Arsenal’s Premier Academy League Final stars Benik Afobe and Chuks Aneke have linked up with the England Under 17 squad ahead of the forthcoming UEFA European U17 Championship Finals. This year’s tournament will take place in Liechtenstein.
The duo both played key parts in the Young Lions qualification for the tournament. Afobe finished top scorer with his strike partner, the much talked about Connor Wickham, struggling to match the pace set by the Gunners marksman. Aneke also weighted in with goals, although he is battling for a starting place in a competitive squad.
Manchester United, defeated by Arsenal en-route to the Under 18 League Final, have three representatives while Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton all have two each. John Peacock’s side kick off their Euro campaign against Czech Republic on Tuesday 18th of May, followed by Greece on the 21th and Turkey on the 24th. The top two nations in each group will qualify for the semi-final where they will face either France, Spain, Portugal or Switzerland.
Surprisingly Martin Angha wasn’t included in the initial Switzerland squad despite impressing during a friendly against the France team captained by Paul Pogba last week. Peacock spoke of his delight with the squad he’s selected in an interview with UEFA.com:
“It’s a good group of players. There is a lot of potential there but that’s all there is at the moment. We have to continue to keep working hard as a group. If we keep doing what we can do we will be there or thereabouts by the end of the tournament, but there are good teams against us that are going to try and stop us playing. Overall I’m delighted with the group I have and I look forward to working with them in the finals.”
The prestigious tournament top scorer award has previously been won by Wayne, Rooney (2002), Cesc Fàbregas (2004), Bojan Krkić (2007) and more recently Danijel Aleksić. Afobe and Aneke are gunning to join those big names when the tournament kicks off on the 18th.
Wickham was playing rather regularly for Ipswich though which might be the reason he lags behind Afobe in goalscoring records for the U-18 team.
Just realized that J is talking about the national team, so ignore my last post. Sorry.
Conor wickham is banging in goals in the championship forget youth football LMAO a 17 to hold his own in the chamopionship is something special the kid is a superb talent. Hes got the physical strength but also the brains he looks a top top player. I hope arsenal try and go for him.
This competition is very important and alot of young footballers make thier name in this tournament. I remeber henri lansbury single handly get England to the final and got himself injured during the semi final he looked the best midfielder in the competition. There was also eden hazard who was brilliant and so was bojan krkic.
Rhys Murphy as well looked outstanding technically and physically.
Connor WIckham is a good talent but Afobe and Freeman are better.
He has scored 4 goals in 27 games and I am sure if Afobe pr Freeman were in the team they would have scored more.
And I hope they get to prove it next year
I dont care when it comes to england youth teams and arsenal players. The england managers and coaches seem completly inept and some of there decisions are ridiculous.
Only 2 Arsenal players in the England U17s, and just the one (Cruise) in the U19 squad. Why aren’t more of our youngsters being included?
Bartley, Watt, Ayling, JET, Deacon, Murphy all these players can make it in their respective team especially Bartley and JET both of them are incredible talent.
So are Aneke and Afobe best players(Arsenal players)in that generation?Or maybe we have better players from other countries?About Aleksic,I am from Serbia and Aleksic is probably our biggest talent(even bigger than Adem Ljajic who was suposed to be bought by Man Utd but then he ended up in Fiorentina).You better take a look at him(he plays for Genoa)that kid will be star and he’s only 19!!!
You say he is only 19 like that is super young. Anyways , I am actually picking Serbia for the semi finals of the world cup this year. If they fall on the other side of the bracket then Spain, I think they could make the finals. I think with the bad coaching of some of the bigger sides like Argentina, Brazil, and France. That will end up leaving Netherlands vs Ghana/Germany or England (havent made up my mind yet) and on the other side Spain vs Serbia with the final Spain verse Netherlands.
You forgot to mention Sead Hajrovic is in the Switzerland squad. Any idea why Angha was not included?
I’m looking forward to watching some of the stars of the future strutting their stuff!
