One of the main qualities Arsene Wenger looks for in his players, and in particular young players is intelligence. Not just football intelligence e.g. being able to spot a killer pass, but the understanding of what it takes to play for a club like Arsenal week in week out.
Mark Randall and Nacer Barazite have both been taken under the wing of Mr Wenger, and they both are willing to trust their careers in the capable hands of the Frenchman. One of his policies is farming out young prospects to smaller clubs to gain vital experience and learn more about the professional game. This is something that 18 year old Randall admits has been important to him.
“I think it was good for me at that time to go, I didn’t want to still be playing occasionally in the Reserves. After we got knocked out of the FA Youth Cup, I wouldn’t say we didn’t have anything to play for, but we weren’t challenging for honours so it was good for me to add an extra edge to my game elsewhere.”
The talented prospect says another loan spell has not been talked about, and he feels ready to contribute to Arsenal’s first team for the coming season, and has now learnt which qualities are needed to play for the club.
“I would say I have come back physically stronger and more hard-working, That is what I learnt a lot of at Burnley, so I would definitely say my loan helped towards me featuring at Sunderland.
“I know you need a lot of discipline to succeed as an Arsenal player, and a professional attitude. I have that now and I am so happy for the sacrifices I have made.”
Nacer Barazite may be a year younger than Randall, but he has his eyes on the same prize. However Nacer who turns 18 today, feels although loaning is useful he has the talents to earn a first team place through his own merit.
“A loan experience is always good for every young player but my aim is to play in the first team for Arsenal. And in pre-season I will do my very best and prove what I can do to the boss and give him the choice to make me stay.
“A loan would be good and I wouldn’t say no to it but at the moment I am focused on the Arsenal first team and hopefully I can stay and achieve that.
Mark Randall & Nacer Barazite Quotes From Arsenal.com
One thing remains certain and that is next season will be another important step in the development of both players, and under Arsene Wenger the pair have the perfect master.
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Article By – J.Sanderson
I personally think that if Mark Randell is going to be loaned out again then it has to be to an English Premier League team because the hustle and bustle of the Coca Cola Championship did not suit his passing game, also he needs to be played in the center of midfield because he looks only half the player when he is played on the right wing for our club IMO
It would be great if these two could force themselves into the first team squad, and improve the team.
It would save a few pennies and provide inspiration for others in the youth ranks
Barazite has the positional play of Bergkamp, naturally drifting into the ‘hole’, picking out the key pass for someone else to shoot, and he has a decent shot himself.
I see for a future for him in a way I can’t (yet) see for Randall. I suspect he’ll be overtaken by Lansbury and Wilshere.
Randall, looks like a good player and would defo be a good addition to our 1st team
Im not sure anybody would take Randall, and actually use him in the Premiership. But that remains to be seen.
Whilst Lansbury is a superb prospect on his day, only having his day once every 9 months is not good enough. I believe his injury problems will ruin all his potential.
Well if Lansbury’s injuries will ruin his potential as you say then we’ve got Nordtveit, Barazite, Scezny, Fran Merida and Wilshere who could be at the club in the long term.
Do you think that Jay Thomas could be here in the long term as a utility man?
And what about Gibbs cos Wenger seems to prefer Randall (even on the wing).
What’s happened to Djourou? He’s gone backwards this year like Eboue (although not as bad).
I think Randall could go on to be a very good player for us, I feel its more likely he could be the one flying under the radar (ie without the hype surrounding others) as he develops.
Re Lansbury: Hopefully he has just been unlucky with injuries/illness and this will disapear as he matures and his body gets stronger.
Could Randall be our new Ray Parolour? lol
Like they’ve done or are still doing to Van Persie.
I mean injuries like you said above JS.
Maybe Joshua, i see how its easy to come to that conclusion. But its still too early.
Yes Tipsychubbs, thats the point i am making .
i watch randall play during the sunderland match. I am pretty impressed
I hope injuries dont ruin Lansbury’s potential, beacuse he has so much of it.
Is it me or does Wenger seem to favour Randall over a few of the youth players?
Hi J, know any thing about Freeman? I mean how do you rate him this season? I’m excited about him and Wilshire. Together with Randall, i think these are the only ones who will make it into the first team
out of all the young players we have randall appears to be the most “ready” to make contributions to the first team which is reflected in the manager’s selections –
barazite looks like a monster – our very own beast if you like – now comparisons are very difficult but what i have seen he is a mixture of dennis (no pressure then) and ibrahimovic (hopefully without the attitude)
both could benefit from going to wigan or west brom on loan as steve bruce and tony mowbray love our kids almost as much as we do
on something unrelated, who is going to win May player of the month? Seeing as there hasn’t been a lot going on. Maybe one of the u16s? from their Italy tour?
What injuries has Lansbury had except for Glandular fever?
he likes a night out by the sounds of things i hear
JS, are there any worries of Lansbury’s attitude? I’ve come across various comments that he likes a bit of party.
