Arsenal are closing in on a deal to sign highly rated Chelsea winger Frank Nouble after he turned down professional forms with the West London outfit, with a lack of first team opportunities cited as the major reason.
Liam Brady has been an admirer of the powerful prospect for some time and previously tried to sign him as a 15-year-old. Frank is also known to be a fan of the youth system at Arsenal and is close friends with midfield maestro Jack Wilshere. However, Tottenham and Aston Villa have also been alerted and will offer serious competition should the Gunners make a bid.
The 17-year-old is regarded by many as one of the most promising forwards in the country. He featured 5 times for the Blues’ Under 18’s during their Youth Cup run during the 2007-2008 campaign and turned out 21 times in the Academy League. Last season he was more of a regular and cemented his place as ‘one to watch’ with a stunning volley at Old Trafford in the F.A Youth Cup.
After making his Reserve debut in 2007, he is now recognised as a regular and has played against Arsenal’s second-string on a handful of occasions. By Christmas he already had 11 goals for the Youth team and a handful for the Reserves. He’s been tipped by many Chelsea fans as one player who can really kick on into the first team.
Nouble is an avid Manchester United fan who was scouted playing for Millwall before switching to Chelsea as an 11-year-old. He’s level headed too and admits he would have been an accountant if his football career didn’t work out.
Frank is a powerful, aggressive, and pacy left winger who can play up front with ease. The Ivorian born starlet has also taken part in various athletics competitions with much success. Many have compared him to Liverpool’s Ryan Babel and in terms of playing style they are similar. It’s expected the 17-year-olds future will be resolved in the next two weeks with a transfer very much on the cards.
Article By – J.Sanderson
This must mean sunu is going. Nouble like henry actually
How likely is this? Obviously as a big Chelsea youth follower the news of Frank rejecting a deal is a bit disappointing but a link to a likely move to Arsenal is a bit of a shocker.
I like him, your description is very accurate, but right now he’s very much an athlete first with a lot of raw technical ability to harness. He’s getting there, and to see him make this move would disappoint me a lot.
I don’t think so. If you’ve been following the blog over the summer then you’ll have seen the news that Brady wants a new youth striker? and I think Nouble would be that man.
Sunu should continue his work out wide where he’s looked really good.
Sunu a bit short? Hes only 5ft9/10 ? ARsenal need a target man or a big man like bendtner, barazite etc
philiprolfe – It’s very much on the cards. His first choice might be Man Utd but I’m sure he’d rather stay in London and I know for a fact that he has a good relationship with many of the Arsenal youth players.
He’s somebody the coaching staff would mould and develop because he is quite raw.
http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/soccer/news/story?id=3806980
some information about this player.
Btw for anybody interested there is a short but interesting interview with him below. He talks about supporting Man Utd and training plus much more. I found it quite interesting.
http://baconsblueblazer.blogspot.com/2008/03/interview-with-frank-nouble.html
Oh undoubtedly he’s well contacted with a lot of the Arsenal lads, but the speed this seems to have come about has just surprised me. A coupla weeks ago it seemed he’d signed a new deal here but then not only do we hear he’s rejected one, but seems to be off to Arsenal.
Next year would be an interesting one for him as he certainly would have been first choice reserve left winger, and too good for an expanding under-18 team with 14 new scholars (at least.
I take your point mate. I don’t think any Arsenal fans who knew about Nouble would have expected this news, but football happens like this. I’m not sure if it’s too late for a deal to a done, but I’d imagine he’ll be on his way now.
The signing of Danny Struddige, who is funny enough an Arsenal fan, probably tipped the balance.
Yeah it would have been an interesting year for him and it’s something he needs to get sorted ASAP.
I’ve seen a lot of him in the last three years. He’s Heskey-like and at the moment very much a blunt instrument: all pace and power. I imagine he’s been annoyed at having to play wide a lot, but needs to add a hell of a lot more variety to his game. That hasn’t really happened in the past year.
JS any news on george thorne, Jamie edge, Pablo saranova? Are arsenal going to buy any wingers this summer?
nouble signed new deal with chelsea a few days ago. according to chelsea tv [blues news 02.07]
Jamie Edge has been signed as far as I know. The other two were just speculation and rumours.
That’s kinda what this piece is about mate, if you’re getting Nouble you’re getting a striker who has essentially played left wing for the last 18 months.
that’s to john obviously
JS what ur understanind on felipe melo? is he goign to juevntus also is blaise matuidi coming to arsenal?
I remeber wactching nouble play against Thomas Cruise he wasnt really impressive. He seems to rely on his pace and height not sure how good techically he is.
Sounds very promising, although his love for Manchester United is slightly disturbing.
As J said, we need a youth striker to provide extra competition, and this lad may well be able to do that.
philiprolfe – Thank you for clearing that up.
Gianni – Spot on mate.