Rhys murphy and henri lansbury were the 2 best players for england in that under 17 tournment hopefully aneke and afobe can do the same
I actually think that Angha is a year younger.
how is luke freeman not in that squad? Even Nico? I dont rate the way the england set up works. Dont they watch r u18’s or somthing.
Freeman is too old
Conor Wickham for me will be Englands best player. Its ridicolous wickham playing for the under 17s hes going to look like a world class striker i fear.
Playing in the championship against 6ft ,3, 4 defenders week in week out and then playing for the under 17s against midgets or lightweights is going to be too easy for him. I wont be suprised if he ends up top scorer and best player in the tournament
Please Bojan was playing for Barcelona at that age. Just because the level of club your at and there desperate attempt to keep a hold of their young talent which meens young talents often get first team games. Last time I checked, Luke Freeman played in the FA cup at 15 years old. Not saying Wickham isnt good, I am just saying a young player playing 1st team for a championship club is automatically better than a youth player playing academy ball at a top club,
It is on the UEFA website that Angha is included in the Switzerlands squad?
http://www.uefa.com/under17/teams/player=250017746/index.html
Angha isn’t included, but he’s a year younger then the rest of the squad.
The swiss defenders in the squad are: Felitti, Schmid, Zangger, Zarkovic, Hajrovic, Desole
where can you watch the matches
You can watch these matches on Eurosport mate.
So we only have 2 players at the u17 tourney? That is not good for a club that prides it self on its academy. By the way isnt Hajrovic on the switzerland squad?
Its more because of the stupidity of the coaches then players talent
I am happy we are producing British talent tho. We don’t have to listen to a million rumours every year about them joining Barcelona.
Well it wasn`t more than about a half year ago Barcelona wanted to offer both of them contracts…
Yh i am getting fed up with the rumours.
I really rate Ramsey and lansbury i think both these players could be special both british but both technically gifted. We need a core of British players to win trophies especially in the premiership. If fabregas does go i think we can replace him.
We don’t need a core of british players to win the league lol. I just want British players because not very many play abroad so we dont have to keep hearing the rumours plus I believe that as a club, you should try a produce talents from what ever country your club is in. Arsenal is a british club so we should have some British players in it.
I do think it is harder to find “special talents” that are creative players in Britain. Jack Wilshere and Ramsey both are those special creative talent. Plus with Walcot, Lansbury,Barlley, Afobe, Aneke, etc coming through, It is a good thing for Arsenal’s longevity.
j u gt it wrong 3 arsenal players are in the squad
nico yennaris, benik afobe and chuks aneke
http://www.uefa.com/under17/teams/team=400039/squad/index.html
Don’t think that’s the squad. That’s 30 players, too many for a Euro squad. According the thefa.com only Aneke and Afobe are in the squad from Arsenal
http://www.thefa.com/England/mens-u17s/News/2010/EuroSquad
and martin angha is in the switerland squad
http://www.uefa.com/under17/teams/team=400128/squad/index.html
SAMIR CARRUTHERS? HES IN THE SQUAD?
Shane Aaron ramsey was playing in the championship at 17 for Cardiff city and hes better than most midfielders in the premiership.
Gareth bale is another one and so is Theo walcott.
Conor Wickham is a super talent hes like afobe brilliant finisher but hes better in general play. I think Arsenal should try and sign him.
SHANE PUT IT THIS WAY WOULD BENIK AFOBE SCORE GOALS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? I dont think so
Dude did you not read what I said. I think you just like to argue. I wasnt arguing about who is better, and I said that “I am not saying Wickham is bad”. LOL. Read please.
There have been a lot more flops than successes of young players playing early for a championship club. All I am saying is that just because a player plays in the championship doesnt always meen they are better talents than ones from a big club. Thats it.
By they way, in someways I wish we didnt already have 3 young left backs because we could have went after Bale. From the first time I saw him, I though he has potential to be the best leftback in the World. Pace, Dribble, Endurance, crossing, free kicks, defence, consistent, and can shoot. In my opinion he will be the “new Maicon”. I say Maicon as in outside back that is truely a dominate player.
