Arsenal are in talks with the FA in a bid to get Benik Afobe deselected from the England setup ahead of the forthcoming Under 20 World Cup.
Afobe was named in Brian Eastick’s 21-man squad last week, but Arsène Wenger wants to take a closer at the 18-year-old following a series of impressive performances on loan with Huddersfield Town. As things stand, Benik would have report to the training camp in Columbia on July 18th.
It’s not yet clear whether Afobe will be included in the travelling party that jets off to Asia on Sunday, but he may be considered for the friendly with FC Cologne and then the Emirates Cup.
A decision on whether the FA agree to release the player is expected in the next few days.
hope they let him go to asia, he really needs to prove himself, he’s got a chance now… he will at least be noticed by some more championship clubs… millwall is a good place, but a few more options wont hurt… and who knows, he may even get a chance in the first team next season, but chances for that aren’t big…
i think the fa will tell us to shove it after the furore with the boy jack.
Interesting development. I think we have to pick and choose our battles with the FA, and I’m not sure this is the best time to do so, but would love to see Benik get some action in the preseason.
Agree. This seems a bit silly. Surely Wenger isn’t expecting to give him a 1st team position? He isn’t ready.
Let him play in Cologne so I can have a close and personal look as I will be there. :-)
Let the man go for the world cup. He’s not yet first team material. I don’t care about series of impressive performances. Let him get some international experience. It’s not like England gonna be there for long.
I think, presently, with Coquelin its more important to getting a look with the first-team squad as he is closer to it, after playing in Ligue 1 all last season and becoming a pretty regular starter by the end of the season, and his position, DM, is thinner, especially if Denilson leaves as he (and many of us) hope.
the kids’s only young for a striker, still learning aspects of his game, and still developing physically.
he should be nowhere near our first team yet in my opinion. especially this year. our forwards need to be efficient and ruthless.
let him go away with england and go on loan to a championship club. let him develop in peace.
The FA need to realise that letting him train with Arsenal will help in the longterm, because he’s more likely to get a first team place which is what he needs to continue his progress. This will mean the seniors will have a top notch striker in a few years if he ful-fill’s his potential. Going to this summers world cup will not help for the long term.
Let him go 2 world cup cos he is not fist team materials yet
if yer good enuf yer old enuf…good job there was more foresight with rooney
What i don’t get is when fans seem to know when a player ready for 1st team.
I didn’t know your a coach at arsenal.
If fans kept saying he’s not ready for first team rooney (16) neymar (15) owen (17)tevez(16) fabregas (16) would of never started there careers at them ages
Took the words right out of my mouth
Not true at all. You don’t have to be a coach to have an opinion or even a right opinion. Football is all about opinions.
Not true, i’ve seen him play 3 games at huddersfield last season. Although he has undoubted quality and technique, his finishing is way off for a team desperate for a bit of silverware.
Shane- it’s that type if shit that talksport spout, eg “all about opinions” merely to justify some uncouth twat from Chelsea ringing in speaking drivel for 3 minutes.
Why has football the monopoly on opinions? It’s no more about opinions than draughts, hungry hippos or hop-scotch.
We need less “opinions” in football, particularly from those who talk sh1te.
i think its up to arsene to decide if he’s ready for first team or not.
his goal ratio at huddersfield is pointless, he had to run all over the pitch and sometimes even make assists. lets see how he’s gonna perform with wilshere and cesc behind him.
personally i dont think he’s gonna take a central role if he wins a first team place and it will be beneficial if he stays, trains with first team and probably start in carling cup than sending to be kicked in lower divisions.
Let the kid go. He is not a first teamer or a full international so we have no bases for keeping him from this tourney.
agree with most of you guys should go to the world cup, hes got a good chance at making it but not yet from the games I seen of him looks to raw yet loan him back at huddlefield after as well
he’s too young and green for arsenal at the moment. let him play for the u20’s to get experience from championship matches instead.
his time in arsenal will come in a few years. let’s not rush things
so its bad idea for our young player to train and learn from the seniors like van persie.
he’s better off in the lower division.
most people dont know that loaning our young players out hurt us last season.
believe it or not, players we sent on loan could have seen off leyton and ipswich, maybe even leed utd. we didnt have to replay those games and that caused impact on the fitness of our senior players.
he’s physically stronger than neymar.
i think the idea is to assess everybody till the end of pre-seasons arsene will decide who’s ready for first team or not.
it looks like people are scared le boss won’t spend on a new striker. benik will be like a new signing LOL!!!
relax people!!
