Arsenal striker Rui Fonte is entering his final term of his three year loan from Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon, and although the youngster is yet to make a firm impact, yesterday’s double against Boreham Wood will stand him in good stead for the most important season of his career so far.
The classy poacher showed lovely approach play coupled with instinctive finishing to bag a brilliant brace, but until then his goals have come in short bursts – frustrating for both the player and the coaching staff.
Fonte was scouted playing for Portugal Under 16’s and whilst Rui himself was keen to seal the switch to London, Sporting were desperate to hold onto their promising marksman. Eventually an arrangement was reached allowing the Gunners to take the teenager on a three-year incentive based loan with $3000 changing hands.
A clause was fitted to the arrangement meaning should Rui fail to meet certain development criteria the loan would be cancelled. However, should he impress sufficiently after the three years, Arsenal could make the transfer permanent for $1.5 million.
A solid first season in the Under 18’s brought a handful of goals and a lethal partnership with Rhys Murphy, but as the campaign drew to a close it seemed the schoolboy Murphy was further ahead in his development. Last year also began in a promising manner with now a much more physically improve Fonte earning a place on the bench against Barnet, but it was once more in the Under 18’s where he needed to prove himself.
The new braver Rui bagged a header against Charlton in a 2-2 draw, and it seemed this would be the first of many. He would finish the season with just 7 goals, but was now a regular in the Reserves. A silky tap in during the now infamous West Ham clash seemed to be the first of many, but once more the barren run set in.
At 18-years-old much is now expected in his final campaign with the club, and yet again he was given playing time by Arsène Wenger against Barnet. His performance was fairly lack luster, but for the Reserves, he helped inspire a three game winning streak over pre-season.
With a 1-0 win over Crawley Town kicking things off, Fonte was on target against Rushden and Diamonds before helping engineer the second for Nacer Barazite. Last night brought two more superb strikes, but this form must now continue if he wants to build a future here.
Fonte agreed a new contract with Lisbon during the summer which will offer him stability, but he held off signing it to offer everything to the Arsenal cause.
Article By -J.Sanderson
Well he hasnt been great but to be fair to him he did very well yesterday
http://theworldsmostbeautifulgame.wordpress.com
Hopefully this will be his year, i really want this kid to make it. Good Luck Rui. :D
I read in one of my arsenal books last night when i got back from game and it said he signed pro contract with arsenal in 2007? But either way even though he takes a lot of stick from people on this site he will be class in a couple of years either for us or whereever he ends up
I would love to see him make it at Arsenal as i’m portuguese however, he needs to start scoring more and get more involved in games to succeed.
He played in basically every Reserve game last year and scored a grand total of 2 goals!
He doesn’t possess great great and he’s pretty weak, I don’t really think he has a massive future with us, infact I don’t think he has any kind of future with us, but still, he links up well with Barazite and it doesn’t hurt if he’s just on loan with us, I expect him to go back to Sporting at the end of the season..
I really prefer Murphy ove Fonte. Fonte is in my opinion just waste of time!
He aint a waste of time, hes got potential. If he does brilliant over the next year we should keep him, but if he is outshone by Barazite, Murphy, Sunu and Freeman, who all impressed me more than Fonte last season, even thou Sunu was dissapointing aswell, then let him go.
If he plays every game with the desire he showed yesterday, then he could make it, if he doesnt hes got no chance, and for that matter i dont think hes got much chance at Sporting either, cuz i know a bit about their youth sides and he wont be one of the best there either, not by a long shot.
Do you think he had a clause in his contract to ensure he plays regularly? It just doesn’t make sense how he got picked so many times and was practically invisible on the pitch.
Why didn’t we keep Lupoli instead!? I know he is older but was a classier player and more consistent.
I dont think the clause demands he must play on a regular basis, i believe the club just wanted to make sure he got a solid run out.
Off topic but I can feel it Djororu is going to be superb this evening.