@ Shane, have you seen Bale play left-back, he cant even do his primary job which defending [he has awful positioning], please that hype that you are perputating. Yes good talent but some decent performance over 3 months period like Nani dont make you top class
Dude he is 20 years old lol. He was plying left back as a teenager. Why does eveyone expect teenagers to be the finished article? He will be the best left back in the world barring a younger player comes along. Gareth Bale is only 20 and arleady has a tremendous amount of quality. If you can’t see that then you are blind. By the way, I did say I thought he was going to be the best left back in the world after these last few performances. I said it when he was at southampton and playing for Wales as a 16 year old.
Nope only Aneke & Afobe were selected, Nico and Angha featured in the qualifying rounds i think but weren’t selected for the actual tournament.
I am so afraid that Ramsey will not return to his best. He has to be as tough as teak if he wants to get back to where he was, and where his potential might have carried him. He would be the perfect replacement for Cesc. I don’t want to sound crazy or anything, but I’d like to see Cesc leave soon. I know Nasri might not be ready yet but it would take a huge weight off of all our shoulders’ I think. Even if he doesn’t leave this year, the question will always be there until he does leave. It’s not fair to the fans to waffle like he is doing now. I knew this would come again, but I’m getting so sick of it. I would think he would be too. I wouldn’t worry about our guys not getting into the England youh international set-up. Really I`m not worried about it. We are going in the right direction. I think it has to do with the stigma our youngsters carry. I get the feeling that the selectors think `They are brought through the Arsenal Academy, which is foreign to us because of our footballing principles` So they don`t bother selecting them. It`s a kind of Xenophbic and racist acusation, but that is part of the reason why they are not chosen I think. It`s a type of jealousy on their part.The other being that they might not integrate into the team that well because we have a very particular way of doing things, and the England coaches don`t think we can adapt to their style of coaching, which is rather presumptuous if you ask me. I myslef am being presumptuous, and I might be completely wrong, but I think I am at least partially correct in my assumptions. In short, this is why I would n`t worry about our kids not being with the England squad; the people in charge are full of shit.
I am sorry but dont say you want Fabregas to leave lol. I just hope he stays long enough to realize, we have the same potential as Barcelona. He needs to realize Barcelona had a down period to. If no one remembers but Barcelona were not even in that Champions league the year they signed a guy called Ronaldinho. By the way that is one reason why Ronaldinho is the better than Messi. Ronaldinho took a club not even in the champions league and took turned them into the top club in the world in like 3 years.
I have the same fear about Ramsey.
Eduardo still hasnt returned anywhere close to his best and that’s scary its been two years now since he was fully recovered but he keeps getting injured.
I hope Ramsey recovers more like Diaby maybe even faster than him
All of the players you lot hype not one academy player has played 10 games in the 1st team but Everton Middlesboro Notts Forest Palace Cardiff and Leeds make their own players not styolen or bought from somewhere else.
Djourou, Sendros
Clichy, Gibbs, Traore
Easmond
Wilshere
Gilly- I could barely read that jibberish. Use a comma son. Henri Lansbury, Jack Wilshere. Benik Afobe, Chuks Aneke, etc. Those other clubs produce more players as you say for 2 reasons.
1st– The quality they need to produce is alot weaker than what Arsenal have to produce for a 1st team player. Arsenal have to make players that are good enough to compete for title and play in the champions league. There fore we cant keep every “tru homegrown” player. No players from only about 5 homegrown players from all those teams have the quality for Arsenal in the last 10 years.
2– Back to the quality now, the fact that you consider a home grown player a kid that has been at the club since he was 9, that meeds the player is most likely English. This comes back to that thing about a big club and needing a certain quality of player. There simply aren’t enough quality English kids to go around. Here is a stat for you that Harry Redknapp said. This year in the Champions league there wer 115 Brazilian players in the competition and only 15 english players. Plus another thing is it takes time to bring those through, and now you see Wenger bringing them through. First you had Ashley Cole now the 2nd wave has Lansbury, Wilshere, Aneke, Ansah and Afobe. LOL. Now please move on sir.
Milo makes a good point!