As i’ve said on here many times, Nacer Barazite is an awesome talent and now it seems he has a good attitude as well. If he’s lucky with injuries he will go far.
I havent seen much of Barazite but I like Randall(Apart from the haircut!). He is a fine player technically & he shows a competitive edge.
Freeman has had a mixed time, he scored some goals at first but has since gone of the boil and was dropped for the Play off game.
Its a big year coming up for him, but atm i would say he is not even close to making it.
Who doesnt like a bit of a party!!, It only becomes a problem when you driving a team mates car at 3am with a lamp post attached to it!
I reckon we should loan Hull 4 or 5 of the young’ens and see how well they do.
Merida scored a brace in Spain’s latest U19 match. Thats 3 goals in 2 games from midfield. Not bad for a midfielder.
Is right for Wenger to sacrifice the FA Cup next season?
I think we have a very big squad containing a lot from the reserves and maybe younger playeres, so maybe Wenger will allow more young players to participate in the FA Cup in addition to the Carling Cup so they can gain valuable experience and get exposure to the toughness of the first team games.
Players such as Denilson, Diaby Vela, Traore, Barazati, Randal, Lansbury, Gibbs, Merieda, Wilshere, Nordtviet, Ignasi Miquel and Mannone need to play a decent amount of games to be ready to the next level.
I hope that under no situation Wenger play a player in not his usual position, like Diaby in the LW and Eboue RW, we have a couple of wingers even if they are young could be given a chance and such like players are waiting.
It is known that loaning players out could benefit all parties, but in some cases it backfires, even if Randal, Gibbs, Merieda say that they gained valuable experience, I think if they played for our club in those competitions they could have had more playing time to demonstrate what they can do and if they doesn’t convince they will know that they have been given the chance to succeed, on the bench of other teams they can’t do anything.
I really want to see them regularly in the domestic cups next season, which then will prove how big a squad we have.
Does anybody know if Arsenal TV (not the program) will be available to other regions such as Asia via satellite? If possible I want to subscribe in the normal TV channel and not to TV channel online.
Hey JS, great stuff as always. But I was just looking trough some news here today, and I read that Blatter is still fighting for the socalled 6-5(or was it 5-6?) Thus meaning a club only can have 5 foreign players on the pitch at the same time.
Just saying this would be an interesting topic to discuss here, if you where to make an article about it in the future.
were* ofc.
There is no way Randall is ready. he was an unused sub in most of his games for Burnley. I know he’s only 18, but if he can’t get into the Burnley team, then he can’t get into the Arsenal team. Barazite looks good at youth/reserve level, but it’s a huge step up into the 1st team. I think a loan move would be good for him initially – maybe working with Van Basten at Ajax. I agree that Lansbury is more likely than Randall, once he recovers from glandular fever. Even Fram Merida has struggled to tie down a place for Sociedad so he may need another season or two to make the breakthrough.
J.Sanderson if I may, I’d like to suggest that you add the players heights, their strongest leg and who can play with both legs.
It would be so helpful as on Arsenal.com they also don’t mention the heights and that would be like exclusively on your site.
I know they would need to be updated regularly, but I believe you can do wonders with your connections.
Was at the Sunderland game , Randall gave the linesman the “fuck you” sign when his goal was disallowed. Not great that.
Randall yes ! Nacer Im not so sure about! Watched them both down at Dorchester a few weeks ago…..Randall looked quite a bit futher progressed thaan Nacer, mind you he was way above everybody else on the pitch that night.
““But you can’t get any better club than Arsenal as a youngster to be brought up at. This is the best place for me, at my age. The facilities, the coaching, everything makes it what it is.
“So I would rather keep working my way into the first team here but I understand that part of my development is going out on loan.””
does it hint that Randall isn’t confident on breaking into first team? from what I’ve read in his words, he meant he may (forced) leave arsenal some day, but still felt good of spending his youth time at arsenal. wish I were wrong.
I personally don’t think Randall will make it. If he does, then he’ll be Hoyte status. He didn’t play at Burnley…which Wenger was very concerned about. If you can’t force yourself into the starting lineup in a Championship club, then you can’t demand to be with the first team at Arsenal.
There is a reason why many think Lansbury will overtake him. Though he was injured for most of last season, Wenger kept on mentioning him in interviews. He’s an ever fixture for England U19s…shame he was not fit enough for the elite qualifying round. But perhaps this way, he can take his chance in preseason.
Merida should also be in the first team next season. The guy is just too good of a player not to be. I rate him slightly above Denilson.
Ok then lts put it like this
Seb Larsson or Mark Randall, which will you have?
Larsson is a big hit with bham and now it sought after by Newcastle and Wigan, he has hit the levels required, is Randall better than Larsson at the same age?
Nope…Randall is not better than Larsson at the same age.
Fact is though Randall is English so may be more likely to say especially with the potential new rules over numbers of homegrown players in a team. Randall is also very talented he scored on his debut in the league ( disallowed for offside even though he wasnt :@). That shows he knows positions to get into and he played well with Theo when he was on. He also played very well at Emirates cup last year and Arsene obviously rates him as hes bin the only reserves player to be taken to Austria pre-season for the last 2 years.
