Benik Afobe is poised to miss the business end of Arsenal’s pre-season, after being selected for the England Under 20 squad for next months Under 20 World Cup in Colombia.
Afobe is still expected to join Arsène Wenger’s first-team when training gets underway on Monday, but he won’t have the opportunity to impress in a game situation, as England have told him to be ready for their July 14th meet up.
The 18-year-old was expected to be offered the opportunity to earn a place in Wenger’s squad for the next campaign, after impressing during a loan spell with League One Huddersfield Town last season. However, his inclusion means he’ll only have just over a week of training to leave an impression.
One option the Frenchman does have, is asking the FA to re-consider their stance on Benik, just like he did with Jack Wilshere and the Under 21 European Championships. This seems unlikely, so a second loan spell away from the club looks inevitable, with Millwall already making inquires over his services.
Francis Coquelin, Gilles Sunu and Ignasi Miquel are all in the same boat, as they’ll be featuring for France and Spain respectively.
Elsewhere, Arsenal have moved pre-season training forward, all first-team and Reserve players will now report for duty on Monday, not Wednesday, as original planned.
perhaps a little un-fair that these players won’t get a shot at the first team due to playing well enough to earn an international call up?
well i dont think he was going to be in the first team plans for the next season anyway but at 17 years of age playing u20 world cup will only be a great experience for the lad
Benik’s 18
even though he’s incredibily talented dont think he will break into the team this season even if he stays
Its better he’s loaned to a championship club to gain first team experience.
BTW has any PL club enquired about him
This is really good news for Benik because these youth tournaments only come along once in a player’s career and can provide invaluable experience.
But unfortunately because of the focus on the U21s, the U20 side have really be neglected by the FA. Their last match was back in February, a friendly. Where they submitted an U19 squad which lost to France. Plus they have been drawn in an incredibly tough group for the U20WC:
Argentina – an obvious tough opponent, finished 3rd in the 2011 South American Youth tournament.
Mexico – a nation with a reputation for producing good youth sides, plus champions of this years CONCACAF U-20 tournament.
and North Korea – A bit of an unknown quantity but not to be underestimated. Champions of the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship.
And after looking at the full squad, Brian Eastick has chosen quite an inexperienced group in comparison to some of the other nations. Plus England’s pre-WC preparations are almost embarrassing. They are meeting up 2 weeks before their 1st game and aren’t partaking in any warm up friendlies. When other nations are going to much greater lengths to prepare.
If you take all these factors into account: Tough group, inexperienced squad and poor preparation. I really can’t see England getting past the group stage.
Shouldn’t be too bad for Afobe… one competitive match is better than a hundred training sessions. I hope he’ll get some game time and show what he can do.
M’Baye Niang how good is he, does anyone know? and secondly are we interested in him as well
I watched him play but he was really hard to judge because he did almost nothing at all but then bagged a goal.
It was also weird that he was not on the u17 France team for the world cup.
It’s unfortunate that these competitions come along just at a time when several of our brighter prospects get a chance to show Arsene what they can do with respect to the first team.
I’d like to see him loaned out again next season too. Swansea on loan or Blackpool in the championship and he would thrive.
he takes 20 chances to score 1. if he is chucked into the emirates cauldron before he is 21 he will get a name for himself early as a wasteful striker this will destroy his career.
loan him to a championship then prem side for next 2 seasons and he can sharpen his finishing there rather than waste chance after chance for us in big games
Was the starting date of the preseason moved forward? Does this have anything to do with trying to keep Fab and Nasri at the club for at least another year? Gives Barca a shorter time to complete the deal now.
See, we really need a B team because it is almost like we are not even training our youngsters anymore from like 18 – 20. It is just send them on loan and hope for the best.