It’s a shame our best talent have to go and suffer the training methods of the England youth set-up. Who knows how much that old style of play will delay the progress of our best players, Afobe and Aneke. I am so happy that Nico Yennaris wasn’t subjected to training for a month under “the English Way”. “The English Way” of footballing is an unwieldly piece of heavy machinery. It is extremely useful for losing international tournaments, but yields nothing to those who actually seek to win internationally. One of the beauties of players as talented as Afobe and Aneke is that they are likely immune to incompetent training methods and tactics as long as the exposure is short-term, still though, the further our best players can stay away from the Englan youth set-up the better. When the are full professionals and are called to the England Senior Team there will likely by a manager who doesn’t have time for an ineffective style of play, and they won’t be at such a critical juncture in their development so it won’t be as bad.
I agree about the Ronaldinho vs Messi thing Shane, but Cesc has got to shit, or get off the pot so to speak. Stop saying “ Oh I`m happy here, but one day I`ll be happy here“ Enough of the nonsense!! Just go!!!! OR SHUT UP. Shut up. He`s saying his future has to be decided before the world cup. And I hope he is right. I hope he decides to leave, so that we can blood our own replacement and make a player who want s to play for US. We`ve already argued about this before. We need players who want to play for Arsenal, and only Arsenal. I just hope Wilshere can appreciate our history and class. If he does then that is all I can ask for because I know he is a West Ham fan. But if he learns about the club, I think he can love the club as well. History lessons regarding the club`s past should be mandatory for all Arsenal youth players. I`m dead serious. There don`t have to be tests or anything, because that breeds fear and contempt, but I bet a lot of the young lads would find it interesting to learn about our past. I did.
Who knows if any of those reports from “spanish press” are true. Have you ever seen Fabregas say he wants to leave? No. He has always said he is happy at the club and wants to stay. I don’t think we should be mad at him for reports made by bias spanish papers.
Wilshere is English so there is a much smaller chance of him leaving than Fabregas who we got from Barcelona.
On the history thing, I love learning about the history of clubs. I watched all the things on Arsenaltv and watch a whole lot of old games in general. The truth is though if you want to talk about history than these young players would be far more impressed by Barcelona’s, Real Madrid’s, Liverpool’s or Man utd’s history than ours. I love Arsenal but we don’t compete yet with those clubs on that front yet which that is what Wenger is changing. What we do have is a recent history of developing young players which is why we got Fabregas in the first place.
how can you say ces c doesnt want to play for us? how many times this year can you say youv watched him play and thought “he just doesnt care”? not once that i can remember hes been our driving force when fit – strong, determined, courageous. if he didnt want to play for us surely youd be able to tell in the way he played
J! What was that last blog post about? How much did you get paid for that?
I guess disabling the comments bar was a good idea.
Not all of his quotes can be innaccurate can they Shane I mean come on now. Don`t you want this whole thing to end. I do. It might when the world cup starts, but if he hasn`t left it will continue after the world cup. I guess I have no faith in human nature. I do not trust him. I do not trust his word. I am not ashamed of our history at all. IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL we are right up there with United and Liverpool. This is why we need English players, because they are familiar with our success. THey aren`t just some casual fan who happens to know that Ronaldo played for Barca, or that Real have won 50 titles or whatever. They know WE ARE THE ARSENAL!!!
Milo- A couple things. The rumours are just a price you have to pay for having one of the best players in the world. Everyday Liverpool heres they might loose Torres and Gerrard. Intermilan hears everyday that Maicon is headed to real Madrid. The truth is the biggest clubs and the rich clubs want the best players. Point blank. Rumours will never stop as long as you have a top player.
On the history thing. I didnt say I was ashamed of our history. It is a good history but the truth is every club has a “history”. All there fans will fill their club’s history is the best. It is like every club has their “club legends”. The truth is though that no, our history does not compare with Manchester Uniteds or Liverpools. If you don’t believe me than do some research. Here is 1 fact, We have never won the Champions league or what was known as the European Champions Cup. As far as Real Madrid and Barcelona go, we don’t compete with them either. Can you imagine from a teenagers perspective walking through Real Madrids stadium or Barcelona’s and seeing that players like Ronaldo, Maradona, Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Romario, Zidane, Figo, etc all on the walls and the trophy cabinet that those clubs have.
