Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock famously once said he has massive respect for Arsène Wenger but he wishes the Frenchman would allow him to sign a defender for Arsenal.
But the then Sheffield United boss probably didn’t bank on the Gunners chief moving in for one of his stoppers as the local media are strongly linking Palace’s Nathaniel Clyne with a switch across London.
The newly crowned Eagles Young Player of the Season has had a remarkable campaign which saw him go from Reserve team hopeful to a right back who featured on 26 occasions for the first team. Just two days after his debut he was rewarded with a brand new three-year-contract where Warnock enthused the prospect ‘had a very bright future in the game’.
Two consecutive Man of the Match awards came against Doncaster and Sheffield United while just a 17-year-old. Wigan were also impressed with his versatility as he featured at both right and left back during both games and were reported to have bid £1 million for his services.
However, local newspaper the Croyden Advertiser – which broke the news that Rui Fonte was set to join Crystal Palace on loan first – claims Arsenal have been scouting Clyne for a number of months with the view to firming up an initial interest when transfer window opens.
Yet those hopes could be short lived according to Warnock who hopes to keep the 18-year-old for at least another season despite interest from Premier League sides.
“I am confident Clyne will report for pre-season at the club and will start the season with us. He played very well last season and we feel he is only going to get better.”
“There will be a lot of big clubs looking at him – there’s no doubt about that, but we feel his development as a player will be more beneficial here.”
The same newspaper suggests a bid of around £4 million could be enough to prize away one of the Championship’s brightest starlets.
Article By – J.Sanderson
For £4m Arsenal should forget about it, No matter how good he is. He is another youth. The first team can use that £4m to buy another experienced defender, for the reserve players to learn from
but how many good right backs do we have in our youth team.
Imo we do lack a good right back.
Agreed but 4m is a little steep. Them young lads for Sheff Utd didn’t look to bad either.
i guess it’s not really any priority for us so we shouldn’t spend that much. i’m sure he’s very good, but sagna is quality and going nowhere for a very long time and eboue has been doing ok as his understudy recently, so there’s no immediate need for a rb.
I dont think craig Eastmond will make it, Js whats ur opinion of Thomas Cruise i like him personally think hes a very underrated Left back but what suprised me was that he played alongside jack rodwell for england under 16, 17. He has not really grown in height and stature. I thinks thats his problem he looked quite big at a young age but now hes not the tallest
Whats wrong with gilbert and hoyte and sagna and eboue or do we need 5???
It wouldn’t be £4m, it would probably be £2m over 24 months with the rest dependant on success
gilbert is crap and hoyte is a central defender, thats whats up..
leave our youngsters alone you have no academy of your own all knicked from other clubs because your one is crap. Plus go support your local team you gloryhunting scumbags
Is Natheniel Clyne English Jamie?.
yeah hes english so wont fit in your frencg team.
We needn’t Clyne because we have Gavin Hoyte who is also a very highly rated player for the future.
Apropos Hoyte:
How was his season?
Has he impressed at Watford?
croyDON. ;)
I’m a avid fan of arsenal, but Palace are my local team, and I don’t feel like prising away one of there brightest starlets is the right thing.
if we wont pay 15m for a 1st team player we really need what are the chances we will pay 4m for a youth player thats not really needed
I think we should go for him. Craig Eastmond don’t seem to be good enough watching the youth games. Eboue is not much good defensively either and is being paid over 40k a week so buying Clyne at that amount might prove to be a master stroke for us.
We don’t have any really talented right backs in this the youth squad. Eastmond is very scared of anybody with pace whereas Clyne has pace and strength and could learn a lot from somebody like Sagna.
goonerguy – Arshavin?
EAGLESSSS – Yep our history making double winning Academy is very crap ;)
Eastmond is decent but nothing special now days full backs have to be like wingers. Gavin Hoyte technically is not good enough for arsenal when hes under pressure hes got poor compsure. Id say ayling, bartley, nordveit are better centre halves than him.
Rhema obed i dont really rate. I think we should play Daniel Boatend at RB i really do like the look of im the videos i have seen on ATVO he looks very good.
Also, it wasn’t that long ago we bought young Theo on a deal that could have been worth eight figures or some welsh dude for 5mill.
Gavin Hoyte has not looked very good for WFC, a bit disinterested and not very good positionally when I’ve seen him.
He has been warming the bench for the latter part of the season when the teaam picked up.
Quite disappointing really imo.
Centre halves have to be tall nowdays hoyte a bit short for me, Ayling, nordveit, bartley are 6ft1 plus. Our problem is we got alot of short centre halves.
Where does Gilbert’s future lie? Am I the only one who still holds an ounce of hope for him? He’s only just 22 and I refuse to believe he has lost quality. Desperate for him to be given a chance.
J apparantly we’re after this guy Luc Castaignos?????? he was top goal scorer in u17’s recently.
Arsenal needs someone to put the ball into the back of the net. The Gunnners lack real fire power. Defesnse is great but if you can’t score you are cooked. Thankw for reading Bobby Gee. Check out my lastest… http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
None of our reserve full back will make it at Arsenal. Decent enough for Championship team and mid-table premiership but nowhere near good enough for Arsenal.
With Pedro Bothelo, unprofessionalism costing him a place at Arsenal, lack of quality in Gavin Hoyte (not tall enough as a centre-half not good enough as a right back), Gilbert’s suspect temperament (To be fair he seems to have calm down this season), Arsenal has no understudy at the full back position.
It does make sens to be interested by that kid because of the the way the composition of the Champion’s league will require more home grown or lad qualifying for the local country in the squad.
