks afc are hiring guys and not allowing them to do their job are frankly idiots, or agenda driven.
over a year ago Arsenal hired Takahiro Yamamoto who is a Soft tissue therapist, he had worked for AS Roma, Parma and Fiorentina, Bolton, West Ham and England, the latter 3 was as part of Fat Sam’s backroom team.
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Apparently some angle of Elneny incident shows his hand did touch player’s face.
Still soft as hell- presumably it was top of chest/neck/brushed face- but that will totally rule out any appeal being successful. Will surely mean we don’t even make one. Should’ve just got him in headlock!
Shame as should we make it to Europa semis we can’t really take any risks with Ramsey or even Xhaka.
Guess an opportunity may open up for Maitland-Niles; other than him only option is Willock.
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Danny Welbeck
I have said many times that I really like Welbz, but he is an bought in the times of austerity. As such I have said that the team needs to move on from him. Well I have made an adjustment.
If Welbz is prepared to be the third striker, or the third wide forward , I am happy for him to stay as he would make a great squad player.
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That’s very decent of you WWWB
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pedantic George @arseblagger
It might come over like that
But it is just my opinion of the squad
I am not trying to sell as gospel
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I’m happy for you to carry on accepting Danny, for a minor role .
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Doesn’t matter what we think Datguywelbz will be playing alongside Iwobi covering the absent Miki between now and the end of the season.
And Wilshere will get a few extra minutes after Elneny’s sending off too, he needs ’em too haha!
Imagine Welbeck an athlete who’s had traumatic injuries (for a pro) these past two years going on to score the inning goal in the Europa Cup final?
It’s the stuff dreams are made of. In his career to date, with most starts coming from LW he’s already surpassed the modern day British Greats like “as good as Messi” Kane or “ian Wright is mates with my agent” Alli as he has actually won some baubles and scored goals in latter rounds of big competitions and for his country in tournament football. The kind of thing one would hope for from an English forward unless you are a PR expert like Greg Dyke L.O.L.
How many other modern English footballers have that above record alongside League titles, European Cups (I think, could be wrong) and FA cup winning medals?
Not that many! If DW can regain consistency in his technique, add some classical finishing alongside his trademark Welbecking of a ball into a goal, which require some better luck over the next two years with injuries he could still be a modern day English Great, as he’s already been one of the better players from the last decade (for clubs and country).
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The love for Welbz is understandable and it is warrented, but the fact still remain that Danny is not the level of a first choice stiker for Arsenal, if you really want Arsenal to challenge for the biggest prizes.
We can all see the difference between the levels of DW and Lacazette and Auba,no body on this site is really going to argue that Danny is at either of those two players level.
Now Danny has a significant role to play at least till the end of the season, he might not want to play third striker to Laca adn Auba, next season or for the best part of his career.
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pedantic George @arseblagger
Third choice striker/forward for Arsenal Football Club is not ,never has been and never will be a minor role.
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That reminds me – Arsenal have the best record (shared with Bournemouth) of getting back into PL games this season and earning 18 points into the bargain.
#resillience
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Andy, sadly we also have the worst record of dropping points from winning positions.
Lies and damn lies.
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I was lucky enough to watch the whole game on the TV yesterday afternoon (a rare occasion this season for a whole variety of reasons) and thought it an altogether strange affair. In parts we played well enough, at other times we looked decidedly average. It must be a long time now since we last played end-of-season games where the result really didn’t matter that much, and it was an odd feeling watching it unfold. It certainly can’t be easy for the players constantly having to change formation and personnel, and what a bizarre situation to end up with your number one striker only being able to play in what now seems to amount to the B team matches. It must frustrate the living daylights out of him and his manager. The signs are there however that come next season an offensive unit of Aubameyang, Lacazette, Ozil, Mkhitaryan and Ramsey might well be worth going to watch.
