Oğuzhan Özyakup joined Arsenal from AZ Alkmaar two years ago, and after a trophy laden spell in the youth ranks, the Dutch Under 19 captain has got his sights firmly locked on Arsène Wenger’s first-team.
Özyakup’s season has been one of jubilation and frustration, with injuries and lack of form disrupting his campaign at times. However, his finish to the year has been fantastic, with regular Reserve action and 90 minutes in the Premier Academy League Final. At 17 and having signed his first professional contract, moving to the first-team is naturally the next step.
“Next season is very important. I hear at the end of this month if I will be training with the first or second team for pre-season. If I’m in the first-team, it’s very, very good. That means that I am there every day and I can prove myself to the boss.”
Many have made comparisons between Ozzie and Arsenal skipper Fàbregas. A natural comparison between the two play-makers, but it’s not from chance; the Dutchman watches and models his play on that of the talismanic number four. Recent links with Barcelona? he’s going nowhere, according to Oğuzhan.
“Fabregas will stay at Arsenal, I think. He has everything to his taste.”
As players reach 17-18, the option of being loaned out comes to the fore. Confidence is a key aspect of his play, and Özyakup believes he is good enough to break into the first-team of his own accord, whilst admitting he’s skeptical about how key a temporary spell away is.
“I think a loan spell is uncomfortable. If you accept a loan, then you must immediately go into to the first team. This has always been my goal anyway so I’ve never thought about a loan. Sometimes being loaned has worked out but most players are then sent out again and again, and that’s the end of them. “
With talent comes pressures and expectations. Being an Arsenal youth player, that increases the intensity of pressure, yet the former Alkmaar prospect takes it all his stride with a wise nature.
“Media, newspapers, pressure from family or peer pressure does nothing for me. For example, the final of the League Championship, I see as a normal game, of course you have the interest of such a game in mind. But if you don’t deal with the pressure to make it, you can never make it.”
Özyakup, who rebuffs the idea he could switch his allegiance to Turkey anytime soon, is set for a bright future.
but why the hell Fabregas didnt say anything if the rumours are true or not? Anyway I was off topic sorry for that. Ozzy is a star in the making. His passing is sublime. Can remember at U17 he made a pass for their striker with the outside of the foot. Outstanding!!! He will also become a netherlands great IMO!!
I am confident in his skills. From what little I have seen of him (3 matches) I can say that he will make the first team this coming season. He’ll slot nicely into the place where Merida was. And if he can impress the Boss in training, then he’ll get as much if not more playing time than Merida did this past season.
Ozzie is quality but i dont think hes a central midfielder. Hes a numbe 10 sadly hes got chuks aneke who is just class and then we have conor henderson who looks a top top central midfielder and been on the bench for arsenal.
Ahh another one on the verge of the first team.. just how many do we have? :D With so many coming through, could fill the depth in our first team squad
Very level-headed.
with the sounds of things, squad rotation will be important next year
i think certain players are thinking to fast
I think it’s very good we sold Merida. IMO he’s no better than Lansbury, Henderson, Aneke, JET or Ozzie
Slightly off topic, J what has happened to Chucks @ the Under17’s read somewhere that he has gone home, can you confirm this??
Oggy, like most Arsenal youngsters are yet to come to terms with the physcality of the EPL as opposed to other leagues like the La Liga, Lique One,etc. He needs to go out on loan for 2 critical reasons: first, to get used to the pressure of the first team and playing week in, week out, which helps him to develop consistency, focus, toughness, generally hone his skills. Secondly, he needs to get used another style of manager ‘away from home’ where you are not pampered but sent to the pitch to get the job done.You get used to hostile reception from opposition players and crowd and ‘funny’ referees and their decisions. Bendtner and Song in the past, Jack and Kyle currently show that loans, if with the right club and well monitored, can be the making of some players.
The problem is you got yennaris, aneke, ozzie, henderson,
I m not being funny id rather we have the home grown players come through players like henderson, aneke, yennaris who have been at the club at a young age and know what arsenal are about.
Ozzie is really good but players like ramsey, lansbury were better players than ozzie was at 16,17. Thats for sure. Henri Lansbury in that euro under 17 tournament was world class for England. He was up there with eden hazard and bojan krkic.
