Arsenal will set out on the long journey home from America this evening, after completing the club’s first visit to the US in the modern era. A semi-final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt ended their hopes of winning the Dallas Cup, but both players and coaches admit they they’ve learnt a lot from the experience.
You need luck on your side to win any competition, and when it came to it, the Gunners had little. The last minute injuries to key players Luke Freeman and Josh Rees meant they went into the final game massively under strength, and it tolled. However, despite the defeat, Steve Bould and Neil Banfield can be proud of the efforts the boys made.
The experience the players gained in playing against different styles, physiques and attitudes to the game will stand them in good stead for the future. A number of players, such as Freeman, Deacon, Henderson, Angha and Martínez continued to add to their growing reputation, while the young and improving Rees, Ebecilio, Ansah and Monakana also turned in good shifts. All in all, this looks another good crop.
The summer will bring decisions on the futures a select few, including Oğuzhan Özyakup and George Brislen-Hall, who are looking increasingly likely to leave. That said, loan spells for Freeman, Henderson and one or two others will help push them onto another level.
Mostly importantly though, the Dallas Cup has paved the way for future Arsenal involvement in America. The large turn out of fans, despite it being an Under 19 team, was impressive. The players and coaching staff have both commented on how much they’ve enjoyed the setup, and with a growing number of supporters groups and interested from Stateside Gooners, it makes more sense for Arsenal to continue to explore that market, as opposed to the Asian one.
All in all, the Dallas Cup 2011 has been a sound experience for all connected with the club. The job now if for Banfield to use the Frankfurt defeat as inspiration for his sides final Premier Reserve League game of the season, against Manchester United.
Why is Ozjakup expected to leave? I thought we rated him highly or is it because he doesn’t want us?
His contract is up in the summer.
Hi Jamie, a little clarification if you could. A short while ago there was a story on arsenal.com about how Ozyakup wanted to be like Lansbury and impress Wenger with a loan spell next season. Also recently on twitter Wellington Silva was talking about staying with Ozyakup for a while when he gets back to England. Are you sure Ozzy hasn’t signed a new contract? Grateful if you could shine some light on it. Cheers.
His contract ends on 30th June so will join up for pre-season, they’re probably in talks so will hopefully sign a new one to stay.
He gave an interview to the Dutch FA’s website a few months ago where he said there was the offer of a new 3 year contract, but he hadn’t agreed on it.
I’ve been checking for updates, but he’s not signed it yet.
This is why it’s so important for arsenal to go out and tour more countries.
Ok wenger doesn’t want it to distract the first team, then use the reserve and multidude of youth teams we have.
Good experience for them all, shame couldn’t win it.
Now have to get ready for United away and will only have 1 day rest which seems very unfair. We still have a chance to win the reserve league if we win but United will be tough who have been playing the likes of Obertan and Bebe.
Hey Jamie are you still going to implement that like feature you were experimenting with awhile back??
has there not been any contract talks between Özyakup and Arsenal yet? 2 bad, never seemed to get a chance.
But at the same time, hardto compte with cesc, diaby, wilshere, ramsey for that spot.e
btw, you should do something about the fact that it is impossible to edit a post before having posted it. Can only edit the first line and the last line… if one wants to edit the rest, one has to delete everything that’s written :S
The dallas cup was fantistic competition for the young stars the like of freeman, deacon, henderson, martinez, ozyakup,angha all of them did well also some other who tried are rees, ansah, ebecilio and i think it was a nice experience for them all if i want to choose the best arsenal player of the competition i will go for freeman and second best henderson so i hope with the experience they get in the dallas cup they can win manu and possibly win the reserve premier league.
The dallas cup was fantistic competition for the young stars the like of freeman, deacon, henderson, martinez, ozyakup,angha all of them did well also some other who tried are rees, ansah, ebecilio and i think it was a nice experience for them all if i want to choose the best arsenal player of the competition i will go for freeman and second best henderson so i hope with the experience they get in the dallas cup they can win manu and possibly win the reserve premier league as for ozyakup he is a good player so i hope he stay but his contract end in the summer and the choice is his.
Any information about signing of 12 y/o player? Jamie do you know something about this?
Does anyone know if ozyakup stay at Arsenal?
I want an answer quickly
Please please please!
Maybe Luke Freeman will make it after all, look better than Andrey Arshavin.
I don’t think it really means anything at all. None of the players we sent were really going to make it at Arsenal. Maybe the young Swiss players because they still have time on their hands or Frimpong because he is just recovering from injury but other then that, these are league 1 players.
@shane, almost everyone are league 1 players when they are under 20. Very few under 20s produce anything good enough to be PL material before they have bulked up and evolved properly.
