Arsenal have decided against signing Mamelodi Sundowns centre back Siyanda Xulu after he failed a trial, according to youth development coach Gary Giessing.
Xulu, and agent Jerome McCarthy of the Siyavuma Sports Agency, arrived at London Colney two weeks ago for a trial which was scheduled to last for a month. The 18-year-old took part in intensive work outs with the Reserve team and he even featured in a Reserves V Under 18 game at the training ground.
The powerful defender, who is on the fringes of the South Africa squad, was looked after by fellow countryman and Arsenal youth officer Gary Giessing, who spoke to youngster to the media in his home land.
“He’s been training with the Reserves. From what the other coaches have told me, he’s not up to the standard. That’s the opinion of some of the senior coaching team. I doubt he will be offered a contract.”
Siyanda is due back in South Africa later this week in order to participate in Sundowns’ upcoming PSL fixture against the Orlando Pirates.
I hope we do not regret this decision later..
its not an exact science but we gave him a chance and he didnt make it
most dont
from what I have seen of Bartley and he looks like a very impressive defender but technically not up to arsenal’s standard still he has a very good chance of making it
Miguel has always been my favorite so I am always hoping he makes it
but since we already have 3 defenders in their mid 20s no need for a CB till 2013
I think thats the point, Andrew.
He isn’t better than Bartley, Miquel, etc so what’s the point in adding another body when they’re not as good as the options that we already have.
Same thing regarding Pires. Sure, we’d all like him back, but he’s not as good as the options we have at the moment, so whats the point?
J
not sure how many games you have seen of Bartley but what do you make of him?
I have seen two of his games and in both of the games he was very very solid in defending but a lot of our players are technically very good and I didn’t see any sign of that maybe it has something to do with tactics but he really does seem to be a commanding and no nonsense defender would he fit in the arsenal system?
MIguel may not be as commanding or terrifying as Bartley but he’s technically very good
I think only one of them will make it and its very difficult to choose who that will be
Technically gift centerback is good and all but defending is the biggest part. Who cares if a guy can pass awesome if he can’t tackle. Personally I am rooting for the signing of Phil Jones from Blackburn. Unless we whipped out some money for David Luiz which would be shocking lol.
We are looking for the Lukaku brothers. One of them is a LB/CB I think!!
Thanks for the update – I was hoping we could sign a Saffer, but if he’s not good enough then what’s the point?
arsenal4ever, Jordan Lukaku is a left winger and Romelu is a ST. I hope we get both!!!
Sad to say that Arsene leaves it far too late to grab Uk kids. Three years ago I wrote to him after watching young Johnson at Boro…apparently they dint think it worth the trip? Then they could have had him for £3 mill.
Right now we are ‘looking’ at Wickham, Dorrans, Henderson, but I bet we dont buy any one of them.
Arsene has the worlds best scouting system if you want young cheap Africans or Frenchmen but he has a shocking UK system that fails like our defence does week in week out.
What you also have to take into account is the ammount of competition Arsenal have in London alone for young players is extremely competitive plus the nintey minute rule aswell means it makes it more difficult to get the best young English players, and if you find one you have to snap them up like Chelsea did when they signed that eleven year old striker from Northampton Town the other day.
Yah because we did not get Walcott and Ramsey. How many championship kids do you want us to sign? Johnson is not exactly the greatest winger of all time. There are several that i would prefer over him. Where would Henderson play? Over Wilshere, Fabregas or Ramsey? And Dorrans…lol? He is good but how is he any where near as good as the players we already have? If another center mid came in, Nuri Sahin from dortmund would be the best choice but once again we have enough quality center mids.
The only player I regret Arsenal not getting is Gareth Bale but at the time, everyone looked at him as a leftback and we were set there.
And when do they ever sign good centre backs,it’s a major weakness at the club that’s why we will win nothing.
robert pires not as good as the options we got at the moment,have a day off,he still pisses all over the crap we got now.
I find it quite strange how everyone expects to have every good young player in Europe playing for us. Do people not understand that every other club is doing exactly the same thing as us. It is inevitable that players will slip under the radar, or we will not sign players and then turn out to be mistaken. If you look at Johnson he has only really started to excell in the last year before that he didn’t lookthat promising. With regards to Henderson although very good player he is at the age now that if we were to sign him; especially with the youth of our side he would need to be a first team player, and with all due respect he isn’t of that level. We have to
Understand how hard it is to tell how good a player is going to be, early promise doesn’t always count for too much, players progress physically, technically and mentally at much different rates.
That is far too sensible and intelligent a suggestion for some posters here.
L….you will find that there are not to many fans with common sense on here.
Totally agree L, it seems people are most happiest knocking the club at every opportunity.
Ronaldo is the only player I can think of that we seriously missed out on.
I hope a club like Aston Villa make Pires an offer.
I would say clearly Ronaldinho and Ibrahimovic are 2 players we missed out on. I could not imagine how good a Wenger trained Ibrahimovic would have been along side Henry and Ronaldinho with the invincibles…..lol. That was the year he first won the world player of the year award. We would have won every game.
another big miss was di maria,
i still cant understand how come we dont sign him
what is the matter with all of you
How many unknown players has wenger scouted and bought !!!!!!!!!
so he missed out on a few who hasn’t he has bought more unknown and made them into world class players than any coach in english history
No one is knocking Wenger mate so calm down. We are saying that Wenger found these players like Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho and came very close to signing them and it is just a shame things did not fall in place. One like Dinho was not even do to wenger but british work permit issues.
talking of scouting has anybody seen the handfull of cameroon youngsters at barca?
Early-boomers or Late-comers?