The Finnish Football Association have confirmed that Arsenal have signed Carl Jenkinson from Charlton Athletic. A compensation package of around £1 million has been agreed.
Arsenal moved for Jenkinson two months ago, after he rejected a new contract with Charlton. The life-long Gooner quickly agreed terms with the Gunners, but the two clubs have been thrashing out a compensation package, as Carl is under 24.
A fee of around £3 million was initially debated for the right back, who can play anywhere along the back four or in midfield. Both parties agreed on a figure two weeks ago, and now the Finnish FA have confirmed the transfer, listing Jenkinson as a player from ‘Arsenal FC’.
You can catch a full interview with a Charlton youth writer about Carl in the coming days.
great business from Arsenal. Heard a lot about him hopefully he can fullfil his potential.
P.S please dont comment on why we bought him when we should be buying a 20-30m player. This is a differnet kind of transfer
and why should we be going for a 20-30M defender when we have TV5, LK6 , DJ, SS..
I hope he’ll be announced ASAP
finland seems a funny place to get the headsup.
Good luck to the boy look forward to seeing him challenging for a place next season.
It’s likely something to do with the U21s tournament this Summer.
i see, thought he was english!
One of his parents is English and the other is a Fin, but he’s choosing to play for Finland but was raised in England.
1st signing of many to come…:)
Athlon29 Is Jamie says it, its as good as announced for me..
I know, mate
Hopefully this is a sign of things to come concerning the transfer activity, but not as the type of signing. No more unknowns and more established players.
And does this mean the end of Eboue?
this transfer is like the one when aaron ramsey came to us.. so.. may be after 1 or 2 years.. eboue will have ended his arsenal player life..
I’d rather have talented players than players who’re famous just for the heck of it, thank you very much. Fuck the establishment.
Nice to buy someone who supports the club.
Next up Darren Bent!
The confirmation comes because Carl was named in the latest Finland team. He was born in England but has played for Finland since U17 level. He was U19 captain.
Arsenal at the moment as a football club are in a very akward position. We have many good youthful players such as Bartley, Frimpong, Coquelin, Afobe, Freeman, Aneke and now Jenkinson. These guys are good but are not ready to challenge first team for a team fighting for a title. I reckon that the FA should adopt the league system which happens in Spain, whereby a team like Barcelona has a team in the Championship equivalent. I think that would really help Arsenal as a football club. We cant carry on trying to give chances to kids who aint ready!
A bit selfish, no?
The FA should help and ensure the top clubs stay that way. What about other clubs in the championship?
Nonsense. Giving youth players first team opportunities is the best way to develop their potential, and if there’s someone with great potential, like Wilshere and Fabregas, for instance, why should we deny them that development? Will you deny such players an opportunity because of some bias against youth?
This looks like a good signing. The boy is versatile, tall, plays right and left back. Good cover for Sagna and Gibbs. And possible CB as well, excellent.
I don’t know what our plans our for the players you mentioned, but Coquelin and Bartley have already played and performed well at a higher level than the Segunda División.
Every big club (that hasn’t just gone out and bought a squad like Chelsea and Man City) has a foundation of young prospects coming through all the time. Many won’t make it at the club, but they’ll all bring an enthusiasm, energy and ambition that can benefit the squad. Some will stay at the club long-term, and some will move on after a couple of years in search of more first-team games.
But you need a handful of them in every squad, alongside more experienced players of course (it’s a balance that many feel we haven’t got quite right in the last three years).
From what I’ve heard, younger players are also more coachable when it comes to things like teamplay and positioning, while older players tend to be set in their ways a little more. Since we play with quite a distinctive style, it’s worth our younger players getting an early taste, even if they don’t appear to be exceptional Wilshere-style talents.
A good fresh and level headed opinion, imo.
Plus the dude hasn’t even mentioned Miyaichi, who already burst onto a platform such as the Eridvisie straight out of high school and who’s already carved himself a place in the Feyenoord faithful. However the naysayers may put it, there’s simply no one who can pick out young talent like Arsene Wenger. Even a neutral can tell you that.
waste of money. We need adults not more kids
Sadly, in this day of players going across the world plying their trade, local juniors can’t expect to get a chance. No longer can a lad growing up expect to play for his local club, be it Chelsea, Arsenal, whenever. Sad, but true
We can’t waste money on kids or foreigners. More English players please
Please do refer to the postscript of the first comment. This is a youth team website.
So he’s ruled out playing for England in the possible future?
Wellington silva came on anyone know how he did?
