Liam Brady proudly announced last week that the Arsenal Academy would rather “produce a player than win trophies”. That’s pressure enough for the potential stars of the future coming through the system, but with back to back Premier Academy League titles under their belt, there’s also an expectancy for success.
Steve Bould’s class of 2010-2011 had their first opportunity to impress their new teacher on Saturday, but it was Manchester City’s slick kids who dished out the lesson. Bould welcomed his Hale End graduates to competitive football with a trademark dressing-down at the break, while City were 3-0 in front. Despite a late rally, it finished 5-2. A crushing start.
The 08-09 crop achieved history with a league and cup double and the 09-10 side romped to the title last year, meaning all eyes are on Bould’s new look outfit looking to make it hat-trick of a league titles. But what can we expect?
Bould looks set to continue with the 4-3-3 formation being employed throughout the ranks, with the midfield three being made up of one play maker, one holding player and one box-to-box and industrious player. Last year Chuks Aneke was the number 10, Nico Yennaris anchored the midfield and Oğuzhan Özyakup and Conor Henderson both proved to be very efficient defending and attacking.
This years crop looks just as exciting. Josh Rees and Jernade Meade will take up the play-maker and box-to-box roles with Meade’s superb dribbling and defensive awareness proving key. Rees is a tough but creative player who will get goals, but he can also get wide and cross, allowing Jeffrey Monakana to join strikers Philip Roberts, Zak Ansah or Nigel Neita in the middle.
The key role is the holding one, where Callum Webb is a more than adequate replacement for Yennaris. Webb may be small, but he’s determined, powerful, and quick in the tackle. His eye for a pass out of midfield will also be a key outlet, allowing him to pick out Monakana and Bihmoutine wide of the front three.
The back four and goalkeeping situations are very open. Sean McDermott faces competition from Emi Martínez and new scholar Reice Charles-Cook, but the latter should switch between Under 16 games and being a substitute. McDermott got the nod against City with Martínez in Ireland, but a role reversal at some stage is inevitable.
Swiss duo Martin Angha and Elton Monteiro look set to form a commanding and technical centre back partnership. Both are over 6 foot and with Martin being right footed and Elton left, the balance that Arsenal look for in defensive setups is certainly there. The two will also be a threat from set pieces.
Overall, the crop of 2010-2011 are among some of the most interesting and naturally talented to have come through the ranks in recent years. All have the classic Arsenal style and spirit and although they’ve got big boots to fill and the defeat to City exposed flaws, Bould has another collection of technically astute and highly promising talent to work with.
J have ATVO stopped showing highlights of the youth teams
the reason I ask is because they haven’t uploaded the city game
J, lots of angry comments on the web directed at Zak Ansah for his facebook comments, but he seems the brightest prospect of his age group, is that right? Any word on whether his attitude is changing or affecting the squad in some way?
WOW a Great Breakdown of the side
really interesting
Thank You J for the wonderful analysis.. Can you give you thoughts on who you feel is the most technically sound player out of this amazing lot and what about Ebicilio..??
where did kyle go I am guessing he will play as a AM
To be fair Chuks, Benik Afobe and Yennaris were away with the reserves. they are all still eligible for the under 18s. It must have been a v young team against man city. We should still be up there near the end of the season, but i completyely agree with liam Brady; it’s much better to produce a player like jack wilshere than win everything in youth football.
I think they have stopped doing both the youth and reserve games. Wenger wants to keep everything in house and not give scouts the oppertunity to watch his youngsters. Thats why only a handfull of reserve games will be at Barnet and the rest of the home games will be behind closed doors.
Basically Wenger wants to send scouts all over the world to spot young talent, but doesnt want anyone pinching ours.
The yutes winning the league and cup is very nice for them, but I really dont care, I’d much prefer us to produce players that are good enough for the Arsenal 1st team. Just as Chippy says.
So Aneke, Afobe, Ozyakup, Yennaris are still eligible for the U-18s? Will they still play a role though, or will they be a more permanent presence with the reserves?
Excellent analysis of the U-18s btw. How good are they in comparison with the previous two U-18 teams?