Adebayor is in for a battle tonight with Douglas,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Franco_Teixeira
We might have to rely on a midfielder to break into the box and create chances.. I think Walcott will be key.
hope he stays, he had a good game yesterday
Diden’t fonte sign a professional contract last year? at the same time when simpson etc did it?
The sooner this no hoper leaves the better,It’s a disgrace that he get’s games ahead of younger, better homegrown players like Murphy.
anyone knows where to watch arsenal match vs twente today?
He’s not good enough and on the evidence of the times I’ve seen him play, he does not look interested. Of the youth squad, (Willshere aside) I’d be surprised if any of them make it as Arsenal regulars. Barazite looks like he has a decent touch and moves well, but I see him at another club, Simpson will not displace any of our first team strikers and probably found his level at Millwall last year, Lansbury and Randall seem to be believing their own press and will come up short, the rest do not fill me with hope. I don’t count Ramsay as he has supposedly been signed as a first teamer. Sorry and all that chaps, maybe I’m just fed up and concerned but we so deperately need a midfield enforcer and a Centre back it is past funny. I would seriously start thinking about Kolo in the centre of midfield and giving Gallas a lump like Zigic (loan available) to do his donkey work
Rosey-Zigic is a striker, unless your referring to a new Zigic which we haven’t heard of?!
I think we missed a trick with Cueller, he is the main reason Rangers made it to the Uefa cup final, he is tall, powerful and decent on the ball. For under 8m he is a bargain for Villa.
Zigic is a fucking forward! Rosey, you seem to be stupid. How well our youths are doing shouldn’t effect who we buy for the first xi unless they are instantly good enough to be part of that xi. It’s ridiculous though, to think that they should be considered in the same berth. We have many talented youngsters who may eventually make the team, the academy is a patience game but to write them off on the basis that you think we need a DM or a CB is just stupid.
I don’t care if he’s a goalie, we need a lump and he’s the tallest player I could think of. As for the academy, what has it produced so far? And if Wenger is going to continue to claim that we have enough talent at home, he can only be referring to the youth team / reserves, so of course it has a bearing on who we should sign. The fact is we are still waiting for a genuine player to come through the ranks.
Look at our first 11
Almunia
Sagna
Clichy
Gallas
Toure
Rosicky
Fabregas
Diaby
Nasri – Walcott
Adebayor
RVP
How many are produced from the youth/reserves Zero!
So how does it have no consequence on who we sign. This youth system is a myth, truth is we sign young players with potential on the cheap and this gets confused with a good youth system.
rosey clichy was a part of the youth syestem and you can include fabregas and walcott to the list as all have been at the club since they were 16 so your wrong just because they werent in the under 16 team doesnt mean they werent in the acdamey but if you look at the fact that it’s been about 10 years since wenger has been here and it takes about that long to see the effects of the changes he’s made in the acdamey that is why there has been few youth players in the starting 11 and since it has been 10 years players like wilshire etc are begining to make their impact and will be in the 1st team soon so rosey ur so wrong
Rosey, no one is every born into the reserves. Someone is always brought or bought in somewhere along the line. You can say the youth system is a myth, but then the same would apply to every other teams youth system.
All three of those were signed from other clubs, Clichy (Cannes) Walcott (Southampton) Fabregas (Barcelona) Walcott scored goals in the championship, so how do you claim him as part of the youth system, by doing so you are re-iterating my point that signing young players from other clubs (as Walcott, Fabregas and Clichy were) is not the same as producing them yourselves. It’s like saying Ramsay is a part of our youth system, he is not
Roseys a woman. says it all. zigic at centre back?!!!!!!!! get back to the kitchen!
Arse & Nose – Tony Adams, David Rocastle, Liam Brady, A*hley Cole, David O’leary, were all brought through the youth system and not bought in. Fact is with the exception of Cashley, these were all a very long time ago.