It could also mean that Arsene has decided to clear out his first team: Eboue (who finished the season very well at right-back, left-back), Clichy (wanted at 15 Millions by Roma/Barcelona), or the reserve who will not make it but still cost money.
I hope this kid comes in for Eboue.
btw. Clyne is born in 1991 so he is the same age as Ayling, Bartley and Cruise. It seems like the reserves back-line already formed for next season with these four.
JS. Could you do an article about who you think will be released this summer? I’m guessing Bischoff and Randall might have to make way. Do you think the likes of Eastmond, Jet and Murphy might get loaned out? I think JET and Murphy might do very well in the Championship while Eastmond would probably go to League 2.
Also, it would be great to get an article about our GK situation ahead of next season.
We have many center-backs and not many right-backs but lads like Nordtveit or Ayling can play there in the future so I’m not convinced is he really needed.
Bobby Gee: By the way, we scored as many goals as Utd in the league this season without Eduardo or Rosicky starting once.
makes you really uninterested in bobby gees blog some of the stuff he says doesnt it
yh but the problem with our attack is they are injury prone players, thats unlikely to change. Also how many games did we fail to score in this year far too many. And our highest topgoal scorer in the PL was what 12, if we had one proper striker that may have been enough.
No way in cats hell chance Eastmond will ever make it at Arsenal. So I’d encourage a move for this kid if he’s anywhere near potential discussed (hyped). We have no real back up for Sagna and no one coming through. I really liked Gilbert but I think he’ll sign for Leicester.
We should sign him because if I hear AW say once more that we could have signed someone who turns out to be world class i’ll tear my hair out he always says it
To make it in the first team as 19-20 in Arsenal you have to be amazing. Eastmond is not that bad as many people think. He was playing in the u18 team who dominated in FA youth cup and the leauge. He have faced world class talent already and is still very very young. I believe in this guy as much as in wilshere. Hoyte was our current RB behind sagna and eboue but after the pool game I am very impressed with eastmonds matureity passing game. sure he needs to improve his quality and defending but he is 17-18. He will improve in no time becouse he seems to be very clever. I hope many from this u18 side get a chance in pre-season to show how good they really are. They are amazing!
Jamie what about Kerrea Gilbert mentioned by Don? From Yours updates I think he had a decent season and even scored a goal or is he going the same way like Justin Hoyte?
Eastmond and Cruise are both too slow to be successful. The modern game requires the full backs to attack forward and track back quickly. I’ve watched the two in the youth set up and they’re the weakest in the back four. You need to have that pace and Gibbs has been successful because of his pace and abilities going forward.
I rather foresee Arsene trying lansbury in that position. He tried Lansbury during the preseason and in the CC a few times. Lansbury has pace and power and is good going forward. Arsene might just do for Lansbury what he’s done for Gibbs this season.
To make it in the first team as 19-20 in Arsenal you have to be amazing. Eastmond is not that bad as many people think. He was playing in the u18 team who dominated in FA youth cup and the leauge. He have faced world class talent already and is still very very young.
^^^^name one world class player he has played. Oh, wait, I forgot about that time he took on Messi, Henry, Ribery, Pele, Zico and Olivier Bierhoff.
Samuel- world class player is not the same as world class talent! Maybe you should read carefully and don’t try to be a smartass. That was not even funny. Also world class talents doesnt’t always make it all the way to the top and stay at the top. If Eastmond put real hard work he will make it I think.
I don’t understand the difference between ‘world class player’ and ‘world class talent’ in this respects obviously. Even if you were to change the playing field and say ‘world class talent = best of the best u21 or so’ then is eastmond playing bojan, balotelli, wilshere, iago every week? The best u21 full back in the world right now is Santon of Inter. This is as close as ‘world class talent’ can get, I guess, and playing the Fulham reserves or whoever once in a while is not on a similar scale.
No, I mean he have faced some of the best in his age group. obviously u21 star is closer to senior sides than u18 but I mean some u19 star. If we gonna compare players we have to compare them against their respective age group and see their potential otherwise we can say all junior player wont make it simply becouse they are shit against u17, u21 and seniors. Its only my opinion and only the future will tell if we had right about Eastmond. He have to step it up a bit more for sure but as I said he seems to be smart and if he works hard and learn from sagna he will make it.
The chances of Eastmond making it are one against a million. He just isn’t good enough and we have to accept that. Like somebody mentioned earlier, Lansbury would be a much better prospect for that RB slot. I really believe in Lansbury and, at first at least, RB might be an ideal position for him.
Clyne is very very good in a very average Palace team. We see him as the best we have had since Kenny Sansom, and we know what happened to him. Personally looking at Arsenal, it centre backs, a holding midfielder and a goalscorer who doesn’t laze around in an offside position is what you need. I think he will stay for a year or two having seen Bostock languish on the fringes of nowhere this season at Spurs
I agree that Easmond is unlikely to make it at Arsenal. He is a decent player, but he and Cruise lack pace. They could be very good in a decent championship team or mid-table premiership. I dread to see him exposed against Ronaldo, Messi, Robinho, or even Malouda. Pacy, powerful winger would tear them apart. It does not mean that they will not get a decent career a la Moritz Volz, Steve Sidwell, James Harper. They are good decent dependable hard working players, but without the required flash of brilliance.
I also believe that Henry Lansbury would be better suited at right back. The problem is that he see himself as a midfield player. IMHO as good as his passing and shooting abilities are, he does not have the tricks and guile to be a world class midfield player. The same way Gibb can be a world class left back, but not a world class left midfield. Lansbury will never be a robinho/kaka or even wilshere and that what you needs to be an Arsenal player today.