Arsenal’s transfer policy has once more been slammed by Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar, as teenage midfield Oğuzhan Özyakup joined the Gunners for pre-season training this morning. The 15 year old trained during the morning session, and left a positive impact on his new employers, ahead of the coming campaign.
Whilst he was busy getting into shape for the new season, his former chairman Dirk Scheringa has fired a strong warning shot over the signing of the Holland Under 17 International.
“We could do nothing to stop Arsenal signing the boy because in Dutch law we cannot give a player a contract before he is 16 years of age.”
“This is ruining academies on the Continent. It is time English clubs pay attention to their own academies and develop their own talents.”
Alkmaar’s Sporting Director Marcel Brands has already admitted his disappointment at Arsenal’s dealings, despite the fact the club conducted themselves by the rule book, and treated both parties with respect. Liverpool completed the transfer of striker Vincent Weijl last week, and both they and the Gunners have been signalled out for criticism.
“It amazes us they keep stealing foreign talents and ignore their own in a country with 50 million people. Where were England at Euro 2008? Maybe that is something to think about.”
Liverpool frequently sign young foreign talent, meaning the chances of another Steven Gerrard or Jamie Carragher coming through the system look almost impossible. They add around 5-6 foreign Under 18 players to their team every year, while Arsenal handed professional contract to six English boys last week. Scheringa is point the finger at the wrong culprits.
In other news, Ipswich Town have signed Arsenal youth coach Chris Kiwomya, who will take up the role as the clubs Reserves team development manager. Liam Brady took the much travelled striker to Colney shortly after his retirement, and Kiwomya has been working with the younger prospects at the club.
Town boss Jim Magilton has welcomed him on board, and enthused the experience gained with Arsenal will stand him in good stead.
“He has worked at Arsenal, which is a good name to have on your CV, and I know he has ideas he has inherited from there.
“The fact that he has left Arsenal to come here shows how important this club is to him and how much he wants to play a part in moving us forward.”
Article By – J.Sanderson
Anyone have a clip of him?, i know youtube makes everyone look like a star but a clip would be nice to catch a glipse.
Doubt it mate…he’s only 15
No clips sorry mate. But from everything i seen of him, he is going to be a fantastic young player. He is at the right place for his development.
j what type of player is he like.
Chris Kiwomya, is he the reason why we dont have any strikers breaking through at Arsenal?
I kid of course, good luck to the man whom as a young man I believed to be the worst player I have ever seen.
Lol…Nah Steve….thats DEFINITELY Jason Dozell mate!
“Anyone have a clip of him?, i know youtube makes everyone look like a star but a clip would be nice to catch a glipse.”
It doesnt to be honest, depends how hard you are on players. I watched a few vids of new City signing Jô today and to be honest i wasnt overly impressed, he looked like a good finisher but nothing more.
I saw Ozyakup briefly in the u17 euros and he looked good but it was hard to get a proper opinion of him considering how little he played. However the very fact that hes 15 and got into the U17s side for Holland tells u he must have something about him, its not un-heard of but it is rare.
anr
Thats true Johnny….i heard big things bout him about 6 months ago…cant remember exactly how though….
If you click on Ozyakup’s name in the article.. it takes you to his player profile.. you can read more about him there.. if that helps :)
Alkmaar are just annoyed that in 6 years they wont be able to sell him for like £10 million and anyway how can he say we stole their players when they knicked a guy from iceland from us
J you got any information on the ronaldo/rooney love child bischoff is he coming or was it just rubbish
Whats the guy from Iceland’s name?
Kolbennin Sigthosson.
Bischoff – he was waiting for Wenger to come back.. Wenger will be present at training tomorrow.. because the first team are back. There were reports the deal broke down, but nobody had any links.
I will keep you updated if i find anything :)
Bet you 50p that quote slamming Arsenal for not producing English talent and England not qualifying for Euro2008 gets picked up by the tabloids tomorrow.
Its all down to grass roots level, Arsenal have been producing young English players for years.. sure not all of them make it here.. but at least they make it elsewhere.
Man utd, Chelsea, Liverpool are all full of kids from all over the world. They are to be blamed not us.
just another foul play by Arsenal
please, please can we find more local talent.
They all took a leaf out of our book, now watch them start buying young british talent…
the only reason that man utd,liverpool and chelsea are not blamed is because they are willing to spend over the odds on english players where as arsenal are not
The reason England were not at Euro 2008 has nothing to with Arsenal, it is because we had a crap manager in charge called Steve Mclaren who kept playing players out of position, also Dutch clubs have a history of raping african clubs of there talent so people in glass houses should not throw stones IMO
my view on the lack of good english players is because smaller teams like west brom,southampton etc charge to much for their english players so teams like arsenal dont buy them and in turn dont develop them into brillant footballer’s and instead teams like arsenal buy a french guy for half the price who is just as good so to sum up dont blame arsenal blame teams like southampton for being greedy :)
does anyone else agree with me that england should give manuel almunia a chance to be england goalkeeper as he is better than any of the current goalkeepers and also senna wasnt born in spain but was brillant for them at euro 2008 so why doesnt england give him a chance
sour grapes, must be a quality prospect. and oh, btw, the england team sucks because english players drink too much, eat fish and chips and have a sense of entitlement that beggars belief. not to mention stupid coaches that axe the best player.
The AZ Chairman is being purposely sensationalist, because he knows it will create headlines and detract from the fact his club have done exactly the same.
Arsenal are an easy target.
