Two members of Arsenal’s successful Under 16 team which won the Atalanta Cup and the Zinédine Zidane Tournament during the summer have been released.
Utility midfielder Cormac Hegarty and flamboyant winger Neil Johnston were both hoping for scholarship deals this summer, but Liam Brady has opted against making them full time at London Colney.
Hegarty was the surprise of the two, as he’s an Ireland Youth regular, and has been tipped for much success in the future. However, the London born youngster seems to be one of the casualties of a summer clear out.
Johnston – who is already 16 – has been impressive at Under 16 level, but Steve Bould has never pushed him on into his Academy side. Neil can play all over the midfield and is known to chip in with his fair share of goals.
The pair must now consider whether a career in football is really for them, or join the long list of prospects who never quite made it.
Article By – J.Sanderson
J, has Gibbs been promoted to the 1st team? On Arsenal.com he is no longer under the reserves and youth section and is under the first team section… ??
He’s been a first team member for a while now. Mark Randall is a first team player, as is Jay Simpson and Fran Merida. I don’t know why they’re still in the youths.
I’ve never heard of these guys. I think we have good enough youth with: Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Fran Merida, Emmanuel Frimpong, Giles Sunu, Jay Simpson, Jack Wilshere and Henri Lansbury.
Coquelin too!
I doudt that they would give up the game just because the got rejected by Arsenal and if they did then they would be stupid IMO.
exactly kent, that was a ridiculous comment. oh because arsenal with one of the more selective youth academies in the world rejected me i have to give up? what kinda nonsense is that. did keanu marsh-brown have that attitude? these boys will have ample opportunities to join other premier league and championship youth setups simply because of their association with arsenal.
Not ridiculous. Many young players give up on football and end up going into further education and lead ‘normal’ lives. It’s quite common that this happens, especially with kids around 15, 16.
They enjoy being able to have the freedoms that they didn’t have before. I would have thought you would have known that with your knowledge of youth football, Kent.
If Cormac Hegerty plays regularley for the Republic of Ireland at youth level he is hardly a scrub is he, also Arsenal made the mistake in letting Keanu Marsh-Brown go like Simmo said and he is lot better than the likes of Sam Byles yet they chose to keep him her at Arsenal, so there judgement on a young players potential is not allways a 100% correct Jamie.
Hegarty has been involved with Ireland, but not recently, and has had injury problems. If Keanu was clearly better, then he would have stayed. It must have been other problems, e.g. attitude which saw him released.
Nobody said the judgement is not always correct, but we’re not debating that are we.
JS any good wingers coming through heard a kid called alban something is pretty special
did that alex witham boy get into aston villa???
The only real reasons a youngster leaves the game is injury or incredible lack of talent. if they’ve got a couple years at the arsenal academy, it’d have to be the first one. I’m sure the kids will be picked up by some other London team, our rejects you’d assume are still better than most.
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I LOVE ARSENAL
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What do you mean flamboyant?