Some would argue that a strong Defence needs to be organised primarily by the goal-keeper and it does seem to me now that a keeper happy to play a sweeper-type role would be a useful addition and have a significant effect on the side as a whole. Our current keeper makes excellent saves, but there were one or two moments yesterday when I expected him to come and claim and he didn’t. To be fair it may well have looked different in the flesh.
There are not many 18 year olds with the physicality to shine at First Team level and so it proved with Nelson: he did well enough but it was a shame that the first challenge he received effectively ended his afternoon as a decisive attacking threat. Yes, it could have been a Red, let alone a Yellow but there will be plenty more defenders queuing up to make a similar mark on him. What I think it did show was that a few flashy performances in pre-season and for the Youth Teams are no real indicator of readiness for the Premier League – and perhaps also puts into perspective the achievement of Iwobi who so quickly established himself as a genuine first-teamer. He had an excellent game yesterday, and when he learns to finish better will be quite the player – and let’s hope that Nelson isn’t too scarred by the experience and gets a couple more chances this season.
There is a lot of Danny Welbeck for Danny Welbeck to get organised and I hope he will find it within himself to forgive me for my frustrated “FFS Giroud” when he contrived to spurn (no, that’s the wrong word – make a right proper Horlicks is better) of that guilt-edged Wilshere assist. But how somehow typical of him to thunder in the winner and also well done him on being such a brilliant trier who never stops running. There would have been moments over the last two years when he must have wondered if he would ever play again, and to see him back and regaining his sharpness is fantastic. When fit he is a bit more than just a squad player and although I cannot know this I suspect he is a popular member of the dressing room.
I read that a few people felt that Wilshere did not have a good game on Thursday, but then again unless we absolutely know what the manager had asked him to do it is perhaps unfair to judge. By and large, the TV cameras follow the ball, so any player who is doing his job brilliantly by filling in certain channels or tracking particular players may have their best work ignored. Certainly yesterday he looked as if he still had Thursday’s exertions in his legs, and bearing in mind the recent injury that prevented him from joining his national squad he probably deserves a little latitude. With Mkhitaryan and Elneny unavailable for a while he still has a big part to play this season.
Sorry for the ramble but it’s been a while since I’ve been able to give the team anything like proper attention, and what I saw yesterday convinced me that we are in the middle of a very serious and major rebuild that promises much. All of the pieces are not in place yet but I reckon we are on the way to another fine side – and one which could yet win the Champions League in 2019.
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Feel free to ramble Tim
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Sunday 15 April
13:30 Newcastle United v Arsenal
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn
Fourth official: Kevin Friend
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Taylor loop north. Recipe for chaos
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Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor – toplads – disgraceful neither are going to Russia
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To be fair I don’t think Howard Webb did then any favours.
Clearly not all football fans are impressed with “game management”, from the officials certainly not in the biggest football match to come about every four years. There it was.
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< fans or administrators
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The UK government have ruled out “Safe Standing” at BPL stadiums. WBA had applied to have just over 2000 safe standing places next season, but the Government said that there will be no change to the all seater stadium rules.
but its all Ivan’s fault, or so our malcontents would have us believe.
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When was the last time AFTV, the representatives of the fans, make a serious PR campaign (what with them being Experts in PR…) for safe standing in order to, you know, provide affordable tickets (& ambiance) for the u25s?
Oh. They only bang on about AFC’s need to spend more wonga…I see.
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Arsenal winger Eyoma assists and almost scores own goal against Tottenham U23s during Derby trial
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Arsenal winger Aaron Eyoma has headed out on trial again as he looks to find a new club, with Derby County his destination on this occasion.
Eyoma, who can also play at right-back or up front, previously spent time on trial with Queens Park Rangers, but, after that move failed to work out, he was subsequently approached by Derby, whose U23 side play in the top tier of Premier League 2.
The 20-year-old completed 85 minutes as Derby lost 4-2 away to Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend, with Eyoma facing his brother TJ, who is on the books of Arsenal’s north London rivals.
It was an eventful game for Eyoma as he hit his own post in the first half when Joe Pritchard’s effort deflected off him before the Hale End product proceeded to set up a goal for Cameron Cresswell.
