American teenager Luis Gil is mulling over a move to Arsenal after Liam Brady offered the Pateadores Soccer Club graduate scholarship forms with the club.
Gil has been training full-time at London Colney since May and the diminutive midfielder has even featured in a handful of behind closed doors games for Steve Gatting’s Under 16’s.
Luis is the second youngest player in the US Under 17 residency program and was one of the US Under 17 team’s top players in the recent CONCACAF Championships. A goal and two assists from the play-maker against Cuba set the tone and although the American side didn’t get the chance to win the tournament due to he H1N1 strain of Swine Flu breaking out in Mexico, Gil was especially singled out for applause.
A decision will be made after America’s parciptation in the forthcoming Under 17 World Cup in Nigeria but it has been reported that two Spanish clubs have also approached Gil’s representatives and are trying to negotiate a contract. That said, Arsenal are the front-runners but as things stand Luis’ future is still up in the air.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Plz not another central attacking midfielder. We need wingers and quality full backs not central players
Yeah, as much as I love creative midfielders there is such a thing as too many. If he genuinely is the next Zidane or Iniesta, ok, but only if they are going to be THAT great.
Until then can we not focus on finding the next Beckenbauer or Stoichkov or Roberto Carlos or Gigi Buffon? It seems like for every 1 young player we buy, we buy another central midfielder. We seem to only train them to play there as well – look at Eastmond and Jay Thomas moving there and Kieran Gibbs moving away from it recently.
If he is going to be worthy of the first team, great. Scouting in America can only come good considering how popular the sport is with youngsters there and by the law of averages a country 5 times the size of ours is going to come out with some superstars in the future. If we can get the first American Footballing Superstar it will herald unprecidented money making opportunities in a largely untouched area that everyone is trying to crack. But another creative central midfielder just makes me bored and annoyed.
You only say these things because he is american. I can tell you that we produce quality young players but they are never in the right enviroment to make it to the proffessional level. Every year the u17s always play extremely well against the Brazilians and go back and forth with the wins verse them. If an American kid gets the right chance, he can make it. I wish Jozy Altidore would have come up the Arsenal way.
J, have you heard the reports linking Zhano Ananidze to us? Do you rate him highly? What are the chances he singes for us?
Gibbs for example played in many different positions including central medfield and has now broken into the first team squad as a full back. So he wont necessarily play in central midfield. If he is offered a contract he must be something special
KV – Zhano Ananidze has massive potential from what I have seen of him (albeit just internet clips if I’m honest) Certainly the feedback I have been given on him is that he is one for the future. Again though, he will be coming into a position where we have a huge wealth of young talent. Saying that though, he must be something special for Arsenal to consider buying him as we never buy for the sack of it!
Its not because hes american, but its because players like barazite,lansbury,jet, are not getting chances and we have to many.
Shane – Like TheCritic has already stated, it’s not because he is American, it’s because we have far too many players that play in that position already. Moreover, the clearly great young talent we have in those positions are still not getting enough games there as they’re being kept out of the side by shit like Diaby and Eboue. Eboue works hard and had a somewhat decent game today but i just don’t know how Diaby gets into this side. Many, many more points will be dropped stupidly like today with clowns like him playing. I’m not blaming him for the result but he’s one of a few who switch off rather stupidly when we’re cruising in games. He doesn’t offer the side much and i think Ramsey’s already a better player than. I’m livid right now!
Samuel – I agree with just about everything you say except for the States being 5 times bigger than ours. Try 20-30 times bigger mate. :)
I agree TJ what makes me mad is man utd dropped points and we still can’t take advantage just gets me mad.
Speaking of needed wingers Benifca’s Di Maria is awesome!!! Good luck to the American!
Eboue’s decision making is awful at times! OK, he works hard for the team and brings a good balance on the right hand side, but sometimes he is just a class below the others. The same can be said for Diaby. When they are on form they are useful players, but sometimes I think they hamper the teams positive play.
I thought Ramsay should have got some playing time today. He often does something special when he comes into games. Eduardo should have probably been brought on straight after West Ham’s equaliser as we needed somethink differant up top at that time I felt.
As for Mannone he shouldn’t have started today. He’s had a good run in the team and has played very well, I just think now that Almunia is fit and ready to play he should resume in goal. Mannone continually makes mistakes that lead to the opposition scoring. I’m pretty certain if Almunia had started he would have parried Diamaniti’s free kick away from goal and Cole wouldn’t have scored!