He came on for around 30minute and played well and nearly scored…
Reading he’s tweet he seem generally happy to be leaving levante, and looking forward to pre-season with the first team in July…
And does anybody know about richardo Alvery signin? Supposelly
There’s highlights on youtube. He has really quick feet but was diving about a bit and just seemed really angry for some reason. His best moment was an excellent shot from outside the box, but he took a couple of decent freekicks into the box for players to attack, well the first was pretty good anyway.
Looks to me like an extremely talented footballer, but I hope he can get his head straight because he looked like the sort of player who could lose it.
The problem is being a young prospect at Arsenal is absolutely different from being a prospect at any club. It is almost as if all these young players at times expect to be given an opportunity. That is why we get scenarios such as Ozukup wanting assurances of first team football. And 2 be honest i reckon Arsene Wenger has created a situation whereby being an Arsenal Youth Prospect means you have as good as made it.
Exactly! One of a few problems he’s created over the past few years!
I think you’re confusing the media with the club’s own policies. Perhaps you’ve listening to a bit too many podcasts and/or Sun articles?
Looks more like Carl Pilkington to me.
we should have got clyde from crystal palace tbh.
saw highlights of Levante and Silva looked very impressive, with commentators saying he was their only threat. Did look a spiky character as was getting involved with their right-back on a few occasions
Hope we can now add oxlade-chamberlain as well this summer,that’d be a good start then add a chris samba style brick outhouse in defence,a Scott Parker style all action midfielder and someone with the ability to take the load off van persie a little bit,a real top notch signing,I think most people would be happy with that and the sprinkling of youths that deserve their chance in the 1st team squad ie Lansbury,bartley,pedro botelho,players that have shown the determination to go out and prove themselves and show a fight that their loan clubs appreciate rather than gifting chances to unproven youngsters who as yet haven’t warranted it.I do kind of feel that there’s an air of ‘no matter what happens and how we play,we will eventually get in the 1st team to show what we can do’ this is not how it should be,you should have to knuckle down and earn the honour to play for the arsenal
Its great that hes a Gooner if its true .Hopefully hes got the talent to be a great full back in the league of Dixon and Winterburn .He looks like he wants to kill someone in that picture :) and hopefully hes got a bit of spirit about him on the pitch.
I personally want to see a back four of
Sagna, Vermaelen, Bartley, Jenkison working together in preseason. Both centre backs are powerful and good in the air (despite Vermaelen being ‘small’ for the PL), and we know all about Sagna’s attacking and defending abilities: consistent and quality. So it would be good to give Jenkison a run out and hopefully he can fulfill his potential.
3 out of the 4 centre backs would be 6ft or over; havn’t seen that in a while at Arsenal! :P
did parkinson point us in his diretion
direction*
When I was studying one of my professors used to drill into me the idea of moderation. Balance in everything you do. There is an imbalance with Arsenal. It is important to balance the books but should we be declaring 30-50 million dollar profits?
It is important to develop youth but should we have 20 17-21 year olds who need to either get in the first team or move one? I mean we had over 15 players on loan last year.
Also with players from South America, we need to have a solid team in Spain that will play these players. Why aren’t Silva, Botelho and Galindo all on the same team? They would form a bond and help each other.
Arsenal needs to find balance. Buy some experienced players, pay your stars so they stay and continue to develop youth. Balance will bring trophies.
‘players that have shown the determination to go out and prove themselves and show a fight that their loan clubs appreciate rather than gifting chances to unproven youngsters who as yet haven’t warranted it.I do kind of feel that there’s an air of ‘no matter what happens and how we play,we will eventually get in the 1st team to show what we can do’ this is not how it should be,you should have to knuckle down and earn the honour to play for the arsenal’
I couldn’t agree more. This is what i’ve been saying for a while now! We’ve become a joke whether our fellow Gooners like it or not. This couldn’t be better exemplified than the fact that both Henderson and Miquel have actually made the bench for us in a PL game (and represented us in cup comps this season). They both struggle in the reserve league ffs. How the hell are they getting rewarded like this?? Anyone who disagrees with me on this is only proving that they have already been brainwashed by Wenger into accepting average as being good enough.
Just what we needed.Now no one can stop us from being champions next seasons.The treble is surely ours…..
Alright it was a good transfer but I would have enjoyed it after a bigger transfer had been made.
And,are we really going in the right direction with the “youth” in our squad?