This is the reason why Wenger sacrifiest 5 years of his Managerial career in order to build a stadium so that Arsenal could make that next step in becoming a mega club. He is setting Arsenal up to be able to compete with those clubs. Since Wenger has come, we have seen the best players in Arsenal’s history, won titles, had an undefeated season (there is a piece of outstanding history that I am talking about), made it to the champs league final and now is building a stadium. With the exception of a few things, Arsenals stand out history starts with the Wenger era.
Mind you I forgot Puskas and Di Stefano for Real Madrid.
Considering Cesc has kept his words every summer, basicaly since joining us I can not see why we shouldnt trust his words. Makes no sense really.
To answer some of your questions:
Wickham has done well for Ipswich. He’s very tall and a good finisher, but to say he’s England big hope or whatever is very wide of the mark. He’s shown good promise but he has to do it consistantly – that decides whether a good prospect becomes a good player.
Angha should be in this Under 17 squad as he has been in the U16 team and the rest have moved up. Hajrovic was previously part of the U17’s but after they won the World Cup, mose of those players moved up.
Hajrovic was a year younger than his squad though. Ozzie also played for the dutch u17 team in 2 qualifications. This will also be Afobe’s 2nd time in the tourney.
Little off topic, i read here(in previous posts i think) someone commented about one of our young prospect in our academy saying he hates arsenal and he’s a manc supporter. Can someone tell me is that Aneke or Angha, and did he himself mentioned that or someone made that up. It’s bcoz i don’t wanna see another cashley cole or Bentley kinda player in arsenal.
Its none of theme. Its Zak Ansah. Funny you mentioned those two, in particular Angah who is such a big fan that he refused to celebrate when he scored against us. I dont know anything for sure about Aneke but from what ive heard hes an Arsenal fan aswell.
About the comments made by Ansah I think he wrote some stupid shit on his Facebook wall when we played Manu at home this year. Dont know if its been cleared up. Thats what I read back then about it. Someone might be able to fill in?
joe jones has officially joined leicester
Championship football put a premium on big physical strikers. Because the championship’s defenders are not that good, big, powerful, physical strikers can often be quite successful. However in the premiership being a big lad is not enough. You need technique and vision.
Blacke from Wolves, Jason Scotland from Wigan, James Beattie have all shown that you can look good in the championship being utterly outclassed in the premiership.
Let make sure that we do not confuse physical advantage over talent.
The same reason why a lot of the tall at 14 years old players do not make it. When young, they had a physical advantage and that advantage has disappear or is not enough to compensate for their poor technique. If you look at the players who represented England at scholar, U17, U19, very few of them have represented England at senior level.
The England coaching staff seems to put the emphasis on the physical rather than the technique. That’s why Arsenal has very few players in the selection compared to their success in the young league.
James Beattie once scored over 20 goals in the prem in a season. lol
Shane, you are so wrong about our history. You completely disregard the Chapman era. We had players like James, Hapgood, Bastin, Drake. These players were all the best at their positions, or right up there when they were with us.I’ve probably forgotten one or two more as well. This is why the modern fan cannot put into perspective the Wenger era. He has been our best manager, but only by a hair. We dominated in the Chapman era. There were only two trophies we could fight for and we won them a lot during his and his assistant manager Malcolm Allison’s time. Those trophies were the F.A. Cup and the League Championship. So don’t give me so much bull. As I said, any casual fan knows that Zidane or Cruyff played for Real and Barca. But a real fan knows much more than that. Those are the types of players we need. REAL fans.
Sorry, didnt meen to enter that again
Conor Wickham hes got a football brain yh hes 6ft 3 quite strong and fast but hes got brilliant link up play, can run with the ball, can score goals.
He reminds me a of a young bendtner at Birmingham. Benik afobe wouldnt have a chance in the championship his hold up play play and link up play is pretty poor.
JACK WILSHERE IS A WEST HAM FAN. Thats worries me cause if he doesnt get first team football he might move somehwere else. Whereas someone like jay thomas, henri lansbury are arsenal fans and from London as well and they re more likely to fight and be patient.