John – Melo will complete his move to Juventus shortly. We suggested last summer Matuidi could come this summer and from what I understand there has been some talks but I don’t know much about it.
Our previous article on him is here –
http://youngguns.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/arsenal-scouting-matuidi-but-no-contact-with-etienne/
No evidence to suggest Arsenal are close to signing young Nouble at all. I reckon you’re just read the sky sports article and then linked him to us.
JS what is going to happen to senderos? His he staying or going?
Also is Aaron ramsey going on loaj? i heard Birmingham wanted to take him
Wow 17 years and he wants to be in the first team! I guess he must be like Pato or Messi. I am not a pro in judging these things but I do believe that taking all that pressure so early might ruin your career. The only thing that he should be concerned about right now would be to see if Chelsea have a definite plan for him and if so what is it. Once he knows that he should just concentrate on developing his skills and have a bit of patience. By the time he is 22 he should think of featuring in the first team regularly.
Also Chelsea should start looking into their youth more often than looking to spend 40-50 million on some marquee signing. This would give the youth in Chelsea a huge confidence booster and also many other young stars will follow. This will also keep the talent we have from looking into other clubs.
This is just my opinion
He’s no gem.
arsenal need experieced players so that signing won`t make any difference for the team that we are expecting next season
Sand: I think there is quite a difference between wanting first team football and knowing your are thought of in future plans for the first team. At the Arsenal academy we are very good at telling players like it is, either “work hard and you can make it”, “work hard and you’ll get a chance” or “sorry, but we’ll help you find employment elsewhere”. Chelsea doesn’t seem to think of its youths in the same regard. If you are the most talented tea boy with a great education in a career (for a Chelsea academy funded by Roman isn’t to be sniffed at) and you have no chance of promotion – in fact, they hire from outside without giving you a chance – are you going to stay or look elsewhere to prove your worth?
I don’t know anything about the kid but our youth scouting policy has bought us RVP, Theo, Bendtner and Vela as u20 strikers so they must know what they are looking for. Also, we are on good terms with Chelsea in terms of buying and selling players (Cashley/Gallas, Diarra) so I don’t see why another trade would be out of the question, especially as Anchelotti has never been one to focus on youth development at Milan.
Samuel, how can the whole Cashley/Gallas afair be considered as a sign of us and Chelsea being on ‘good terms’? Was a terrible situation, and I think they’d just got fed up with Diarra’s impatience and off-loaded him to us, with nobody else in contact and willing to pay his wages on deadline day, where he was, of course, equally impatient – someone could come up with a conspiracy theory for that… Ancelotti might be a bit more willing to negotiate though yes. (I’m aware that his involvment in any deal for Nouble would be minimal).
Is he similar to JAy simpson? and what about jay simpson… does he have a future with arsenal? Id want Jay simpson to stay. I like players that would die just to play for arsenal. Keep him a while and then sell him like frazier campbell for lik 4mil. But i hope jay stays.
also luc castingos the netherland player. i spelt the name wrong. HAve we signed him? and wellington from brazil? ITs cheaper to sign young players and pay them low wages on 6 year contracts i guess untill the stadium debt is gone or untill we start wining ATLEAST 2 throphies per season.
Sanderson, I am sure you said Sunu had signed for Lyon a couple of months back? Is that not correct
Samuel my point here is that both club and the player must make effort. I am not talking about arsenal and the youth system there because I am not an arsenal fan. I am a chelsea fan and I want my favorite club to stop being exploited by other clubs and also want the club to hold onto the talent we already have, nurture them and start making this a club where youth and experience go hand in hand. I got nothing against arsenal but I really only care what happens in Chelsea and that’s it.
This will really help. http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
When ever i have seen Frank Nouble play for Chelsea’s reserve team, i personally think that he looks twice the football player up front than he ever does on the wings IMO.
I went to secondary school with this guy, were gd friends. As a gunners fan im defintely going 2 advise him to come to arsenal. beacsue he is already got star quality, every 1 could see it when he was as young in year 7 and playing football on the courts with the older guys and me. very humble guy
Is he better than the likes of sunu murphy watt and better than the potential of afobe and freeman. Also what is going on with gilbert is he training with arsenal or with another team
Guv: Because, arguably, both clubs got what they wanted out of the deals. Cashley might have been a cunt in how it went about but we were on good enough speaking terms for Diarra to go ahead with no problems (what happened after isn’t an issue). If there are further disillusioned Chelsea players we want, we should have no trouble dealing with them.