Check out this interesting article:
http://www.oohtobeagooner.com/statistics-prove-we-are-going-nowhere-with-project-youth/
this article is rubbish.what the f**k is project youth anyway .
no idea why everytime we have bad result its have to do with this mysterious project.we have plenty of experience player in the squad,our bad season have nothing to do with the myth we dont have experience in the squad.Most of our squad are international
the players we need is player with right attitude,i dont give sh*t he is 20 or 30 years old
welcome at the club jenkison.as half brits he should have only half grit but i suppose its enough for john ;)i hope
I hate this shitty gloryhunter logic from people like subesh. They fail to understand what Arsenal is about and would rather see us win plastic trophies the wrong way like Chelsea or Don Revie’s Leeds. Frickin gloryhunters.
video of wellington playing for levante.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvLMXimv3Qg
Thank u tj da goon,nice to know my opinions noted! I have no problem rewarding youngsters games if their performances are deserving of it,then allowing them a few dodgy performances if need be as long they are showing the desire and not putting in a denilson shift for example.Miquel for me has been so shaky for the reserves on a regular basis and before any jumps on me for that comment yes I do generally go to the reserve games and witness it in person,he may make it for the first team but this won’t be down to 2nd string performances but more for arsenes desire fir ball playing centre halves.
You have got this wrong. Henderson and Miquel were only on the bench because of all the players on loan and injuries! Those two players know this. The point of putting them on the bench BEFORE they go on loan is to build up their self-confidence slowly (60,000 seat stadium versus their future loan club) and to build up their loyalty to the manager who is giving them chances so if they do well on loan they will want to come back to arsenal to take the next step up, if they can.
I don’t disagree that a few younger players have issues of entitlement before they have won anything and this may or may not be a problem AW has encouraged (although it also exists at all other big clubs to some degree and is always difficult to manage). But you are misreading the man management of putting Henderson and Miquel on the bench.
good to see us doing some early deals for a change…i’m sick of waiting and scrounging around on deadline day.
I agree with Steve about the lower division Arsenal team like Spain has. This is the biggest advantage spanish clubs have in youth development because instead of loaning their kids out and relaying on another team with a different system to give them time, we would get to develop them in our own way.
On Jenkinson signing meaning Eboue has to go, a 19 year old player in not going to come in from a league 1 team and just be tossed right in to the deep end. He is more of a project that could eventually take over the right back spot in a year or 2. Also Eboue provides much more than just on the field stuff. Considering the way everyone acts towards the club and how some of the players act, the atmosphere would be all negative all the time without Eboue.
Last thing on the signing of players, you automatically disregard our center backs like Djurou and call for and praise guys like Samba and Cahill but the truth is Djurou had like a 30 game unbeaten streak and was on the defense that conceded the least goals from open play while didn’t Samba’s defense give up 7 goals to Manchester United in one game? It all comes down to perception again. The best thing we can do is actually get behind our players instead of always being negative and once again, this is in no way saying that we should not strengthen, just saying that it is not as simple as people make it sound.
Hopefully we sign AOC as well.
Wel guys does anybody know if there is any truth a pre contract deal with ricardo alverez is there any truth or is it lies thanks lads…
Yes the whole story is a load of bollocks.
Guys he’s basically a right sided Gareth bale! Pact, energetic, very good crosser of the ball.
Man utd tried to get him at 16 he’s a rare talent because he can play across the back 4 and midfield 4
Thanks lads
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I am glad we final sign this gug, i have been hearing about him for quite sometime and i was hoping that we will sort out the compensation thing which we finally did so i think he is a good signing because he has all the quality arsenal need in a player and i am looking forward to see him in the pre-season friendly as well as an under study or back up to sagna in the first team next session.
I don’t get how people disagree with the whole 2nd team playing professionally in the lower leagues thing. It would be nice if people responded instead of just an just putting a thumbs down.
Because the Spanish League has far fewer Professional sides that the English League and even less interest in it. There are some very big sides plying their trade in the 3rd tier. Imagine what would happen if Sheffield Wednesday who get 30,000 fans a week were bumped down a division to make room for a bunch of kids.
So if an Arsenal B side were just granted a place in that division or the 2nd tier it would grate a lot of fans, players and management. Any lower league and its kind of redundant. The only way to do it would be to start from very low like FC United of AFC Wimbledon and that would be a waste of resources for a few years.
Sure it may benefit the teams like Us, Man U, Chelsea, City, Liverpool who might enter a B team but it would negatively impact just as many sides, if not more.
The other way it could be done is if Kroenke bought another team in the lower leagues, say one with financial troubles like Portsmouth and they became an unofficial ‘segunda’ side.