Bojan Krkic that kid was unreal i dont know whats happened to him but he could be better than messi if get his act together
Don’t think he’s on the level of Messi, different players but he is a great talent. Can become one of the best strikers in the world.
Anyway Ozzie is brilliant player but lots of competition for the midfield places.
for the role cesc plays in there are only ramsey and ozzie
for the role Diaby plays in there are Wilshere, Lansbury, Henderson and Aneke (maybe aneke can play in cesc role but he’s more in the diaby mould)
for the song role there are Song, Denilson, Eastmond, Coquelin, Frimpong and Yennaris
Henri Lansbury in that euro under 17 tournament was world class for England. He was up there with eden hazard and bojan krkic.
How many times would you estimate you’ve typed that sentence? More or less than “I don’t rate Afobe, he’s not Arsenal class”? It’s a close run thing.
Ozzie is going to make it Wenger paid almost a million for him when he was only 15-16 and from all the players in our youth system he’s the best technically and he knows how to pick a pass.
With those comments he looks matured aswell but he does need to go out on loan to make him stronger and tougher. We can all see the difference it has made with Wilshere he’s bullying Terry and Alex for christ sakes and I hope more arsenal players do that next season
I know Ozzie is going to make he has flair, great on the ball, knows how to pick a pass, knows how to score goals but HE NEEDS TO GO ON LOAN.
Players We have in the midfield – Ramsey, Wiilshere, Lansbury, Ozzie, Henderson, Aneke and the biggest problem is that most of our midfield is filled with young players – Fab, Diaby, Song, Nasri, Denilson
Teams will kill to have talent like this in the midfield maybe wenger will push Ozzie on the wings since he a lot more like Nasri than Fab in my view
Ozzie can play on the wings for a few years
Next year midfield
AM – Fab, Ramsey [nasri, rosicky can play in this position or the wings]
CM – Diaby, Wilshere, Lansbury [nasri, rosicky can play in this position or the wings]
DM – Song, Denilson
Loan – Wilshere might go on loan for 6 months, Lansbury, Eastmond
AM position – Fab, Ramsey
Ozzie – Will eventually take the fab role along with Ramsey or play on the wings but on a 3 month or a half a season loan next year
— by the time Fab goes to Barca I hope rasmey is ready to become a regular and Ozzie can fill the role Ramsey was filling before his injury
CM – Diaby, Wilshere, Lansbury
Henderson – typical english CM will surely go on loan next year same 3 months and then 6 month loan
Aneke – Will play for the reserves and youth for a year and then on loan like Ozzie
——- I think Aneke is a dead certain to make it but Lansbury and Henderson are 50/50 in my view eventhough I would love to see Lansbury make it and maybe he might and I think he can play in DM position and do the Alonso role. Henderson too is extremely talented and maybe all 3 pf them will make it. Its so hard to see them not make it since they are all so talented
DM – Song, Denilson, Eastmond, Coquelin (might become a RB)
Yennaris – I personally dont think he will make it but he will stay with the youth team and then on loan like others
I agree with Ozzie that many of our loans dont really work out but as @steven says these players need to play and compete in first team action before they can survive in a top premiership side week in week out.
Players that can go and perform at top clubs whilst still 17/18/19 are extreamly rare !! And those that do it without being loaned first are even rarer (can only really think of cesc and rooney in the prem at top clubs)
We have so much talent coming though, I would like to see Arsenal loan out players in “pairs” or “threes” and ONLY to clubs they have a good chance to play most weeks. When Bentner, Larson and Muamba got loaned to Birmingham they fought to get the team promoted and got good minutes – a win win all round.
OK only bentner came back, but the competion at the time for the other spots was fierce and we got a better price for the other two as they had played and proven themselves.
How many championship ship sides (like burnley or reading that play football) would not jump at the chance to have JET, Lansbury and Afobe for 6/12 months or Jay, Watt and Barazite ?
i’m a bit of an armchair supporter so i don’t know the ins and outs of all of these young players, what positions they play, whether they are physically developed yet or whatever, but i have to say that whenever I read about how great these young guys are, how much potential they have, I get nervous for them because I just can’t see many gaps appearing in the first team any time soon. the first team is already quite full of talented young players who have to prove themselves.
gunner17,
I couldn’t agree with you more. This is the key to assessing our young players’ chances at making it through to the first team. The fact is the first team is made up of young players, and few if any of them are on the fall, almost all of them are on the rise. To break through will require technique and consistency well beyond the youngest players’ years.