A serious under21 competition with maybe 2 or 3 overage players. In Aussie and NZ rugby league young comp runs alongside the senior i.e. same teams play each other with the under 20’s playing before the seniors. It’s been running 2/3 years now and attendances are creeping up. Players get a great stepping stone. Come on Premier league think forward and close that Spanish gap
surely we could hang on to him and give him some time to impress in the carling cup run.
i dont see a problem if he starts sub role, train and hang around with the first team to help him mature, its much better than sending our youth to scrap it up again in the lower league.
its goal ratio doesnt matter. we will judge that when he’s finally playing around wilshere,nasri,arshavin and van persie. i saw playing for hudders and running all over the pitch for the ball, surely he wouldnt have to do that all the time at the emirates.they will be beautiful passes coming his way.
and i dont think arsene will trust him with that centerforwards position this soon. if he ever come close to first team this early maybe he will be tried on the wing till he matures.
As much as i rate Benik, there is a limited amount of strikers that you can have in the 1st team squad. Sure if we play 3 up front that increases, but we are already looking likely to have Walcott, Gervinho and JET battling for the right. Alvarez, Arshavin and Chamberlain for the left, with RVP, Chamakh and Vela for the middle and that is assuming, Rosicky, Nasri and Bendtner are not involved. Now if the latter 3 do move and we dont sign Gervinho, Alvarez and Chamberlain then that is a different matter. But then we will surely be in the shit!
yup!
and carling up
Saw him tear my favourite club Brighton apart twice.
If he does go out on loan next season you guys would be better off loaning him to a team who play passing football.
So looks like we are going to sell nasri to man city? WENGER OUT! All the thumbs down are for people who are naive and can’t see the bigger picture that Arsene is holding us back and doing nothing good for our club!
Time to rename the blog fellas. Our club is not just a “La Massia” for the other top sides in the Prem and beyond if Nasri reports are true.
I’ve always been loyal, never played the Wenger out card but something seems to be going seriously wrong at the club.
I must admit I am having trouble now seeing the point in trying to be a responsible club if Manchester United and Barcelona are going to be aloud to be in massive bad debt and still spend 100 million and year and sign our best players then what is the point. If we lose both Nasri and Fabregas (for cheap especially) then really we are taking a massive step backwards and are really pushing us down to just the Tottenham, Aston Villa, Everton level. I am starting to become disillusioned with football. Debt does not seem to matter at all. How are Valencia not forced to sell Mata and Banega and how do they buy any players.
Shane>
Sorry, but if we can’t afford to keep up with Man U right now, that’s just the way things are. Barnet can’t either, y’know. What we do is keep building, getting stronger as fast as we can, and let them do what they will.
Thanks pretty much solely to Wenger, we’re several steps ahead of the Tottenhams and so-on of this world, and as long as we keep running the club responsibly, that’s where we’ll stay.
Instead of criticising based on newspaper speculation that is probably bollocks, why not wait until we find out what is really happening?
Hence why I said “IF”. We are never going to catch them if being in debt does not matter. These teams are able to keep spending no matter what. Yes if we lose our top 2 players then it just starts the whole cycle over again. I agreed with the building process whole heartily but if we are just going lose our true world class players to teams that are in massive debt and should not be aloud to buy anyone then what is the point? Especially if we did sell Fabregas for a bull shit price it is like we are giving up to me. Of course this is all and IF situation so yes we will have to see but it still does not change the fact that Manchester United have already spent almost 40 million pounds of money that they don’t have. Barcelona are just aloud to tap up our player constantly for a full 2 years now and nothing happens yet we let them use our facilities. If this deal goes through then we have pretty much become Barcelona’s Bitch. That is just the reality of the situation and it sucks.
By the way, letting Nasri’s contract run down to the final year shows you someone is sleeping on the ball.