One cannot epect you to see talent as you are merley a spectator, but the guys that has this as a job they do manage to see the difference and the potential within players. but again, one does not xpect fans to have that same understanding shane, so thats why i cannot take you seriouse.
Yah mate, tell me when I am wrong. Do you understand what scouts do? They watch players and judge talent and potential. All of us can do this. Some will be right and some will be wrong but i can tell you, that if you truly wanted to test me then go back through all these articles and see when I was wrong. I said the exact same thing about guys like Mark Randall and Craig Eastmond. It is not that hard to tell when a guy is not cut out for the top level. You can disagree on my opinion but you can’t say I am not able to form a proper opinion because I am not paid by Arsenal.
By the way, I am not all negative. I just tell the honest truth. I said Song would make it here while he was on loan at Charlton. I said Szczesny would be our starter as soon as he got his chance (ask wrenny about that one lol). I said Chamahk would not be a starter and is really just depth and I am right on that one. Ones to watch out for next year…. I truly believe Carlos Vela will become a top striker as soon as he gets a consistent run in the team. I don’t believe Sanchez Watt will make it here. Now I am not trying to brag in all this, just responding to your comment. cheers
Hi Jamie, on a slightly different subject, do you know anything about Manu beating us to the signing of Raphael Varane. I seen himplay a couple of times and really rate him
Surely its not impossible to promote the Arsenal in both the Americas (not just USA) and Asia? Chelsea have done very well in Asia thanks to Adidas as well as there own efforts. I really hope Stan gets some American executives in who know how to boost the current pathetic commercial revenues. Arsenal is very far behind Man Ure in brand promotion all over the world. An Asian tour is just the start.
Promoting in Asia comes down to simply buying an asian player. The most popular NBA player (even tho he has barely played in 3 years) is Yao Ming. Manchester United obviously have Ji Sung Park. Look at the following Ryo gets and he is not even here yet.
Shane, wow, are you a psychic? Let me have a try: ehm, let’s see.. I’ll bet on Lansbury, Frimpong and Bartley as the ones to make the next step up. Excluding these three, and the only ones I rate among our endless list of loanees, are as follows:
JET
Afobe
Coquelin
Miyaichi
Vela
Not even sure about ‘the JET’ yet(!)
Lets get Henderson, Freeman and Cruise out on loan aswell, then maybe we can add a few to that list in a year or so.
;D
I agree with you on the loan players. JET of course is hard to tell because he has that Bendtner about him. If he puts in the work and has the right attitude, then he will definitely make it. Frimpong is a hard one to judge considering he got injured in what is usually a massive year for young talents so I can’t make an accurate judgement. I don’t think Henderson, Freeman or Cruise will make it. Lansbury could make it depending on the situation. If we stay 4-2-3-1 then to me is only could enough for one of the hard worker type roles in the 2 holding mid spots but he could not play as the main defensive midfielder so he would be battling between Wilshere, Diaby, and Ramsey and that is assuming we don’t bring anyone else in so it will be tough.
@shane, maybe since your so good at judging the talent we have you shud become a scout for us? Or beter yet Wengers job could be up for grabs soon! It is impossible to say whether or not some of these players will make it in the PL as different youngsters mature at different ages, zak ansah is 17 and your already saying he wont make it any higher than league one you must be a psycic!
Yes…you can make educated guesses. Thats what the fuck a scout does you fucking moron. God some of these douche bags are pissing me off again. Scouts look at players and try to determine potential as well as current ability. That is like saying I can’t say that a 17 year old from a local high school will not make it at Barcelona.
By the way, when did i ever say anything about ansah?
Wow, it is funny how people respond to the same thing I already touched on. Nice to see people know how to read. Let me clarify then.
1st off… we all can have opinions (that is the point of a blog). You don’t have to be a payed professional to form an opinion or be right.
Secondly… I can’t stand when people act like we can not have opinions because we are not professionals. (Touching on the same thing again.
3rd…. I was simply responding to a guy that started some BS with one of those comments.
Last but not least….. My comments were directly aimed as a rebuttal towards that specific guy and nothing more. I am wrong about some things. Other people are right about things on here. It was in know way meant to be an arrogant comment or pretend like I am an oracle. Once again, it was just that guy that we can form opinions that end up being right.
Guys, give Shane a break….he is only giving his opinion!
Hardly any of these boys are gonna get a chance because the senior team have fucked up for the last 6 years! If they had won something anything, then these guys would have a chance. Wenger will be under pressure to buy in the summer and it will set them all back another year or two. Our youth team of Wilshere, JET, Lansbury, Frimpong etc are never gonna get the credet they should’ve gotten because we have a bunch of cowards in the first team. athey should’ve been our future not some of the twats in the team at the moment!