Thanks JS. I was wondering about this new squad of youngsters and what their talents were individually. It’s very early days yet so i’m not bothered about results so much, and i’d just like to see each and every one of these kids get their opportunity to play and develop under the tutorage of SB. I’m sure they read this blog so i’d like to wish them all the best and urge them to train with 110% effort, and in time they will become great players. Good luck boys!
Arsenal are becoming very closed as earlier mentioned. We pulled out of the Reserves because initally they wouldn’t let us play behind closed doors. It’s a shame they’ve taken this stance, but I think it will change in time.
Ebecilio will also play a big part this season, but he’ll be blooded in slowly. He’s a powerful central midfielder and his passing is first class. He’s a typical Arsenal player in every way. Strong, quick and great potential.
oh god they have taken youth games off this is the worst thing they have done in years
Thank you for replying man.. This behind close doors thing makes us fans anxious but I think it is a very bold step taken by our management and that they know the phenomenal potential of our stars and want to make sure that they play for ARSENAL in the future.. Definitely it is very impractical to think that ‘all’ the super talented kids would be true ‘GOONERS’….
I see on arsenal.com that Jernade Meade and Sean McDermott are listed in the reserves also, however there is no squad list for the u18s. Does anyone know who else is available in the cm positions? NOt taking anything away for the boys mentioned in the article but the numbers seem short.
Ah, Ebecilio of course. Anyone else? I know at this age they are very adaptable and for example Boateng could probably move into DM.
“Swiss duo Martin Angha and Elton Monteiro look set to form a commanding and technical centre back partnership. Both are over 6 foot and with Martin being right footed and Elton left, the balance that Arsenal look for in defensive setups is certainly there. The two will also be a threat from set pieces.” – I really have high hopes for this pair! that’s my fav. part of the article ^^
according to SB the pair is Best in the setup. i so them in the past two game and they were amazing.
Are Angha and Monteiro good enough to make it at Arsenal? We have an endless supply line of midfielders and forwards, could do with a few defenders.
Thanks J., great article as usual!
J.,
You didn’t mention Ebecilio in this post, is that because he will most likely be playing in the reserves this season. I’m not sure but I thought he’s 17 years old which would put him in the u-18 age range. He seems like a kid with massive potential that would be a big player at u-18 level. Can you clear up at which level he is likely to play this season.
…never mind J.,
Just read the previous posts and saw you addressed Ebecilio above.
Thanks!
What about the kid Jamie Edge ? i thought he was highly rated too ? Any news about him ?
http://www.arsenal.com/match-menu/3311218/youth/man-city-yth-v-arsenal-yth?tab=video
highlights now up
man city vs arsenal is on arsenal tv now.
Where will the likes of Miquel, Aneke, Afobe feature this season?
It seems nowadays the reserve leagues are completely snubbed and the prgoression is almost U18 youth football to loans with lower league clubs.
Be interesting to know what your thoughts on this are Jay. Whether you feel a season or 2 playing reserves is better than instant loan to other club? For example Luke Freeman was primarily bagging plenty of goals at U18 level and made very, very few reserve games yet the next step in his development is deemed to be Loan???
The Swiss duo……… what about Hajrovic? How would you rate him compared to the Angha and Monteiro?
a team that got crushed by citys second string U18 isn’t really what I’d call “among some of the most interesting and naturally talented to have come through the ranks in recent years.”
sure we had some players away in ireland, but city had lots of 16 yo’s in their team as well and really crushed us.
how good is this new team compared to last years?
bear in mind that city has an extremely successful academy and quite often field 16yo in there teams, it would be harsh to judge the team based on one result.
bear in mind that city has an extremely successful academy and quite often field 16yo in their teams, it would be harsh to judge the team based on one result.
I can confirm City had 6 2nd year scholars starting that match [James Wood, Skogsrud twins, Bradley Robinson, Harry Bunn and Joan Roman Olle], we had Meade & Mcdermott
What positions do Siafa and Isaac Haydn play?