VanPersie got clobbered in the box making that header that Green saved?WTF
Lance – What’s funny is that even though many people don’t like the guys on Le Grove, you can’t deny the fact that they’re die hard Gooners like you and me. I read that blog whenever i can just for the sheer entertainment (never comment as i simply don’t have the time to sit there and have a convo) and they say the same thing – and some of them know what they’re on about. We can’t all be wrong. Those two (Diaby and Eboue in a RW position) give the side nothing at all. Yes, they’ll do a few good things in a game but their faults far outweigh the positives. They’re not good enough to play in this side, and never will be i’m afraid (well Eboue can occasionally play as a RB – BUT THAT’S IT!).
On Le Grove they’re baffled as to how Vela can’t get a look-in ahead of those two and i have to agree. They’re going on about AW fucking up royally today by not freshening things up when we were 2-0 up by bringing on Eduardo and Bendtner (like i was going crazy about come the 60th minute when i could see we’d handed the initiative to them with our arrogant, lacklustre display) to keep our momentum going and keep us on the front foot – and i have to agree with them again.
We have the squad to win big things this year – we really, really do, but i knew it at the beginning of the season and it’s proving to be the case. AW, despite putting this group of players together, seems to go with certain favourites when it’s clear there are better options available, is the only person who can hold this group back from greatness this year with his ego and hardheaded ways. It’s absolute bollocks when he says Eboue and Diaby give us defensive balance because they clearly don’t. Diaby is an accident waiting to happen anywhere around our penalty area and Eboue plays as a fucking roaming playmaker as if he’s Arshavin or some shit. He rarely tracks back and supports Sagna. Somebody on this very blog, said he’s a good tackler the other day, i told that guy he was wrong as Eboue is quite poor at tackling, which he proved today on the build-up to the free-kick Diaby conceded which led to their first goal when he had a good 2/3 chances to tackle Hines on his run all the way down the fucking wing but just watched him til it was too late.
I’m pissed off right now and i’m sorry JS, i know this is a senior team issue but i had to unload.
You see? I just wrote that long comment and Davo is saying pretty much exactly the same thing. All Gooners can’t be wrong. AW doesn’t always know and i would respect him far more if he just admitted after this latest fuck-up that he got it wrong.
Regarding the goalkeeper situation, i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, Szczechny is the best of the lot of them. He fills me with more confidence than Almunia, Fabianski and Mannone. Fantastic prospect and i hope he gets to show that again on Wednesday.
The slating of eboue and diaby really annoy me at times although i can see why they can frustrate people at times, they are both very good talented players. How people can say eboue is and never will be good enough for arsenal is beyond me. And diaby has the potential to be superb and i like having him in team espec for tough physical games. One thing that does make me question though is how on gods green earth wenger puts on bendtner ahead of ed or vela. I think bendtner could be good and is defo improving but ed is one of the top finishers in prem and vela is pure class
though i’m as pissed off as every other gooner in the world right now, lets keep some things in mind here, that was never a free kick (if i remember right, haven’t seen it again) and that was never a penalty! that wanker chris foy made a weak decision and cole really could have succeeded dogba at chelski with pathetic disgraceful falls like that.
mannone was at fault for the first one and i don’t want to lay into the young lad too much cuz he is young and bound to make some mistakes but i believe that this should have almunia back as number one which will be good. you just can’t play a young 3rd choice keeper and expect flawless displays. he definitely has potencial but cannot be arsenal’s keeper at this time in his career.
finally i think we lost points today not cuz of eboue or diaby in particular but cuz once again as a team we took our foot of the gas and didn’t push hard in the second half, allowed them back in the game and clearly the lesson from midweek was not learnt.
oh and i think it’s a little unfair on eboue. he does track back more or less but of course he most definitely isn’t a top quality player. (playing with the likes of arshavin and cesc too can make him look average eh?) but at least the effort is there which i just can’t say about diaby at the moment.
forget what he does or doesn’t do in a game, he just does not work hard enough for the team often just floating around not helping at all in defense and when he doesn’t have the ball. it’s like playing with two in midfield while defending which is quite frankly inexcusable for me. i can live with misplaced passes and such but the effort has to be put in like during the everton mauling.
vela, eddie or nik should have definitely played in place of eboue i feel and now i just can’t wait for the return of denilson cuz say what you want about his quality (which i actually rate very highly. just look at the comments from le boss himself about how he compared to flamini last season) but the lad always works his arse off and brings something very solid to the midfield.