Jack wilshere isnt patient and thats my problem with him if he doesnt get first team football next season with arsenal i can see him leaving cause from what i heard His father and himself tried desperately to get Wenger to put him on Loan
Why do you say he isnt patient? Him pushing for a loan deal is perfectly normal. Ive heard him say several times that his main goal is to get in the Arsenal fist team and thats why he was so eager for a loan deal, so that he could develop. Listen hes been at the club since forever, he was like 8 when he joined us, I can see no reason to worry about his passion for the club and his long term future with us. Dont confues ambition with lack of loyalty.
I know that lol. You were talking about using our history to get the young players to stay. In that sense , most young players would be far more impressed with those other I listed.
There is no point in arguing with me about history. There is a blind fan and a real fan with common sense. Of course we love our club and are proud of our history. The same as a wigan fan would be proud of there history, but that doesnt meen factually speaking, Wigan’s history is the same as Arsenal’s. Do you understand what I am saying. I am not talking about just recent history. Puskas and Di Stefano are NOT recent history, The Busby Babes are NOT recent history. We also have never won a Champions league or European cup. That is just a fact whether we like it or not. Like I said factually we don’t compete with those 4 clubs. Don’t just know your history on Arsenal mate with out knowing the history of others. Yes we won 2 titles undewr chapman and 2 fa cups. Liverpool and Manchester united are tied with 18 titles a piece to our 13. Like I said, while yes we love our club, you can’t argue against facts.
By the way I hope that “REAL fans” comment wasnt a shot at me mate lol.
John- Jack Wilshere will be playing next year and starting soon after. There is no need for Wilshere to be patient because he will be playing. So are you afraid he will leave for Westham? lol
@shane: you were talking about history and said Arsenal’s history of Wenger era stands out…i would like to add that the Arsenal has richer history than you are giving credits for. our club never went down to second division, ours and mancs are two clubs to win doubles three times and guess what, the first televised match was and arsenal F.C. vs Arsenal reserves and what not. Yes Wenger has given us a new identity among the most beautiful playing side but we are much more than that and i hope our players understand that…
Mate…I know Arsenals history. You have thrown out some nice facts. I have never said Arsenal don’t have a good history. Even a great history. We were discussing the reasons why Arsenal players would stay at the club instead of moving on. Milo said we should teach these guys about our history like that would deture them from having ambitions of Madrid or Barca who are the 2 clubs we lose most of our players to. All I said was factually in that instance we do not have as good of History when it comes to titles and players. Point blank.
By the way we started in the 2nd division and in 1913 were relegated. We gained promotion back to the first division by being selected back in 1919. Sorry mate.
‘selected’ ? an interesting way of putting it haaaa
i hope mark bright does not do many matches in the world cup because he is probably the worst commentator the bbc has
i think Wilshere will be given as much games this year as ramsey was given last year and Wenger might also give him a 15-20 games target to achieve. what do you guys think?
about Afobe, i think wenger should give him a chance in Premier league straight away this year without risking games(when we are winning by miles). He gave chance to Henry in Monaco when th14 was 17 and I think it will work with Afobe and Freeman too. I hope Afobe becomes our number 9 we always dreamed of and Freeman could be our own David Villa(no. 7). Wilshere should be given the majestic number 10 in a year or two and i hope we find our new Adams to fit in to the number 6 (unlike sanderos). I don’t know about Aneke though, haven’t seen him enough
Wenger would give Wilshere first team matches especially if Cesc leaves. I believe that it will be the decisive year for Jack and I’m quite sure that he’ll be our new number 10.
Afobe is not ready for the premier league.
Jack Wilshere will and should end up being the starter at right wing.
alot of the talk is about freeman and afobe and about who is better and who has a future in the first team but what do think the future holds for murphy if he stays injury free, decon and watt
Shane you idiot, I know Real’s and Barca’s history too. Same with Liverpool’s and Man U’s. It’s pretty damn presumptuous of you to come on here and tell me I don’t know my football history. I fucking know that real won the ECC from 1955-60, then in 63 or something and then in 98,2000,and 2002. I know that United won in 68,99and 08. i know that Liverpool has won in 77,78,80,81or2 and in 05. I know that Barca has won in 92,06 and 09. I could tell you a few more clubs as well if I must, but I think you are SMART enough to realize that that is enough of a display for now. So don’t tell me I don’t know my history.