I cannot believe that the slimy snake Kenyon has been voted onto the new European club board?
Wonder who they paid off?
gunnerguy;
Please don’t get me started on Almunia fella!
He is average at best. For a club that purports to be a big club, Manuel is strictly small patatas!
Not good enough, I’m afraid.
i like almunia he’s not flash but rarley makes mistakes ok he’s no cech or buffon but he does his job without making a fuss about it and he is still better than any current england goalkeeper
I might be being a bit harsh fella. Almunia is no worse than any England keepers, but that isn’t saying much these days is it?
16 mil for henri sold proven super world class, 17 mil for walcott buy at 17 yrs no epl, there really is something wrong with the english game. quick, top ten goal scorer’s in epl last season? anyway, england has a good coach now, but they should be happy just to make it to wc.
maybe it’s the sanga syndrome(because when sagna change his hair he was half as good) but since almunia went blonde he has gotten along better
alot* sorry not along
Once again we are to blame for something.
Totally agree with you Spike. After Jens leaving, I thought a 5-star keeper to keep Almunia honest was the most important thing for us. At least they’re not going to cost 30m, so the boss must be able to buy something with his cheque book.
All I cana say is if Almunia picks up a long-term injury, GOd help us. Fabianski and Mannone can’t do the No. 1 job fo ran extended period.
I just hope that in a few(not too many) years we have a team which includes amongst others – Theo, Lansbury, Randall, even Justin Hoyte. Then amongst the top clubs we may well have the most home grown players. If you throw in Ramsey(Cymru am Byth) who seems really determined to make it the press will have to find a new scapegoat.
why is it just arsenal other clubs are buying players from differnt countrys look at chelsea liverpool and man utd bringing up talent is hard work thats what ppl dont get yha arsene is french but dosnt mean that arsenal are a french club its like saying liverpools a spainish club because theyve got more players in one country than arsenal theyve got 16 spainish come on now why the hell are we blamed liverpool are the ones reily at least we are trying to bring up players and all the started because what happend at the euro quallyfiers it woznt arsenals falut it was the manager steve mcclaren but what arsene is mainly looking for is the best in the players not just there countrys
The Icelandic guy´s name is actually Kolbeinn Sigþórsson, the brother of former Bayern Munich striker Andri Sigþórsson. Even more exciting is Akranes´ Björn Bergmann which has already rejected Man Utd, despite it being his favorite team.
We got a quite a big chunk of ´92 talents now: Wilshere, Miguel and Oguzhan along with others.
There are hundreds club at england, why just 1 club to be blamed for England failure??ridicolous
How awesome is this. Consider Arsenal first team in 5 or 6 yrs time. They are here already:
Fabianski
Sagna Song Nordtveit Clichy
Randall Ramsey Febregas Traore
Walcott Bendtner
Plus Diaby, Denilson, Vela, Merida, Barazite, Wilshire, Pedro, Lansbury, Simpson, Sunu, Ozyakup,…
…not sure about the young defenders.
@ dan – you talk about Henry for 16m and Theo for 17m. I don’t think there’s a bigger joke in the history of the EPL than Spuds paying 16m for Bent.
Villa are rumoured to be looking at Frank Simek. Isn’t he an American who came through the Arsenal set up?
Hleb has hit out at Arsenal saying that Fabregas is selfish! Hleb would’t even try go for goal even when on the goal line. At least Cesc takes his chances and is a much player!!!!!!!!!!!!
What you think JS
much better player* lol sorry
everybody has a moan about arsenal not having enough english or british players but we’ve probably supplied half of the english players in the league. Pennant, Bentley,muamba,cashley cole,etc.
Now we have lansbury,wilshere,ramsey, simpson, Gibbs, murphy, randall etc. waiting in the wings.
I just returned from Berlin where there are loads of parks and free five a side hard-courts in every other street block. Local sports clubs are subsidised to the hilt and almost everyone under 30 owns a bike and uses it on the city’s extensive and effective cycle-path network. Most of Holland follows a similar pattern to Berlin whereas in the UK even schools sports are fading as playing fields are ploughed up for luxury flats and local sports clubs struggle to stay alive in the face of rocketing ground fees. German and Dutch youth generally are fitter, play more sports and get far more encouragement than the Brits. This is the real reason why our national teams are falling behind the world in every sport – not just football.
WHAT!? £17m for Walcott. Check ur facts mate…it’s a deal which will rise to around £12m at most! What’s all this £17m talk? Timoo, thats so true mate.
This remionds me of the Spanish national side. Their 44 years of ineffectiveness was blame don key club positions being ‘farmed out’ to high priced Brazilian talent, thereby leaving club academies without the chance to completely brin =g up their talent into the first teams.
England is going in the same direction – no wonder we can never beat Portugal on penalites.
As an American, I can’t help wonder about phrases like “developing their own talent.” Our country’s soccer teams proudly include players from just about every part in the world.
Maybe I’m a clueless foreigner, but it mystifies me as to why England should only sign players from their own nation.
its not about weather you include players in your squad from every corner of the world just to find talent. this isent chelsea.(jokes) but arsenal has grown their youths into outstanding players. but still thier is talent that arsenal have found overseas yet brout to the club and developed over time in the youth sysem. that is what sets arsenal aside from other english clubs even worldwide. plus on my opinion the 6-5 rule is simply designed to find english talent which is what lacks there noting. arsenal simply have foriegn players because they have better skill and quality than homegrown players.
conor 16
ireland
gunner 4 life
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