I don’t get how it would negatively impact any team. If a team can not beat our reserves then should they really be getting promoted anyways? Also, obviously our 2nd team would not be aloud to get promoted to the Prem league so it would not be taking a spot from anyone. In my opinion it is a very backwards way of thinking and really the reason why the Spanish team is passing England. There top kids play in a proper professional environment from a young age and still get to be trained in the right way instead of being bench warmers for average sides. Guys like JET and Lansbury are good enough to be starting week in and week out for their respective loan teams but they spend half of their time on the bench. If you think the overall development of players is less important than hurting some has been teams feelings then fair enough but I don’t. Teams like Real Betis seem to be just fine with Barcelona B playing in the same division as them.
As for Kroenke buying a Pompey, I don’t think you can own 2 clubs in the same country.
The fundamental flaw in your thinking Shane is that it is inherently selfish. You may try and mask it as “for the good of the nation”, but all you’re really thinking about is Arsenal and no one else.
What about smaller clubs like wolves and Wigan? What if they try and do things the right way by building an academy? Should they be punished because they can’t afford to create a B team?
The fact that you call lower league team “has beens” betrays your selfish ambition. These other clubs will not be facing a “B” team really, they’ll be facing “arsenal in disguise”, who can afford to get potentially world-class players to send to leagues below and destory all competition.
Put it this way, if UEFA decided to make a “true “champions LEAGUE”, with the top 3 clubs of each league competing in this new league, and one available play-off spot for the “rest of us”. What happens if Man City became so powerful they made “City B”, a team so good they stopped us from getting that spot? Bet you’d be the first one to cry about it.
Oh, and writing crap like “JET is good enough to be starting every week” is stupid. If he was good enough, he would’ve been starting. I like the guy, but he was never gonna be better to Bothryd or certainly not Bellamy. Stupid talk.
well listen it would be great for our young players… the logistics would probably make it impossible. but in most other countries the lower divisions are nowhere near as competitive as england… the clubs still get big crowds! putting B teams in football league would dilute that IMO.
How is it backwards thinking to suggest a side like Notts County who next year celebrate their 150th anniversary have less right than our reserve team? Where do we introduce the teams? The logistics of such a move make it impossible to implement.
Keep in mind that the structure of the Spanish league is far different to ours. Their third tier is split into 4 adjacent groups and has only been around for 30 something years. Some of the B sides were founding members of those leagues as well.
I agree it would be beneficial for us to have a second team in the champs but it would be a selfish move. I don’t want to poop on a nice idea, but it will never happen.
Plus if Kroenke couldn’t directly own another side in the league system there are surely ways to get around such rules like using an external holdings company. This is a much more feasible plan that just plonking Arsenal B into League 1.
JS, I really love your site and there is always so much lively and informed debate. Like it or not, in the real financial world, youth development is the most sustainable route to continued success.
The key is in what the club do to identify all the necessary talents and how it goes about developing them. For instance, many of us have felt for a while now that the team sometimes lacks “grit” to drag out that win when things don’t go right. Yes, we can find that in older, proven players because we can see the evidence of their performances but they come at a cost. I believe the club (and Arsene in particular) has been looking at that from another angle. I remember this article from the Daily Mail about Arsene’s use of a psychologist to screen and develop the youngsters.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1323963/REVEALED-How-psychologist-Jacques-Crevoisier-assesses-cream-Arsene-Wengers-talent.html
I can’t find the other article, but in it, Wenger was reported as working with the psychologist to identify what mental characteristics these older/experienced/tougher had that could be identified and developed in the young guns. I think the likes of Henri Lansbury, Jack Wilshire and Jenkinson exhibit that natural fighting spirit. It makes my mouth waater to think of the sustainable long term future this club is building.
On the subject of playing as a team in some lower league, do you think Arsenal’s proposed tie-up with Anderlecht might be to do just that?
Wel lads did anyone see the new away kit young guns put up on twitter thanks for putting it up by the way i didnt think it would of been out yet it takes a bit of getting used to the way the colours are laid out is quiet different.
Ok, you guys have your opinions and fair enough. The system all ready works in a league that has the best national team and considering we never here spanish clubs coming out and complaining about the youth system there so it looks like it works great. Stuff like Notts County is old…I know they are super old but there are old Spanish clubs as well. All I am saying is this is the best system for developing talent and it is the real advantage that Barcelona have over us along with binging able to bring players in from all over where we are limited to a short distance at a young age.
No, the REAL advantage Barcelona and Spain have over us is that they have a National “football curriculum”;p whereby the majority of all academies put an emphasis on technical skill first above all else.