Calm down Milo…I didnt say you dont know your history lol. All I said was that saying Arsenal have a greater history than those other 4 clubs is factually wrong and people should learn the history of more clubs than just there own. Not saying you specifically cuz I dont know what you know.
By the with the facts you started spitting out in anger, you kind of proved my point about the greater history lol. So I guess thank you.
Also I was just responding mainly to the comment “But a real fan knows much more than that. Those are the types of players we need. REAL fans.” which I just realized i read wrong lol. I thought you said those are the types of “FANS” we need. Real fans. When you said “players”. I apologize for that but you still proved I am right lol.
Question for you though, would you rather have a team full of “real fans” and finish outside the champions league and not compete for titles or have a good team? It is very hard to have both.
By the way, you should watch some of those games if you havent already. More interesting to watch than to read about.
im with shane. im an arsenal fan but club size we’re not at the same level as your barcelonas, real madrids, both milan sides, and liverpool and man u. over the next few decades im sure that will change but our history just doesnt compare at the moment
You aren’t an idiiot Shane, but don’t be so presumptuous, and don’t call me blind either.
OK so I got a few of those dates wrong, but I was pretty close. Ajax won from 71-73 and then in 95. Bayern won in 74-77 and then in 2001 and hopefully this year!!!!!!! There, so I do know some history. I have read about most European club’s history, but I have trouble remembering some things, like dates of club formation etc.
It’s not hard to have both if you educate the youth teams about our history. Then you can have a good team and a team that feels some devotion and pride in our club. You wouldn’t need to have tests on the history, because as I said before, that breeds contempt and fear of learning or having to learn, but you could have someone teach it to them. I can’t watch most classic matches because I can’t access it. But I can still read so it isn’t too bad. Reading is fun. It just depends on what you are reading. And I think the youth teams would enjoy reading about our history if they haven’t already. OUr ladies teams should know our history too!! I mean we’re cleaning up with them again, and we have one of the best clubs in the world regarding our womens teams . We should be proud of that as well!!
FBTZ.com is where you can go for the games. They only allow people to become member certain times of the year but that is the site to go to. I read alot of thing about the history aswell tho.
On the womens side, yes our team is the dominate team in England even tho the lost in this year FA cup final to Everton. The other big teams are Frankfurt from Germany and it was a team from Sweden, where Marta played. Cant remember the name but I think it was Ulmea or something like that. Now the most of the best players are in America cuz they started their league back up last year. By the way watch out for this 17 year old girl from Japan named Mana Iwabuchi. She is crazy good.
Heres a youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpVZ1sQlxWA
By the way she was 15 at that u17 world cup and won the golden ball
The England Youth set up is a massive joke. Arsenal has won the academy league 2 times in a row, won the youth cup last year, the england team should be full of Arsenal Players. Andre Wisdom, playing DM for Liverpool would not even make the bench for Arsenal, his first touch is horrible. I’m tired of the John Peacocks of this world.
Wickham looks a real talent though. He is not just physically strong, he has also very good feet and is technically very good.
Aneke can really be the star of the tournament. The Boy just has everything
J do you know is there anyway Wenger is going to hijack Evertons bid to sign Angelo Ogbonna from Torino apparently Wenger is a huge admirer. He plays centre back and left back, hes an Italy Under 21 and his parents are Nigerian.
fuck!!! We need world class experience not agian a baby in the making!!!!
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/topstories/8165764.Football_prodigy_chooses_Leicester_over_Arsenal/
J, Do you know about our former centre back, Joe Jones? Was he released from us or did he really choose to go to Leicester over us for more opportunities like that article says?