Why don’t they schedule these @#$%ing tournaments at the BEGINNING of summer? Then their talent can be showcased for the summer window AND their own coaches can have a look at them in a different environment without worrying about their own preseason preparations.
The FIFA U17’s World Cup is currently still going on, so i doubt that FIFA would run two of there competitions at the same time
This is a shit tournament and england has no chanse to winning it or go far. bring him home.
Simples, it’s all about the Benjamins.
js are the rumors true regarding,us signing Aly Cissokho.last season most goals that we conceaded came from the cb position bt dont think that gibbs is still capable of more than 10 starts..thing now would b the best time to get in a tough left back,like cissokho or micah will add some steal while vermealen can keep his usuall cb position where he has done so well for us..
@lance u missed wilshere&lukaku..bt comparing a player like afobe to these guys is nothing short of ridiculous yes he might score a few goal if provided the oportunity bt this certainly isnt the season i thing he will benefit more from a premier league loan stint either at qrp or norwich..if possible bt i’d personally prefer him to remain in Afc especially if bendtner leaves,which is looking highly likely.plus i certainly think that more of our youngsters should be provided opportunities in ccup but no matter what we c ertainly lack a powerful stiker..why not lukaku chelsea are more interested in neymar..he brings power,speed & more importantly a consistant threat to the oppornant which to be fair except for van persie & nasri no one else seemed to do last season
If he impresses the Boss he can take Bendtner’s place. That is enough reason to stay for preseason.
if the world is round why don;t Wenger go a round it and sign some players. A GK. DM. LB. franc is not the only country in the wolrd.
we have many french speaking players so they will adopt faster. Well ryo,welllington bothelho and a few more aren’t from france right?? I am pretty sure its all about being able to adopt to the team fast.
As someone pointed out, we do bring in players from around the world, but aside from that, why shouldn’t we buy French players? They don’t need work permits, are close by so shouldn’t get too homesick, we’re held in high regard by many of their players who have seen their idols play for us, making us an attractive move to make, they cost far less than their English counterparts, we have a fantastic scout network there and it’s a league/country Wenger knows well. Maybe you don’t want to find the next Henry, Vieira, Petit, Sagna etc etc?
I THINK WE SHOULD GIVE A CHANCE TO LUKE FREEMAN
i reckon in the long run, Hoyte will be the better striker than Freeman and Afobe!!
When england don ‘t pick our players we moan when de do we asked them withdraw de best player in de world stared in dis tournament i.e messi 2005 imagine if afobe should be topscorer and win de golden boot arsenal will credited 4 having dis lad & his reputation will grow may be instead of championship den EPL clubs will snab him up
The whole French thing is overblown massively. Wenger averages about one signing from France per season, over the last decade, or somewhere around a quarter of his total activity – which is spot-on for the Premier League average. Wenger probably has a slight preference for signing players from French football, for good reasons, but mainly it’s just that people don’t realise how many players move to the EPL from the French league.
Henderson english under 21 player cost 20 millions.
with that you can buy half the french under 21 team.
phil jones cost 16 millions, cahill has done nothing and play for a mediocre team, 17 millions.
arsene tries his best to promote english talents, he kept picking theo ahead of everyone when he was underperforming. he promote wilshere and this year possibly bartley,frimpong,lansbury will get chance.
actually he’s looking for a striker maybe he should buy peter crouch and defoe or even fill the whole squad with average europa cup english players to make everyone happy.
Conor Henderson, frimpong, coq and a few more could break through this year. I am serious… If they show consistency during the whole preseason and also turn out really really world class like we demand they could. I have high belief in Bartley, Frimong, Lansbury and Henderson. Lansbury and Henderson can play outwide if necessary and i believe they can do a good job. I mean really really good job. Freeman can turn out to be something in the wings too, you never know. I just hope that all the young players really show character and fight til the end of the match and don’t party after winning a few matches and losing the rest.
i remember francis jeffers was signed 10 years ago.
still more expensive than gervinho today
and the media is pressuring arsene to spend 17 millions for gary cahill.
sorry, he will tell them this time he already signed a tall english player, kyle bartley.
if he’s so good and he could improve arsenal surely man utd or any other big team could have grabbed him longtime ago.