Sand: Fair enough but I don’t think it’s exploitation – if it was, all transfers would be. You would get a fee to cover development and potential costs. And your club is in a position to spend money on the best, and wants to. Until the club can get some stability you will not be able to nurture young talent: Jose looked like he was going to start putting faith in Sinclair and co but from the fact he lost his job, I think we can tell that it didn’t work out. Your club bangs on about financial stability but while Roman still have an unrealistic goal of… whatever… then it’s not going to happen. It has taken Wenger 10+ years to get to a position where he feels comfortable giving Wilshere an occasional CL appearance in a meaningless game. Abrahamovich tried to change yr youth system a year or two after he came in, lets say 2004 for the sake of argument, how many managers and tactical changes and different additions and sales etc. are you going to have in the time Wenger built 1 side and now has another? Worrying about what happens to this kid will get you nowhere while the shelflife of everything involved with your first team is uncertain. Which just goes to show why he might want out!
Samuel: First of the exploitation I am talking about is the transfer fee that other clubs demand when we want to buy players. Everyone thinks that Chelsea is a money pit and they can grab how much ever they want.
AS for the youth system we have, I know that the young players here don’t have much of a chance here to play in the first team like they do at Arsenal. I also agree that it took Wenger 10 years to come to this level. But what i am trying to say here is that I would like to see Chelsea develop that knida system too. And for that to happen we have to start at some point and somewhere right? If we start letting all the youth slip away then the entire youth system will be without a cause wouldn’t it? The reason i am keen on holding onto these players are because we have a old squad and many of them have around 2-3 years left in their system which gives us plenty of time to get some of our young players the experience they need. If we start letting them get away then we will have to spend millions every year and reshape every time.
Even if we take 2004 as starting time its 2009 now and five years have passed and I am yet to see a youth player make first team on a regular basis.
I know that Roman is chasing CL glory that has eluded him thus far and because of this we have seen many managers over these 5 years.
But as I told before it takes effort from both ends to make this work. Club should change its view on certain things and also the players must believe that they will be able achieve something here.
In the end all I want to see is Chelsea being self sustainable without the help of Roman and start making profit instead of loss.Also a place where it makes players wanna make end their career with.
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Yes, be the young man…nice-nice-nice. ^_^…V
Sand – I appreciate what you’re saying about wanting your club to be self sustainable without Roman’s help and all but you guys are known as a ‘moneybags’ club who have bought their success. Money is the sole reason Chelsea are in the position they find themselves in right now. Hence the reason why they are so hated throughout this country.
Please don’t get it twisted. I don’t have nothing against you personally and i respect what you’re saying but Chelsea are seen as a ‘money pit’ the same way Citeh are nowadays. (They have even gazumped you guys on that front). In the past you guys have paid over the market value for the likes of Essien, Drogba, Carvalho, Ferreira, Mikel and Duff.
Money is what made these guys choose Chelsea. Money is what made Robben, Essien and Mikel (despite the fact that he initially signed for them) choose Chelsea over the most successful team in this country over the past 15 years or so, Man United.
Money is what Chelsea have used to steal Kenyon from the Mancs. Money is what allowed you guys to steal Frank Arnesen off of the Spuds. It’s also what enticed that money-grabbing prick Cashley to creep behind our backs to broker a deal with you lot.
Money is also the reason why you’re club aren’t where Leeds United are right now (or thereabouts), as Roman came along and dug you out of a debt-ridden hole and bought a world-class team before acquiring the services of a decent, vastly over-rated somewhat, Jose Mourinho who brought about some success before his hugely inflated ego got him kicked out on his arse (albeit, with a handsome pay-off).
I don’t mind telling you i hate Chelsea. But it aint about that right now. It’s about Roman wanting instant success and living in a dream world if he believes pumping a few million pounds into your youth academy is going to produce players of Messi’s and Pato’s calibre (like you put it earlier) a couple of years down the line. As long as he wants success asap, your youth system will not be allowed to grow and reach it’s full potential the way you would like, even though the first team may have their own success.
I’d like to reiterate that this is not a dig at you. Not at all. I respect the fact that you’ve come on this blog to share your views with us regarding this saga. As has your fellow Chelsea fan, PhilipRolfe, who not long ago was trumpeting your academy (and others) just cos i mentioned something about how impressive our very own Hale End set-up was after witnessing it first-hand. Even Frank Lampard was talking about how bad the system over there was not too long ago, how depressing it was, and how it needs to improve. That’s not my words, that’s your very own vice-captain saying that Philip, so don’t have a go at me for it mate.
I’m no expert when it comes to your academy or anyone else’s. I’m not even gonna go on like i’m an expert and know the in’s and out’s of our own one. I don’t. I’m not saying we have the best academy set-up in the country either. I certainly wouldn’t know that cos i don’t follow academies up and down our land. But i do know AW, Bouldy and Brady have put it into a magnificent state and my fellow Gooners can look forward to many more promising youngsters coming through over the years…..
Something Roman’s money has yet to buy.
Btw, i’m not saying this kid will choose to come to us or he should or whatever but he seems a decent prospect. And John, i remember him giving Cruise a very hard time in that game mate.