The ones I see with a strongest chance, aside from Wilshere, Gibbs, Szczensy, Eastmond, and Ramsey (who’ve already made the 1st Team) are JET and Aneke (and even these two will find it a very tough road to the first team). The others, including Ozzy and Lansbury will have improve at a remarkable rate and develop new skills quickly I think before they have a chance to get into the team.
Look, Cesc, Diaby, Denilson, Bendtner, Nasri, Ramsey, Song are extremely young players…Diaby’s the only one who’s 24 the rest are 23 or younger. This group is still fighting to prove themselves. They are still developing their skills as weel, but doing in the Champion’s League against the best players in Europe. It will be a very hard challenge to break into their ranks and an even harder one to unseat any of them.
Re: Holohoax
Your comments seem to point more to he’s ‘Race’ then anything else. So he may be a ‘Turk’ but maybe being born in Holland and raised there, he may have decided to play for Holland instead for a number of reasons. I don’t know if he will make the 1st Team, all depends on he’s progress. Not everyone is like Cesc at 16 when you knew where he would end up.
he place everything on skin colour and nationality.don’t worry just a racist idiot who insult now young gun reader .I really dont mind some people give their view on some player (bad or good) but he just give skin colour or nationality rather than attributes.
JS i wish you ban him,he bring nothing to your blog .insult your blogger who like arsenal and his fan come from lot different background
right now the first team is overdependent on vermaelen, song, fabregas and van persie.
everyone else in the team is weak and unrelaible in some way. the first team squad is largely made up of unproven players who need to be carried in most games. i really think wenger needs to get 2 or 3 more ready-made players who have the quality of vermaelen, song, fabregas and van persie. maybe then he can get rid of (or demote) chaff like almunia, fabianski, diaby, denilson, rosicky and eduardo so that he can give a fair shot to the likes of mannone, chesney, jet, barazite, simpson, wilshere, and lansbury.
There’s a big difference between training with the 1st team in pre-season and actually becoming part of the first team squad. The lad will have to be patient, another season in the U18s and Reserves is what he will get, may even the season after that as well. Then Wenger will look at his development.
Midfield players at the club ahead of him in the pecking order: Cesc, Song, Diaby, Denilson, Ramsey, Nasri, Rosicky, Lansbury, Wilshere, Coquelin, Randall (although I think he will leave), Eastmond, Henderson, Aneke, Frimpong.
That’s 15 players! If you take out Nasri and Rosicky as they’re equally adept as one of the forward three, there is 13 players for 6 (at a push) midfield roles.
Ozzie isn’t going to leapfrog 7 players into our first team.
Holohoax, all your comments contain racial undertones within them. Seriously, you would think we are the only club that employs foreigners in the world. Like, come on you silly bugger. Barca does, United does, Chelsea does, Liverpool does, Man City does, Real Madrid does, Milan does, juventus does, Inter does. Foreign players are here now and so they should be, and if you don’t like it , then you’re gonna be bitching a whole lot more for nothing. I mean how old ARE you??? Like, 96??? Screw off already.
wenger seriously needs to re-assess his first team plans for the next couple of years…he will need to bring arsenal’s promising english talent through now in order not to fall foul of the new squad rules, but he also needs to win the championship, and soon.
to my mind there are several current first teamers who are not good enough to win titles. wenger should cut his losses with these guys, get 2-3 quality title-winners in to share the responsibility with the big4 verma, song, fab4 and rvp, and give more playing time to young gunners like wilshere, lansbury, jet and simpson…
sagna, clichy, djorou, ramsey, nasri, walcott, vela, and bendtner all have good quality and are worthy first team players, but they’re are all a couple of seasons away from matching the consistency and responsibility of the big 4 mentioned above.
Gunner17 Ramsey was there before he was injured. I was blown away by his development in the past year. If he recovers, he’ll be in with the big 4 as you said.
he looked good for a while there but i think he needs to grow a bit…he still looks a bit slight…essien will have him for breakfast, as a starter. it’ll come. he’ll be big enough by the time he’s 25. and then he will be the man.