Please package Afobe and Miguel to Bolton on loan deals so we can get Cahill’s price down. That way everyone wins and our boys play in an up tempo system under a really class manager.
he has qualities we lack in the first team squad so i reckon he has a chance to make it. he’s a bit raw at the moment so one year on loan would help him but he could be an ian wright type striker for us.
also i’m hoping the rumours lansbury could be leaving on a permanent are false… i been waiting for him to make it for years :(
i am not really fan of loanning out players out in huge number like last season. it surely had an impact on our downfall for ex, we were stuck with squillaci while rangers were benefiting from the service of bartley.our youth play in cup games knowing arsene is watching so they are desperate to impress, they would have knocked out leyton orient maybe even leeds and ipswich.replaying these 3 games coz impact on the fitness our senior players. coz bendtner,arshavin,squillaci,eboue,denilson were all sh*T.
right now we need at least 3 new signings and 3 senior players(cesc,clichy and nasri) could be leaving. which mean we will need new signings and i dont see arsene buying 6 players in one window. plus deadwoods we had to get rif of.
that means if we send all our youth on loan as many are wishing here we have to sign 10 players. whats the point of developing them?
in my opinion, it wouldnt hurt if afobe,bartley,miquel are part of first team squad next season training and learning from senior players till they mature.
imagine if vela,bartley,afobe,coquelin,traore and co were around to play in cup games. senior players would have had enough rest. even manone instead of almunia.
next season we have to refrain from sending too many players out on loan
Its okay for Afobe. Wenger does not start the season with youth anyway. They sit and watch and maybe get a chance as the season progresses and injures add up.
In January/Feb Chamakh and Gervinho will be off to the ANC African championships) so that leaves playing time wide open for this kid.
Not a problem at all.
Rate Afobe alot, he’s like a rvp, can play up front, and play as good off another striker.
Anybody knows what team he actually supports?
Sam> We should really look to loan more players out to Premier League clubs – that way those sides’ll be stronger playing everyone except us, thanks to the rules on loanees not facing their own club.
Talking of loans, why is no-one mentioning QPR? Warnock’s a good manager for some of our youth to play under – if he can get the best out of Taarabt, that says something – and they must be looking for cheap/free talent on loan.
Absolutely hilarious that the biggest akb on this site had to be told by another when he strayed from the script! Lmao!!
Posted by Shane on June 30th, 2011, 18:55 [Reply]
I must admit I am having trouble now seeing the point in trying to be a responsible club if Manchester United and Barcelona are going to be aloud to be in massive bad debt and still spend 100 million and year and sign our best players then what is the point. If we lose both Nasri and Fabregas (for cheap especially) then really we are taking a massive step backwards and are really pushing us down to just the Tottenham, Aston Villa, Everton level. I am starting to become disillusioned with football. Debt does not seem to matter at all. How are Valencia not forced to sell Mata and Banega and how do they buy any players.
It’s funny because you have vehemontly defended the club’s policy and the manager when someone has made a comment along these lines in the past. Yet here you are, losing faith. Shane, you are one of the best contributors to this site but some of your comments leave a disgusting taste in the back of my mouth. However, this latest comment contradicts what you’ve said before where, like the manager and the board, you would take the moral high ground and point the finger at everyone else spending so irresponsibly and talking about how they will be screwed when FFP comes into play. Anyone with any sense will know that FIFA will NEVER ban these big clubs who are refusing to play by the rules as the mighty dollar/pound/euro reigns supreme in the 21st century!!!! That explains why Nasri is gonna reject Utd and go to City and then sit there in his press conference and say the project that City sold him was the reason he went there (just like the rest of the twats before him). I’m glad you seem to have finally woken up and smelt the coffee though. These cunts are taking the piss out of the authorities while we act whiter than white, whilst contributing to our very own demise! When FFP comes into play and these clubs are left untouched, how stupid is every single person affiliated with AFC gonna feel? Maybe then our worst fears will be confirmed – that we have been lied to all this time just so the manager and board can fill their pockets!! You summed it up perfectly in your very next post though except we’re not just Barca’s bitches. We’re all the major club’s bitches! Even the media! They mug us on a daily basis while we just sit around doing nothing! Is there such a thing as having too much dignity? Maybe that’s Wenger’s and Arsenal’s biggest flaw? I’ve never felt so sick about my Arsenal!!! This is NOT my Arsenal!!! This is a joke ting now!!!