Arsenal are closing in on new contracts for Reserve team duo Håvard Nordtveit and Oğuzhan Özyakup. The pair are in different situations with their current deals, but are expected to seal extensions shortly.
Nordtveit has been in talks with the club since July, when agent Jim Solbakken flew into London and began negotiations. However, with 12 months left on his current deal, there has been no immediate rush to finalise an agreement.
Özyakup’s situation is a little more pressing. His current deal expires at the end of the season and reports in both Holland and Turkey suggest PSV Eindhoven have been in touch with his representatives and are willing to make an offer. Oğuzhan dismissed the speculation last month and confirmed his desire is to stay with Arsenal. Ivan Gazidis has since made an offer, which the 18-year-old is believed to be on the verge of signing.
Håvard and Oğuzhan have been regular features for the Reserve team this year but may well be set to go on loan in the new year, should they secure their stay in North London.
Ozzie and sunu we should let go off they are not good enough. Btw js what’s happened to Conor Henderson the kid is always picking up injuries
Yes we should follow John’s advice as he is a youth team genius and not at all an annoying twat
Thanks for this Jamie. How close to you think these are to squad inclusion for Carling cup/FA Cup ? What sort of player is Özyakup, and do you see either of them breaking into the squad next season ?
The Nord will certainly leave, hasn’t done anything with the first team the whole he’s been here.
See the reply to john’s bullshit
WOW what complete BULLSHIT from someone thats knows NOTHING……. Harvy was the captain for the reserves before he went out on loan to Nuremberg, after which Wenger said that this boy ABSOLUTELY has a future at Arsenal… SO please “daddy”…..do some fuckin research before you post bullshit as the truth you twat
oh yes John and ship Afobe with them also out!! What a mug you are!!!
good work once again Jamie
Ozzie has signed, or is in the process of siging, according to someone I know at Nike in the Netherlands (his personal sponsor, Arsenal sponsor, Dutch national team sponsor) and it may be be three, may be four years. PSV was very real though. As is Hiddink for his transition to Turkey. Never gonna happen, captaining the under-19 at the age of eigtheen is very good.
Good news about Nordveit too, gonna be a very classy, versatile defensive player.
yeh listen to John. the idiot that said fabianski is shit and that also said walcott has no brain and that wilshere is too young.
Yeh John you are smart. NOT!
Fabinaski is shit, Walcott has no footballing brain although John is wrong about Wilshere being to young.
Özyakup is a bright talent. In fact I read reports that when he was injured, the team lacked ideas and couldn’t really function well. So I guess we should keep him. And regarding Nordtveit, it is a no-brainer. We are short of good defenders.
I think this is good news but I can understand some people saying they might not make it at Arsenal. The idea is to have as many talented players as possible (which we do have) coming through with the best of these making it while the reminder are sold on will large sell on fees example Bentley.
Ozzy is pretty good. Real calm on the ball and passes very well. Nordtveit is a no brainer.. he’s a classy defender who spent a season playing in the DM role… he has pace, strength and very good balance. His positioning is usually very good and he tackles strongly from what I’ve seen. Both have a chance of making it at Arsenal, but Nordtveit will probably be with the first team come next season.
Ozzy is a very overrated player, if we’re honest he has very little chance of making it for any prem team nevermind the Arsenal.
This is great news! I see Nordveit pushing the likes of Djourou and possibly backing up Sagna in the right back slot.
Ozzie is an excellent young midfield prospect. The battle between Ozyakup, Lansbury, Henderson, and Aneke is going to a lot of fun to watch.
I exptect Aneke to be the comfortable winner with Ozzie, Hendo, and Lansbury battling out to stay at the club.
Right on KC!
I saw Nordtveit play a few times as a DM last year in the Bundesliga and he was quite efficient at breaking up play.. Very good physical attributes, which he did his best to show during preseason.
In fact, a player with Nordtveit’s tenacity and defensive skills mixed with Ozyakup’s technical ease and awareness would be a fantastic central midfielder (and his name would be Aaron Ramsey :) )
More seriously though, to include young players in the first team squad will become increasingly difficult for AW as pressure for trophies become excessive, unless they are already exceptionally talented. Therefore, most of today’s reserves may only be getting chances next year if we are thin on cover, which bodes much better for Nordtveit than for Ozyakup. A successful loan spell next semester would go a long way though.
@KC
I don’t really see much of a battle between those particular four.
Lansbury has been playing further down the pitch as of late, Aneke is almost destined for the 1st team, as Wenger is a very big fan – the same goes for Ozyakup. Henderson is more or less out of centention, despite him being among my favourtites, due to re-occuring injuries and a genereal lack of development.
I have no doubt the Nord will make it here.
Less so on Ozzie, but even if he doesn’t make it at arsenal (he can certainly make it anywhere else).
kc – what proof do you have that wenger favours aneke over ozyakup as they are on the same level with ozzy a bit further as captain of holland u19s.
Well he did allude to Chuks and Benik going on to become full England internationals in the near future yesterday at his press conference.
@ TJ DA GOON which press conference?
asif,
“proof…?” I don’t have any proof. I don’t even know who will win the battle. That’s why I said I expect it to be a lot of fun to watch.
It’s only my opinion that Aneke will beat out the other players becuase he’s younger than all of them and he’s performing much better than all of them at the reserve level.
I do think Ozyakup is an excellent player and he definitely stands a chance to beat out Lansbury, but doing so still may not be enough to win a place in the 1st team. We just have so many strong midfielders that it’s hard for any youngsters to break thru.
It’s tougher than ever for young Arsenal players to break through into the first-team. A few years ago when we lacked depth somebody like JET or Lansbury would have already notched a good number of games.
But if we want to challenge for trophies, we can’t afford to keep throwing untested youngsters into the fray, we’ve already made that investment in the previous generation (who are now 20-24 years old). The very best will still make it to the top once they’re ready like Wilshere and Szczesny have done, but even those two were sent on loan to prove themselves.
The great thing is that we’re producing more talent than we need! We don’t have enough room to give opportunities to all these youngsters. It’s just a massive shame we don’t have an Arsenal B side where they could be gaining great experience in the Championship. So we’re forced to rely on other clubs to give our players the experience we can’t provide at a crucial time in their development.
I think it is a question of patience; from the club and the players themselves. They need to fight for a place, go on loan and work hard. As long as they dont follow the example of fuckwits like rat faced Bentley they should be fine.
I think, as we have seen with Djourou, it can take a while before a player shows their true quality.
22+ is the age I am chatting (shit) about
wat abt JET? shldnt he be fast-tracked to the senior team?
I want to see lansbury more, i really like him
Pain, pain, pain!
wenger needs to do a better job of managing all this talent, otherwise merida will just have been the first of many young stars to walk away.
some will leave. You can not keep everyone
It sounds like Ozyakup is just a bit below Aneke in the pecking order. Once Ozyakup gets back to full fitness let’s see how he makes progress and competes before we reach any idiotic conclusions like “The Daddy”
You keep kidding yourself young cub, if far superior players like Fran Merida and Sebastion Larsson couldn’t even make our bench regularly what in Gods names makes you think Turkleton stands a chance at the Arsenal?
@ TJ DA GOON which press conference??
At the one where he was talking about England having an Arsenal backbone in a few years.
Turkleton? Who the fuck is Turkleton?