Ramsey is good, but was not quite 1st team regular last year (ignoring the injury). He is not quite fast enough and was pushed around ina few games. he looked better when on as a sub, when he was fresher than the rest. he did have a few ordinary games. Give him a year or so and he will ad strength and consistency (which you could say for most of the team).
I would like to see 2 or 3 of the younger set on the bench next year, taking their opportunities when they arrive. The likes of JET and Wilshire are very close to being regulars, but as with any youngsters they will tire as the season progresses.
oh hello there. time to get out of the armchair and actually do something instead of shouting insults at ustaxpayers that pay your dole money???(belive it or not but ozzy pays tax )
It annoys me so much when lazy schwein always needs to have an opinion about others just because they are crap themselve, not because they are borne crap, no, because they cant be asked to do anything to improve their own situation!
I know its sad to sit in a council flat doing nothing all day but harassing young stars certainly wont help you. Regardless of what you think or feel, this kid will be a millionarie soon, due to his footy abilities. He will go places in the world, meet interesting people, see stuff, prolly hook up with a really hot girl. He probably think its rather cool you hate him, heimbeing so successful and you beeing so full of envy… He probably pitys you, maybe if you meet one day he will throw you 100£, you know, cos to him its 10minutes work while to you its 4 weeks of living…and he knows that.
err. this was a reply to that horrible racist character that has kept posting here. I see you have removed his coment, feel free to remove this to. As it looks utterly silly to have a rant against a post that is not there anymore :)
ty in advance
HI fellow gooners,
I have been reading this site for quite some time now and on the whole it is excellent. I am beginning to see comments with racist undertones, especially of this holohoax character (Does that name actually stand for holocaust hoax? )
Those made by Jhon do raise eyebrows and those banging on about the team needing a British spine just go along to prove how fickle some fans truely are.
JS. I wish you would actually manage the comments appropriately or possibly even ask some of the more sensible posters to moderate?
I truely love reading about OUR STARS of the future and personally do not care where they originate from but some people are beginning to spoil what should be a celebration of our future.
Sorry for the rant but it really is disgusting and has no place in football let alone our multi-cultural club.
RE: OZZIE
He truely has a bright future and I hope he pushes those ahead of him in the pecking order to raise their games. This is all we can truely hope for, as many touted as stars never fulfill their potential.
Born September 23rd 1992. I’d been presuming that meant he’d still qualify for the Under 18s next season. Have been eagerly anticipating watching a central diamond of Yennaris, Ozyakup, Aneke and Afobe throughout the campaign. But the way he’s talking here it sounds like he might be done with the Academy team. Will he still qualify as an Under 18?
Gunner17, Ramsey is 1st team material at full health full stop. And for whoever said he needs to get faster, well he isn’t a winger, and no he doesn’t. I haven’t been as high on a young player since Cesc broke into the first team. I’m going to sound crazy here, but Cesc himself said that Ramsey could take his place and although they are different types of players, I can see it too. Ramsey is a bit more box to box but he has that touch and passing range that is very classy and different from the likes of Gerrard and even Lampard. And he can already get in the box and score goals. He’s right where Cesc was at this stage in his career. The only reason he hasn’t played more is because of the competition and young talent that Arsenal has, that they didn’t have when Cesc first arrived. I’m going to put money on the statement that if at full health, next year or the year after, Ramsey will be second to no one in the Arsenal first 11. Wilshere will follow him as well. THIS IS JUST MY OPINION LOL.
I been enjoying this site for a long while and have never felt the need to comment as much as I do now. Holohoax and other racist idiots go find another club. My Arsenal heros down the years have been the likes of Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp, TH14, PV4, Cesc, Tony Adams and Liam Brady. All are either black brits or foreign except big Tone. I hope he wont’ be offended but only the white englishman from those listed used to be rotten drunk most of his career – (well done for turning his life around). These “foreign types” have shown the way for Arsenal youngsters have to behave on and off the pitch. I care about if Arsenal is in a players soul and the list above along with many others show more commitment than you could ask.
Disappointed that you fail to mention the source of the interview. http://www.soccernews.nl/news/92909
You guys pls tell me about Nasir Barzit
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