All these youth championships are a complete waste of time. England have been sending teams out for years, while idiots like Stuart pearce say its good preparation for senior competition. And yet we are almost always crap in senior competition. When will these dunderheads wise up?
@ tebeary henry “i reckon in the long run, Hoyte will be the better striker than Freeman and Afobe!!” have u taken ur tablets this morning? hoyte is a RB. I presume u being sarcastic coz if not haha
Timao>
“we are almost always crap in senior competition. When will these dunderheads wise up?”
Oh, the irony. England don’t actually do much better or worse at tournaments than we should expect. It’s only because the English expectations are too high that we think they fail.
i dont have problem with benik joining the first team as part of his education but this summer we still need to sign a proven goalscorer. i dont think wenger will throw him in the middle this soon and ask him to give us 20 goals. maybe he’s preparing theo for the role and benik will replace bendtner.
we will find out soon.
or there is a big summer surprise, benzema or lukaku. that will be great!
According to arsene we didn’t need another striker last season,considering van persie and chamakh will both still be around,bendtner possibly leaving,vela returning and theo Walcott possibly moving up top then the chances of a new signing in thus area is slim,even more so if these rumours are true that he wants a proper look at Benik afobe..sorry arsene you’re losing it mate,let him go to the tournament and return to somewhere else on loan,he’s had one year in league 1,stop rewarding people for no reason.This goes for coquelin,sunu,freeman,jenkinson etc and not to mention the likes of aneke,Henderson,miquel,frimpong who haven’t even got passed reserve football,I’m sick of hearing ‘frimpong can step straight into songs shoes’ ‘henderson can play anywhere,even on the wing’ ‘jenkinson can back up sagna’ all on what basis?!The only ones worthy of being thought about this season are the proven ones,the ones who have been there done it and next step is premiership ie Lansbury,bartley and mannone,and they’re for squad inclusion only for starters.Too many promotions to the first team of no merit rewards complacency,we don’t need to pamper players,there’s plenty of talent at the club,what we’re lacking is the right winning mentality,players with winning mentality will keep working hard to achieve their goals so anyone who wants to leave because they haven’t been handed it on a plate well good ridance you ain’t arsenal material.I expect 2 signings,this gervinho(I don’t think I’m the only one who isn’t blown away by this one) and one more £10 millionpound player,probably on deadline day as we always do one deal that day (rumour I heard was because they don’t have to pay June/July/august wages to the player,seems plausible with our penny pinching board) we won’t directly replace clichy/fabregas and nasri,the money will be pocketed and the excuses will roll in,Gibbs steps in,traore stats as back up,promotions from within ie Ramsey and gervinho step into the 11,don’t be surprised if denilson/bendtner stay because they have ‘quality’ and possibly a change in formation may offer more opportunities to them,wenger states he never wanted them to leave.Of course add that rosicky will ‘be over all his injury problems and we’re expecting a big season from him’ leading to him having a lengthy unlucky injury that rules him out for 3/4 of the season,you know the usual stuff,all bigging up what we’ve already got to try and get the fans strangely optimistic then getting to April battling for 4th again and blaming those damn injuries,god we’re unlucky..anyone else noticed that whenever a big player for us gets ‘injured’ in last month or so of a season that they tend to want out in the summer?Come start of the season ill be as optimistic as ever but I think deep down we know how it’ll end and next year van persie and Walcott down to their last year of contract,is this all a ploy by the board to makesure we have a reason to sell and let the players take half the blame for going?Maybe.Hopefully I’m wrong,there’s a big clear out and players like benzema and mata arrive with a clear statement of we’re here to win.
hope this doesnt happen, afobe would improve with international expirience. Who knows, u20s may win and we need young players with a winning mentatlity and are used to winning
The FA can jog on. They wouldn’t give Ryo, Pedro, Vela, Galindo, and Wellington work permits, yet they readily give it to anyone Ferguson brings in (the twins, Anderson, M-Diouf, Manucho, etc.)
Let him play u20s as other clubs will be watching and this might improve his options for being loaned out to a bigger club, which will improve his potential and most importantly his confidence, which is a key attribute for a striker.