Eyoma continued to impress as he delivered some dangerous crosses, and he will hope that he has done enough to earn a deal at Derby. Coincidentally, Eyoma’s most recent appearance for Arsenal U23s also came against Tottenham, in a defeat last month.
It is anticipated that Eyoma, along with Chiori Johnson, who is on trial at Bolton Wanderers, will be released by Arsenal this summer.
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Ed, and anyone else, what’s your guess for that u23 semi tomorrow?
On recent history, think they might hold back most or all of Nelson, Willock, Nketiah and Mavropanos, either if any chance of playing Thurs or on weekend or even if needed for training numbers.
I’m hoping not, or at least compromise of 2-3 playing, as they are needed to have a shout.
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hard to know rich what they will do, cant see Nelson used, maybe Nketiah will get a start.
Arsenal have a second U23 game this week, which is crucial in our quest to win the title. To compound matters the U18’s have semi final second leg next monday.
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So much frustrated to see wilshere. he has been so bad in the last couple of weeks. He is so slow that the opponent player always intercept him .He cannot get past the opponent and lose procession. I don’t see him coming good. Would have kept Ox at Arsenal and shipped jW instead.
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When we were Boring….about Tanguy Ndombele,
a really interesting prospect with a unique style of play…like a CM-Bolasie.
Fits ye old AW’s pocket stringent but needs to prove consistency over another season @ the top level, methinks. I’d be a bit skeptical because I feel AW does not have much room for experimentation at this point.
So I’d still go with either of Fabinho, Ndidi or Rabiot. If all are overpriced/unavailable, then I’d consider Ndombele along with the likes of Nzonzi, Romeu and even Daley Blind who’s been much maligned by the Special Turd. But really, a more defensive DM is what I feel we need more as we have enough lateral/attack-type CMs in Xhaka, Rambo, AMN & Elneny.
AW knows
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eduardo
Is that all there was to Szczesny’s exit? I would be very surprised but of course if you have info I am not doubting you are sharing it in good faith. Szczesny still cares about Arsenal. Maybe in 3-4 years we can lure him back. He’ll still have some of his best years left.
On Jens. Yes he’s been clear from the start (even before he joined Arsenal) that he sees himself becoming a manager, rather than just a GK coach. And I understood that his role at Arsenal would be more around GKs and defensive organisation from how Wenger described it. Still, I don’t think Jens is the kind of guy who would be afraid of stepping on someone’s toes if he felt he could give some advice or coaching to one of our GKs. He does work with them anyway.
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I agree with you Aman.This Tanguy fellow looks good, but then it’s a highlights package. He might be worth a go as a Jack Wilshere replacement maybe. Someone who can dribble through the opposition and pick out a pass. (Max Meyer is apparently a target for that sort of role)
But I think experience is key to the defensive side of things. For that reason I hope the DM (for lack of a better description) we sign is slightly older and more used to taking up defensive responsibility. I really like Fabinho, but apparently he’s a PSG target now. Nzonzi would do nicely, despite being almost 30. He’s got the experience, including in England. He’s got size and skills. And he would help, rather than block the path of, someone like AMN.
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We don’t normally play with a defensive midfielder we use an ball playing intercepter like Arteta
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Aman
Ndombele is different to all the central midfielders the team has right now .
He is a dribbler, tackler, intecepter who is really strong and tactically disciplined.He has range running power and speed.
All the things the current midfield lacks.
If Arsenal really want the player, leaving it a season would be a mistake, he will cost well above £70 million next year.
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Rosicky
For a long time now (since he bulked up after first injury or two) it’s felt like he needs more and more help to be at his best and for any weaknesses to be covered.
There’s precedent for midfielders getting that help and thriving. Pirlo being best example. Get others in to do the running, tackling, sprinting. Ensure it’s a rare thing Pirlo is caught out as the man needed to do those things at critical moments.
Think England stumbled upon something resembling that when Wilshere played with Henderson and Delph, and did very well.