Joe was not offered a scholarship when the list came out. However, he finished the season well with the Under 16’s and was offered a scholarship in the end. He wasn’t really interested and went to a couple of Championship club’s, including Leicester on trial. They offered him a better deal so he’s signed there.
He’s not really good enough to break through here, so for him, it’s the best decision. I have a problem with his attitude, though. I don’t like the fact he wants to play for England but he’s already represented Ireland. I don’t think it’s very fair.
Thanks for the info. I originally heard he hadn’t been offered a scholarship and thought he may have been making stuff up.
No surprise he has a bad attitude then if his idol is John Terry.
Haha good one!
J
Any news on Merida is he really going to A. Madrid or is he likely to sign a new contract?
Merida’s gone and has been gone for the last 3-4 months. He’s already a small relatively irrelevant piece of Arsenal history. Forget about him! Just be thankful that we have such talented young midfielders coming thru like Aaron Ramsey, Jay Emmanuel Thomas, Jack Wilshere, Chuks Aneke, and Oguzhan Ozyakup. That group will make Merida’s time with the club a vague rumor.
Its not been confirmed that Merida has left Arsenal
and Ramsey has broken his leg and may not be the same players for 2-3 years. JET is not a midfielder, Aneke and Ozzie are 16 and WIlshere will probably go on loan next season to Bolton
SO except for Merida and Lansbury we dont have a promising midfielder now, Merida also has that long shot capability that noone in our team has except for maybe Denilson
And rather than getting 2-3 million for him I would rather get 15-20 in a couple years time
Shane,
You seems to want to be right even in the face of fact. james Beattie may have had one exceptionnal season, however his overall career has shown that he is not a very good striker. David Moyes, Tony Pulis and a host of premiership manager all seems to think that he is not premiership quality.
Like I said Championship football favours big physical striker both in term of style of play and refereeing style. Most of those players do not have quality to be successfull at premiership level. To me James Beattie, Shola Ameobi, Jason Scotland are just example of such failure at the highest level.
That does not mean that every big striker in the championship is rubbish. It just mean that there have been very few championship striker who made the step up.
Also the new 8 home grown players out of 25 squad rule will mean that big team ( Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, …) are more likely to buy any 16-19 year old player who looks like he is going to make it big. Any 19 year old player not at a big team is therefore likely have been judged and discarded by the premiership big hitters.
The silver lining is that 21-23 year old fringe players are more likely to be shipped out or loaned out of the top 6 teams. That could translate in more late developpers. Career a la Steve Sidwell.
I was just joking with you mate lol. If you want to argue tho, Sylvan Ebanks-Blakes , Michael Chopra and Robert Earnshaw are all perfect example of “smaller” strikers being good in the championship and crappy in the prem. It is down to the quality of the striker which determines if he is good or not in the prem, not how physical they are. Now argue against that.
By the way James beattie has had over 10 goals in 5 of his years in the prem including a 23 goal performance which isnt exactly horrible considering he normally played on bottom half teams.
Are people stupid or what saying ramsey will take 2-3 years. THE GUY IS BLOODY WALKING WITHOUT CRUTCHES. HES 19 AS WELL GOSH PPL ARE SO DAMN STUPID STOP COMPARING HIM TO EDUARDO. HIS TACKLE WAS FAR WORSE AND HE WAS OLDER AS WELL RAMSEY IS YOUNG THIS INJURY IS GOING TO MAKE HIM STRONGER. BONES HEAL QUICKER WHEN YOUR YOUNGER AND MAKES YOUR BONE STRONGER
Its not the bones people are worried about. It his the mental aspects of recovery and getting back out there in the games. When he goes in to a 50-50 challenge will he go 100%. It is like when people get in a bad car wreck and have apprehensive about getting back in a car. Now who feels stupid.
I get your point Shane. But im still confident he will be back, we just have to be patient. Rambo is meant to be an Arsenal great.
Simon, thats not my opinion. I believe he will recover fine. I believe he has the right mental strength especially with the back round in rugby he has. I was just responding to John’s stupid outburst calling everyone stupid and what not.
i think if eduardo has a good pres-eason he could get back to his best
Aneke is not even on the bench for England!
where is aneke?