[IMG]http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z137/meekel2007/NasriWallpaper.jpg[/IMG]
Randall is better
As I’ve been saying for the last few months I have high hopes for the current crop of Academy players and really hope that Randall, Lansbury, Wilshere and Gibbs make it at Arsenal. I am a Gooner through and through but I would love to see us defy our critics and develop and English backbone to match the squads of ’71, ’89 and ’98. I am not xenophobic, far from it, but it adds something special to the team when you can add a few hometown players to your squad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbNssx5SCxo
is it really nacer? great skills thought
and im sorry if links arent allowed…
LOL…its just a youtube link of Barazite doing skills in his backyards. This isn’t a forum…just a blog. Its not highlights either.
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbNssx5SCxo
is it really nacer? great skills thought”
don’t think it meaningful. as long as you practice hard, you can do this kind of circus trick. but what makes you a great footballer is football intelegence, to know when, where and how to use your skill.
btw: could anybody give accurate height and weight of our reserve players? espn said randall is 81kg, and gibbs is 64kg? I really doubt it. mark looks so skinny, while kieran is more muscled.
of cource cc, i dont say he will be a legend because of this video, i have just found it on the net, its quite new, i thought it was interesting so i posted it here…
jay
okay okay:)
I can say for sure; Randall is better than Seb Larsson was.
chaos, ok ok, that’s interesting anyway. I do think nacer would be a great gunner some day :)
some people were talking about Blatter’s attempts to put rules on the amount of foreigners in a team. This has absolutely no chance of going through as it is fundamentally against EU laws and directives on the free movement of labour within the EU, and anti-discrimination in employment. It has already been dismissed out of hand by the EU i even remember reading a report whereby some EU politician actually laughed at the proposal!
However, he could convert it to non-EU players but then even now work permits etc. are needed so the effect would be minimal.
We should be MUCH more worried about platini’s attempt to restrict clubs snapping up under 16’s from foreign academies as this would not bode well for a club which has done just that on so many occasions.
There is no doubt Randalls got talent but he’s gonna have to develop physically to make it in the premiership, i would think.
I appreciate that Lansbury’s got injury problems but i remember the same was said about Gerrard and he got over it as his body developed. For me he’s got that extra combativeness as well as the technique to surpass Randall and Merida.
Fingers crossed eh.
Under 16s? that shouldnt effect Arsenal at all as far as i know all the players we take from foriegn countries are at least 16 are you sure u dont mean under 18s? because then i’d be far more worried.
Sorry i meant 16 and under.
Whoever wants to check on Samir Nasri and Ben Arfa, they are playing now, If you don’t have the channel on TV you can find them on this link:
http://www.justin.tv/barcelonaec
why is randall ahead of gibbs in the pecking order personally i think gibbs is much better.
J i have booked to see Real MAdrid v Arsenal in the Emirates Cup, do you think Randall or Barzite etc will get on and who else, what about Rui Fonte or Sunu as Wenger wouldn’t have signed them from abroad if he didn’t think they’d have a chance in the first team.
Oh just remembered when I saw Emirates Cup. Forgive me because this is off topic,but I purchased seats for both days of the CUP few weeks ago,got ma confirmation emails and it’s on the credit card,also have ma red membership card,but on Arsenal.com it still shows that the tickets are “Not Posted” can anyone please tell me when they will ship tickets out or how long they take,since I’m not from the UK? Thanks.
You get them a fortnight before the tournament, well thats when I got them last time.
Nasri head and shoulders above the rest for france
Ok thanks!
Nasri played really well in the game 2nite he did some good link up play with Anelka before Gomis first goal. I just hope we sign him up quickly or another club may come in for him if he plays this well in the next two warm up games.
Ive always rated Barazite, ever since i first saw him, hes a skillful, intelligent and versatile young player, by no means perfect but he can only get better considering his age. I even rashley promised by best mate whos dutch that he’d become an amazing player for us, and i still believe he can, but it’ll take time, he needs some starts in the carling cup next season.
As for Randall to be honest i was unsure about him during the first part of the season, what with the emergance of Wilshire, and the obvious talent of Lansbury, Merida and more recently Emmanuel-Thomas, i didnt think he was quite as good as any of them, but having seen him quite a few times for the reserves, burnley and that league debut for the first team (that in particular), im now not guna write him off. The others are great dont get me wrong, but he looks like a great passer and has an aye for goal, and if he doesnt succeed with us he’ll definatly go on to be a top league player somewhere else.
Mark my words, Randall will make it bcuz he has one key ingredient that arsenal’s attacking midfielders need vision, awareness and passing range.
Apart from Randall, Wilshere, Merida & Barazite, no one standout and that includes Gibbs Lansbury that every is raving about. He is more in competition with Merida than with Lansbury. I am pretty confident that Lansbury will part of next bunch to go out loan.