We do not have a standard coaching curriculum in this country with most clubs left to run in the style they want. and 99% choose the classic english style of hoof-it football.
Saying Spain are the best for your reasons is just trying to warp the evidence to suit your beliefs.
Anyone got any footage on this Ricky Alvarez guy. J says Ricky Law is at his game tonight to watch him
Yea man id like to see some footage of this lad myself and see if he is as good as people say he is i think jay said he is similer to gallindo.
Simple Youtube search would’ve found you this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeSIgyfG1sc
Yes he did say that and its not someone we should get. I intially thought this was some bogus story but there is definitely interest in him. In the latest Arsenal magazine he is describe by a journo as someone of immense talent who can shoot dribble and bass. Not sure why another midfielder again
I wonder is wenger letting go of any of our other midfielders because it would be strange bringing in ricky alverez with the amount of midfielders we have at the moment.
Thanks andy by the way i was trying to find videos of him but trying to find them on my mobile internet was very akward
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11827_6952911,00.html
J whats Hector Berlin like, thought you may have reported this
Unimpressed to be honest. I watched the compilation video of his on YouTube and he seems to be a nervous player with poor ball control ande decision-making.
He doesn’t look comfortable at left-back at all as he keeps having to switch to his right and his first touch is severely lacking.
He has a decent ability to pass long but doesn’t seem to exercise much judgement, like when he makes that crazy pass back to the ‘keeper and trying to find the striker with the long ball when he is mostly clearly offside.
We’re going to need a hell of a lot better than that.
ON HAVING LOWER LEAGUE ‘B’ TEAMS:
The reason the Spanish system works the way it does is because:
1) It is built around an inherently unfair distribution of wealth and power: Real and Barcelona negotiate their own TV deals, meaning they take more than half the total La Liga TV income for themselves. What these clubs want, these clubs get because the entire League lives and dies with these clubs.
2) More importantly, as some people have suggested, the segunda division is, bar a few teams at the upper level of it, really of Blue Square Premier league quality and popularity. The English Championship is the fourth most attended league in Europe. FOURTH. After the Prem, the Bundesliga, and La Liga, you have the Championship. More people watch the Championship than the Italian Serie A and the French Ligue 1. The attendance levels at the better Segunda B clubs (eg. the yoyo clubs who can’t help but win at that level but get stuffed in La Liga) rarely tops 12,000, but the average attendance is more like 4-5,000 (eg. lower league in English terms).
Because the Segunda is not a successful business in itself, the Spanish authorities are happy to support Barca, Real, and Sevilla, etc, in order to keep La Liga strong and to encourage a few thousand extra viewers for the lower leagues. The lower English leagues just don’t need or want this. See how much of a furore there was about whether Man U might play a weakened team againt Blackpool? In extremely competitive leagues such as the Championship, a team of young, inexperienced players–though they are very talented players–is far too unpredictable and dangerous. Cardiff or the like might get their arses handed to them Carling Cup style by our kids one week (Carlos Vela chipping the keeper three times, JET rounding six players and scoring a wonder goal), then see their rivals walk all over us because our boys weren’t quite in the right place mentally, or were tactically naive, etc. As followers of youth football, we all know how inconsistent these ridiculously talented young players can be.
The Spanish system is great for the big rich clubs and, selfishly, I’d love to see Arsenal have a second club playing regular football, but the system only works with weak, uncompetitive, and altogether acquiescent leagues. England is lucky enough to have thriving second, third, and maybe even fourth tier football and even as an Arsenal fan I can see this is a good thing that we should be thankful for.
As for owning a second club, this is impossible for several reasons. As an owner cannot have material influence over two teams in the same country or competition (so another team in European football for instance) even through a secondary party, any attempt to do so would result in bans, forced sale, and points deductions; it would be catastrophic. Since teams have a strict limit on the number of loan players they are allowed, the best you can do is buddy up with a club and offer a few players at a time (like we did with Larsson, Bendtner, and Djourou at Birmingham in the Championship a few years ago). If you cheated the system by having the lower league club technically owning the players and you buying the player off of them (thus allowing an unlimited number of your young players to go ‘on loan’) you’d have to pay that club a fair market price for that player or be tried for price-fixing and, once again, having material influence over the finances of two clubs. It can’t be done.
Not a bad essay. My only criticism (although I gave you a thumbs up) is in relation to your conclusion. It is not enough to say that it won’t happen because of the current rules, as the people who back the idea are looking for the rules to be changed. It’s a bit glib and sort of a self defeating argument.