Perhaps not coincidentally, in his imperious youth career with us he was backed up by the phenomenally tough-tackling pairing of Frimpong and Coquelin, with the giant Emmanuel-Thomas also roaming the pitch dominating physically.
Simple question is whether he could make case for us to do something similar, only now with Jack having lost something in his ability to get away from players with pure skill?
Since at least Ozil’s arrival that has looked doubtful. If we’re to build a team to give anyone a platform to be at their best and cover what they don’t do, it has to be around Ozil. And Jack isn’t second in that contest. Ramsey is. If we want to reap the immense benefits of Ramsey having a ton of freedom to get into box, we need to limit potential of that hurting us defensively.
The reported contract offer seems fair and reasonable, though it is asking a player to do a rare thing: take less money than you could get elsewhere for what could be your last big contract, or at least what is likely to be the biggest contract before the end of career.
Moreover, it’s asking a player to face up to himself very directly, almost going against the mostly healthy imperative to back yourself and your ability. This quite likely in the context of all the key people around him telling him it isn’t a fair offer.
Seems very likely he will leave. Also likely is that it is playing on his mind a lot now and in a way that could impact on performances.
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shard the szczesny thing with wanting a different coach, is not what led to him leaving, it happened over a year before the incident after the southampton game which seen him dropped from the first team, then loaned out two years in a row, and sold last summer, and all he was meant to have done was smoke in the shower area, although some say he had a bit too much to say too that night. But I have no idea of the ins and outs of it all.
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rich, that youth team’s big game midfielder was Henri lansbury, we really had a hell of a youth team them couple of years. Ramsey was eligible for it but as he was in and around the first team we never used him.
the big disappointment of that team was Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, he was captain, the real leader of the team, played in every position on the pitch over that two year period. Arsenal wanted him to settle down to a CB role, or if not that then DM/CM but the lad just did not want that, he seen himself as a striker or forward, Wenger tried several times to convince him to take the defensive position on, but he wanted to score goals. Even then AFC did not give up on him and for the reserves he was played as a forward and has a youtube reel of wonder goals that any striker would be proud of. Despite the lad being a massive unit for a kid, and looking like a muscle man, Wenger told him he needed major work on his strength and conditioning if he was to step up to first team level, even threw him in to a FAC game v Stoke, where the poor lad found it very tough. But despite Wenger telling him that the Stoke game showed him the work he needed to do, the lad did not listen. Things went a bit astray with him off the field too, big wages, hanger ons, and little bits of trouble, like the driving a £100K car without him having a driving license. This bit of going off the rails was sad considering that Steve Bould was on record as saying JET was the most dedicated lad he ever had in the youth team, a lad who also always put the team first. He even said that many times he had given JET the U18 game off, for a rest, but the lad would turn up and beg to be a sub “in case the team needs me”, and on a few occasions he came on to salvage or win the game. He had some loans, but was impatient for his first team chance and left. He has been very inconsistent at all his clubs so far, some wonder goals, but just not enough goals or good performance. He tends to have a run of six or seven great games, but then drops a level and loses his place. Its such a pity to see such a talented guy not fulfill his potential.
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Ed
I got lucky and managed to watch 5 or so games of that youth team at end of year on tv. Must’ve been Arsenal tv channel or something, think it came free with Setanta?
Saw semis and final of youth cup and also what was effectively final of league, against Spurs team, with Mason, Caulker and Townsend.
Won them all in impressive style. Really enjoyed watching them. Particularly enjoyed fact that if anyone wanted to make it about fight we were more than a match and by the end they were always subdued.
Coquelin and Frimpong both put in monstrous challenges in centre of park and made it a sort of no-go zone. Emmanuel-Thomas was ridiculously strong, and skilful too. Two tough centre backs. We won the fight if they wanted it, and had skills to then go win game. Memory has all but gone of Wilshere’s role but I’m pretty sure he was sensational in those games and could only be stopped with fouls.
They had a striker, not Watt or Sunu, who seemed great finisher but was bedevilled by injury and was in league 2 last I knew of him.