I can confirm City had 6 2nd year scholars starting that match, we had 2. Only one of their goal came from combination passing, even that started from poor Bihmoutine pass. Rest were counter-attack, at least we have form for combination passing from back-to-front.
did you see that finish by jeffrey Monakana totally fantastic i just hope he can continue his form and carry this team to success because without him in the side the team will really struggle. I also heard for u16 he assist 25 times for the poacher zak ansah to finish them off. i think we shud wait and judge them afta the next game
I think the quality of the playing surface at Barnet also played a major part in the decision to play behind closed doors.
As post earlier, anyone hear what clubs reaction to Zak Ansah’s Facebook rant was?
AHHHHHHH NO ONE CARES ABOUT THAT! Do you really think coaches have really got time for that nonsense?
I think that Monkana’s goal was a fluke, he tried to cross
that was poor from Arsenal, Webb and Meade struggled to replace the likes of Yennaris or Aneke
the fact that Bould had to play a majority of 1st year scholars explain the performance
Henshall looked pretty good for City
We will most likely never field this team again. Some will only play a few matches while others will be sub a lot. Yennaris will be regular this season and hopefully Webb can learn some from it because it was not good. But they all will improve, how much is another question.
They will get used to the tempo of the u18s play and will improve their decision making. I think most of the kids will be awesome as hell in 2 years time. 1 year of play is awful lot at 16 years old and they have SOOOOOOO much to learn still. Don’t forget this kids belongs to Arsenal and most have gone through the academy at a very young age. They belongs to one of the worlds most successful academy in the world. They will no doubt improve a lot.
J, this is a bit old now but do you know if we are still interested in Veljko Batrovic?
He is now at Partizan Belgrade I think.
Oh and jamie edge reminds me of dennis bergkamp for some reason, the way he moves i think
can anyone explain to me this zak ansah facebook thingy, what happened
you dont want to know
and saw the game and I think Arsenal will win the league again this season
you can google it, basically stated he is a Manyoo fan. Could just be a young head on yound shoulders. Every pro is allowed to have a team they follow. Even Merse always said he checked to see how Chelski got on and he was first team.
Lansbury is going on loan to Swansea City
Anyone else think that while we are on this bargain spree to find quality squad players on the cheap we should look at Mamadou Diarra from Madrid. I personally am not a fan of the depth at the holding mid role and with all the games we will have to play, i don’t want to see us throw away another shot at a trophy like we did in the stoke fa cup game just because we need to rest players. Diarra us to be an awesome defensive mid and under wenger, I don’t see why he could not become that again. On a free transfer or a low fee, I think it would be a great signing. Also he is 29 so it will not hold any of or young def mids back.
lets find a GK first if that happen then lets look for a DM
Blackburn are after Diarra and if wenger comes in then Diarra will surely be interested but lets see what happens
I am hoping we sign a keeper in time a DM is long way away
You can do more than 1 thing at a time mate. Picking up a player that was worth 26 million a couple years ago when he was playing in the same formation we do for Lyon on a free would be a great coupe. I would find it hard to believe that there is a better deal out there.
I know we can do both But I want wenger to focus on Schwarzer
Its not going to be easy to make Hughes give up on him
and I got this nagging feeling that wenger has given up on schwarzer and is looking at other player
I think Sorenson, Given can do a good job for us
I would hate if we sign sorenson. IMO he is horrible.
wenger has given trial to a 17yr old left back named Emmanuel Mbola
I am sorry but i would find it very hard to believe that this guy is not performing a little age cheating. 20 apperances at national team level already. Please …lol
WOW I reported this but even I didn’t realise it was the same guy that spurs were after
now i do want him and arsenal can do that bone marrow test to find out if he’s being cheating
but he’s suppose to be a brilliant LB wouldn’t mind getting him
Wow so its true dat Mbola has bin given a trial as a Zambian fan am happy 4 him da age cheating claim has always bin dere so it shud b sorted while he is attending dis trial. Am jus worried coz he has a transfer dispute case which has alredy bin reported 2 fifa and is as yet unresolved so am nt sure how he cn stil b going 4 trials. But he is 1 hell of a left bak 4 his “age” so gud luc 2 him.
As long as the proper tests are done then this would be good. IMO , left back is not really a concern tho but i guess you can never have enough. Right back is where we need a young player coming through.