Hi. Go to my new site http://arsenalcolumn.wordpress.com/ It’s still in progress but has top 10 youngsters, match preview, analysis etc. Check tonite after game too. Comments will be great. Thanks.
yeh i agree rosey. we should have bought crouch and paired him with kolo. and bought steven gerrard, and put him in net!!! on another note, j sanderson has done a very good job with this site. credit to him. anyone thought of the possibility of djorou doing a job in centre midfield?? i know hes played their in the past.
I get your point Rosey but what is your definition of an academy player? According to you, how old can you be when you join but still count as an academy product?
fat frank signs on at chelsea again!
Rosey, yes times have changed.
No youth system in England is producing players which are straight from the kids team. It is very very rare. Even Man Utd are buying kids, look at Liverpool as well.
has anyone got a link to the match tonight
Rosey means players who have progressed through the ranks i.e: Wilshere, Lansbury. At the moment we don’t have any in our 1st team but others are playing for other teams and some are coming through: My blog has an example of some of them but u can maybe add more potential first teamers such as Afobe, Freeman, Murphy, Bartley, Henderson etc. http://arsenalcolumn.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/top-10-youngsters/
irishgunner- try myp2p.eu. has the links to all matches.
Stone, I just think it’s a bit misleading to call a player an academy product when you have paid money for him. Walcott was rumoured to be about 10m with add ons and Clichy was about £250k. I regard a youth system player as just that, spotted by our scouts and developed through. I accept that the academies job is bigger than that, as it has a responsibility to develop players that it has signed, but I am tired of young players being signed, played in the Carling Cup and then masqueraded as youth academy players, when their learning and development was nurtured elsewhere. The main point I was making was we seem very reliant on these young players and unless some experience is signed, I fear we will be trophyless again this year.
Ok we were not producing players footballistically good enough for Arsenal. What does AW keep ranting on about but Technique now the following list of players are good players but dont have the required technique to play for Arsenal nor have they the technique to be world class unlike our sucessful gradutes in Cesc,Clichy,Ashley,Walcott,Bendtner,Wilshire.
Good players produced but not technically good enough for Arsenal plying their trade in EPL.
S.Taylor
M.Volz
S.Sidwell
M.Upson
D.Bentley
F.Mumba
S.Larrson
A.Stokes
J.Aliediere
J.Harper
J.oHara
Thers 11 examples of quality players whom either werent technically good enough or were impatient.
But look at the current crop- Wilshire,Nordveit,Gibbs,Barazite,Merida,Lansbury,Randall etc
Dont think AW is giving them run outs for the craic, its either
1 they are good enough ie Wilhire for the moment at least
2 He s opening them to a wider market to get sale for them to the like of Derby,Wigan,Norwich etc whom will pay good money for these young gifted players
True but Wenger Knows. These youngsters have the abilty to do well, however rui is not one of them, Murphy is pretty good though
http://theworldsmostbeautifulgame.wordpress.com/
Here are some more players who came from the arsenal academy;
Jermaine Pennant(Liverpool)
Paul Dickov (Man City)
Steve Harper(Newcastle)
R Hughes(Portsmouth)
Graham Stack(Reading)
Anthony Stokes(Sunderland)
what channel is the arsenal game on tv?? answer please.
setanta
Not sure mate. I think Setanta might be showing it.
I hope Fonte can do it at Arsenal!
;)
http://freestyle-football.de/
i have checked the arsenal official handbook 2007/2008 and it says in there fonte joined summer 2006 and signed professional summer 2007 the same time as barazite nordtveit rodgers simpson and szczesny
I like Fonte. He’s got great technique and is a good finisher. His problem is he’s awful weak.
It’s easy to forget that these guys are still just kids. I think he’s got the technical quality to make it but he’s got to bulk up or he’ll keep being bullied. You can’t be so soft as a center forward.
I really hope he makes it at arsenal….he reminds me of torres in the way…he plays….!!!