Not sure I got to see Lansbury in those games so maybe he missed with injury.
Ended up learning a bit of a lesson with youth team hopes as I was particularly impressed with Ayling at centre back and had him in mind as someone who could make it. Only for him to apparently turn down contract soon after and try his luck at Yeovil. Has made decent career and think he’s well regarded by Leeds’ fans.
Seen some highlights of JET’s career but few times I’ve watched him live he has struggled badly physically. Had no idea if that was just his physical makeup or if he isn’t living athlete’s life. Interesting to hear that info from you about him.
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That was an all action youth team
It had JET, Frimmers, the Real Tom Cruise.
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Real shame about JET he is dad is a coach and used to be a good player who knows all about the pro game. But even he could not stop the lad.
You can tell he is talented because so many managers give him a chance in pro footbal a place where there is not a lot of patience as there is not a lot of time.
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Funny that team was brought to my mind the other day when I read somewhere that Abu Ogogo got sent off for fighting.
I remember he got sent off in a youth game where decked two of the oppos , that team could play it anyway you wanted with Luke Ayling, the really unlucky Rhys Murphy dangerous goalscorer who could not stay fit.
Tasty side
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“Would have kept Ox at Arsenal and shipped jW instead.”
Despite claims to the contrary, football players are not slaves so you cannot keep someone who doesn’t want to stay.
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Wonder how much things have changed in the years (is it ten?) since that youth side?
A lot, I think. For us and others. Think that side was closer to a traditional English side, though with a twist, than anything i’ve seen in youth since and anything from senior side since; but I believe we are producing more good players now.
Also the Wilshere team seemed an extremely settled group with a very coherent way of playing, just not first team’s way of playing.
Time will tell, and I’ve certainly been wrong before, but I feel there’s a great crop of prospects at the moment, though predominantly in mid and forward positions. And for at least a few years it has looked much more like the aim is clear to play as 1st team do.
Smith-Rowe looked superb in months before injury; Saka looks like he could be very special; Nketiah and Nelson; Maitland-Niles; then Sheaf, DaSilva, Willock; with Bielik, Dragomir, Osei-Tutu, Mavididi having looked very good at times; promising crop of first year’s,too.
Some will disappoint, some will go elsewhere and eventually come good, maybe some are even Tom Cruise-like (think I may have rated him in those few games I saw…) but it feels like there’s a good chance a number may make it here, and maybe one or two can be really big players for us.
The central defender thing is a bit of a mystery to me. We rarely get a centre half in any of the England youth squads; whereas Chelsea quite often have two per squad or even in side (two excellent ones in u17 world cup winning team; two starters in u20 world cup winning team), and it’s normally merited.
My best guess is culture. They at heart have a very defensive culture; we have an attacking one. Strongly believe it is easier for centre halves to look good in defensive setups than the opposite, and that the demands are much bigger in latter than former.
Should Tarkowski leave Burnley he could well struggle in same way Keane has at Everton. Caught the eye immediately when Tarkowski was in England side that he looked uncomfortable playing ball into midfield when opposition sat off.
Could also be an element of pragmatism in that centre half is probably the hardest position to blood youngsters in.
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I used to go watch the reserves Fridays and it was a mixture of first teamers and the under 23s. For the youngsters two stood out for me, Lansbury and Djorou. They were physically imposing and had the technical ability to step up. They have both gone on to have successful careers elsewhere. One that I didn’t think would make it was Sanchez Watt. The real treat was seeing Diabby getting back to fitness what a player, super intelligent and super skillful. A rare breed and what a shame he got kicked out literary from the game!
An honourary mention to Lord Bedntner too!
I never really got to see Jet but he was one hell of a talented player.
Of the current youngsters we seem to be slowly getting a great group together but I wonder what happened with Zelalem- he’s just disappeared!
Here is another thought why not get Danny Welbeck to adapt as a defender, he certainly did well on Sunday, he is strong fast and would just need to learn a bit of the dark art!
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