I’ve got Frank Nouble as a friend on facebook, the real frank nouble not just some fan club or someone pretending. And he claims all this talk about him is speculation
All Lampard said was that it was disappointing not seeing more make it through. I’ve seen as much of our academy as anyone, probably more, and I know there’s talent there. Perhaps as much as Arsenal – the only indication I have of that is that head to head, we match up quite well most of the time. The difference is that your manager chooses to play them more than we have or perhaps ever will. Whether that’s right or wrong, who knows, but ultimately the successes of each club since Abramovich took over will speak for itself.
Now maybe Arsenal’s way could be considered more admirable, but Chelsea’s way was perhaps born out of necessity in the short term. With such an outlay, success is needed, and I’ve said it for years, until Roman gets his CL, it won’t change. Wenger doesn’t have that same sort of single-minded desire for end product and seemingly isn’t bothered about it (else he’d spend the cash we’re assured he has). It is frustrating for me because I watch these kids develop, and then grow disappointed when they don’t get their chance against a Southend or a Watford. I’ve watched Stoch from age 15 to almost 20 now, and when you see him get shunned in favour of Quaresma, your heart sinks a bit.
I know there’s talent, I believe Lampard does too, but he was also right in saying that it’s disappointing to find there’s no progression. Guess Nouble feels the same.
Chelsea have bought alot of young players in the youth sides arsenal have bought very few more are coming through the ranks nowdays and wenger had a 10 year plan whereby more english players will come through. Arsenal had a new plan for 9-10 and Lansbury was like the first to get full recogniton.
Regarding Chelsea being self sustainable to have the same level of success and using its youth set-up, that is not going to happen.
Clubs have different business models and different fan’s expectation. The problem is that with the new rich money attitude, fan’s expectation has gone through the roof. Club owners should not better than feeding that frenzy, but they still do. Supporters of Chelsea expect and demand success and if the club was less successful for a while, a lot of glory hunters would leave and switch to the new top dog. All of them leaving would mean less revenue (no more sold game against mid-ranking team, less tea-shirt, less sponsor money, …) and affect their financial attractivity for established star. (BTW it has already started).
A academy take ages before developping good players on a consistent basis. Youth team coach must be good and given time. Only now is Arsenal starting to see the benefit of having a good academy set-up for the last 10 years.
Last year, a lot of the youth team staff was let go and with Frank Arnesen promoted to the First team affair, he will spend less time on the youth team set-up. Chelsea’s academy will suffer. Changing things every couple of year delay the success of the academy.
We’ve not really bought any more have we John?
Chelsea: Tejera, Kakuta, Stoch, Tore, Mitrovic, Lalkovic, Prosenik, Pirez, Heimann, Sebek, Walker, Gordon, Clifford, Kaby, Philliskirk, Borini, Sala, van Aanholt, Bruma, Mellis, Woods, Taiwo, Bertrand (23)
Arsenal: Szczesny, Mannone, McDermott, Nordveit, Bartley, Miquel, Angha, Edge, Pedro, Coquelin, Merida, Ozyakup, Randall, Barazite, Sunu, Neita (16)
Sure it’s more, but hardly the ‘very few’ you were on about. It’s the way the game is at this level now.
Yes sound is good
This could be a great addition Bobby Gee
http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
Arsenal youth team final: Shea, Ayling, Cruise, Eastmond, Wilshere, Frimpong, Lanbsury, jay thomas, muprhy, henderson, watt,
Mate i am talking about under 18 u look at chelsea under 16s u would see tons of players bought. Arsenal are producing more at that age.
Chelsea havent really produced a player in the youth team including John terry who was at west ham
and Arsenal have produced how many first teamers right now? Gibbs isn’t a first teamer, and if you’re saying JT was at West Ham then Gibbs was at Wimbledon, development pre-16 is all beyond comparison anyway.
My lists were reserve and under-18, you wanna talk Chelsea u16? As best my record-keeping shows, we have England’s Under-16 goalkeeper, England’s Under-16 centre-back (aged 14, now in the u17s), and a grand total of ONE signed from a foreign club. If you’re such an authority on our younger age groups, feel free to continue.
I no our youth team is great, but they are suffering a lot with new signings year in year out, why have a youth academy and not use it. Its such a waste of talent, and Nouble is a fantastic tallent, why spend 60 million on Ibra who is 28 when you can spend nothing and produce tallent like nouble? Is he actaully going to Arsenal / Man u?
there’s a lot of arsenal lads who are first teamers out there, just not at Arsenal. to make it at a top four club now you have to be world class and players like that are not just good they’re one-in-a-million. daniel sturridge might actually be one… i can’t think of any others though there’s hope for jack wilshire. ferguson’s famous crop of youngsters of the 90s was a one off, never to be repeated phenomenon.
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Above-board!
Right-minded for you honey!