Randall – On this blog i never slate any player because we tend to talk about young players here. Even the player you’ve chosen to name yourself after has drastically underperformed for the best part of a year now but i never slate him when others have as he’s still young and learning his trade. However, Eboue and Diaby are international footballers and Eboue is in his mid twenties and Diaby is approaching his mid twenties. These guys have enough experience and have had enough chances to prove themselves and they have failed IMO. There’s a shitload of young, hungry talent waiting for their chance and need to be given a chance to show what they can do. We’ll lose them eventually (like Merida at the end of the season) and it will be at the expense of mediocre players such as Eboue and Diaby. I aint being funny but i know what i see. I know i can analyse a game of football and spot deficiencies and have an open mind about it. I don’t have favourites. I love all Arsenal players as long they’re really putting the effort in and i detest the booing of your own players but you need to have the necessary quality to play for a top side like Arsenal’s too. It’s like AW is the British public and Eboue and Diaby are John and Edward and is only keeping them in because there’s something rather peculiar about them that he likes. :)
I’m not making them my scapegoats for this latest result but simply stating facts. I love Denilson too ds goon as i can clearly see he actually brings something to this side unlike Diaby IMHO.
I have not named myself on any player it is my name!
Poor result today. Any thoughts on arshavin today? Don’t get me wrong, he’s clearly a world class player, but he doesn’t half look disinterested at points and seems to be getting more noticed recently playing for Russia or tlaking about the scum or barcelona…
why do you keep saying he is training at London Colney J, when he clearly has not been…
at first I just assumed it was a mistake, but now this is bordering on absurdity…
Heem thats a load of crap. Why do you say he isn’t when I know for a fact he has been. He don’t write lies on here so back away from that now.
I have not named myself on any player it is my name!
Randall said this on October 25, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Haha….naturally, i thought that as anyone might. You’ve always seemed a big fan of his as well…maybe you’re related.
Oligooner – Yes he can be an annoying bastard at times but like all World Class players he could be having an absolute nightmare of a game and just create a bit of magic out of nothing.
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He needs to go and play for Arsenal. Staying in America will kill his chances of becoming a good player. Tim Howard knew this. Tim Howard is the world class player the USA has. Donovan is a total wasted talent. http://bobbygee.wordpress.com/
thats fair enough tj. and is there any news for the carling cup yet?
you can watch Gil play against Spain right now
Looks like he could be converted to a winger…check out some of his tricks v Spain:
http://www.fifa.com/newscentre/videos/player.html#ch=u17nigeria&id=1123759
^^ Go to 1:30mins ^^
I dont get how people do not see the upside of Diaby. Then again, it is the same people that said Song wasnt good enough. Anyways, this kid is born is november of 1993. I doubt he is going to conflict with the current players going for those attacking midfield positions. So all of you are basically saying that we should never sign another young attacking midfielder?
Tim Howard actually did develope in America and played in the MLS while Donavon actually played for Bayern Leverkusen in his early days so your point there was just terrible.
ArmChair critics out in force! Eboue is so shit barca and juve want him! i mean u guys dissing eboue and diaby, im guessing u said the same about flamini,Song,helb,that guy who now plays for city, toure, walcott all have struggled in the early part of the arsenal careers but came good with support from the managers, players and fans! A guy runs his arse off and tries his best for the club and all you get is ArmChair respondents that just slate the guy. Ray Parlour used to run around like a headless chicken when he first started at arsenal- i couldnt stand him but respected his effort he put in, the guy went on to become an invincible and a legend. Stop player-hating our own players!
I will say Eboue is a better right back and should only play winger verse the top teams, because he can help on defense plus good teams attack more so we dont need the same creativity to break them down. When we play lower teams though, there is no point in having Eboue at wing.
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Yeah cos Barca want Eboue to take Dani Alves’ place innit? Or maybe, just maybe, they think he’s a brilliant RW and want him to take Messi’s spot in the side. Nobody’s fooling me, nobody can make me think Eboue or Diaby are class players. Good players, average i would say and very good to have as back-up but that’s it. No way they should start in Arsenal’s team IMHO. I seriously doubt Diaby would even get into the Spud’s starting line-up. He’s at about the same level as Jenas IMO.