Liam Brady is putting the finishing touches to Arsenal’s Under 18 squad for next season, with Steve Bould set to boast one of his most exciting crops of talent ever.
Young Guns can confirm Hale End products Isaac Hayden, Anthony Jeffrey and Zak Fagan have all penned scholarship contracts, as have summer recruits Jon Toral, Héctor Bellerín, Serge Gnabry, Leander Siemann and Kristoffer Olsson.
Bould’s Under 18’s will also be boosted by the promotion of several of Steve Gatting’s promising Under 16’s. Brady has personally asked the head teachers of Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill, Jack Jebb and Joshua Vickers if they can leave school a year early to move to London Colney full time. All have accepted.
The club are still waiting on answers from strikers Austin Lipman and Chuba Akpom.
All Under 18’s are due back for pre-season next week.
With the sagas and goings on in the 1st team, the talented bunch moving into the U-18s this year will provide somewhat of a welcome distraction. Some are real gems in the making…can they take the next step though??
Future looking very better but the present seemingly getting out of sight. Lets show some ambition Wenger plz!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m crying for my club
Gunners
Toral and Hector are the Barca signings right? What positions are they?
Toral is a CM. Bellerin can play any of the attacking positions, but Sanderson says he will probably end up on the wing.
we heard a lot about these youngsters and they weren’t in the u18 yet… it just proves how talented they are… hope at least some of them make it in the first team…
Scratch that, just seen there’s several main article on them
I wonder how fast the duo Catalonia will adapt to the English game and if they can be ready for the reserves anytime soon. Gnabry and Siemann both seem good prospects also.
at what position does gnarby, seimann and olsson??
Where will Bunjaku play next season, U18 or reserves?
Fairly sure Gnabry is a winger/attacking mid, Siemann is a CB and Olsson is a centre mid
love the look of the under 18’s this season :)
If players leave Arsenal U16?
The problem is when you bring kids in from Barca etc. They are only coming in because we promise them a fast track into the first team and pay them a lot more money. They will have no loyalty to the club and as soon as a bigger club comes along they’re off!
Great point, Fab has been with the club 8-9 years, given his all for the cause – remember him taking over from PV4. If he goes the club makes 30-40 million profit after 8 years first team football. Please think before putting fingers near keyboards please
Does anyone know how good Jack Jebb is at present and if he is better than his actual age group. Also what type of player he is?
I heard positive noises about him somewhere without any really information.
Box to box midfielder, technically gifted. Did very well in U16 Victory Shield for England, regularly impressive in the U16s and did well in some cameos last season for U18s.
If only the first team could be this active,we havent even signed anyone yet and pls dont tell me about carl jerkenson
Has Lansbury signed a new contract yet???
El captain was among d first to report even earlier than expected.pls every body standup and say gbosaa… For him for shaming barceloga.though only 2 players are irreplaceble -ronaldo and messi .our petrodoller- seeking nasri is very replaceable!
Looking forward to seeing how these lot step up to U18s next season.
Also thought there would have been announcement on the new pros by now, likes of Bunjaku, Rees, Roberts will surely have been offered
How do you guys know how good these guys are?
Can you please get a different picture of Liam Brady? He looks so bloody miserable, how about the one from 1978 after he scored that wonder goal at the lane. It might be old but at least it will cheer us all up.
@mohammed, nasri wants trophies not money
of course he does like rooney last year who want to leave to man city (was it to win trophy too)….bollock …all this circus is all about a big fat payrise nothing more nothing less.
i love seeing the young players develop and make careers with arsenal or even elsewhere. in this group will be a a future arsenal legend or maybe more than one :)
Nasri!! Is only God that will decides..
So Dennis Bergkamp will decide Nasri’s future? Interesting.
Thanks Alex.
A little worrying that Lipman and akpom are yet to accept. Whats the delay?
Chuba Akpom – surely the coolest name in football?
What is the reason that Lipman and Akpom are yet to accept? Just taking their time or something to worry about?
that serge gnabry kid is a decent prospect
Glad to see us add some top talent to the youth teams this year. We have to stay up on that if we are to compete with the big 4. We always need a mixture of the local youngsters and the worlds best young talent.
Jamie, you wrote elsewhere about Souleymane Coulibaly, and indeed the video of his goals is incredibly impressive: do you know if the club is scouting him? We should sign him asap!
would love to know more about Gnabry and Siemann. They have seemed to arrive with not much fuss. How good a prospects are they and who out of the lot of them has the best chance of making the grade at Arsenal? Thanks.
i thought it was their schools that delayed it not the playes themselves?? but i could be wrong…
every one one trophies and not money but i dont understand why they are going to manchester city then….
Every player wants to win trophy AND earn a lot at the same time and that is what they are doing at City. Arsenal needs to recognize this and spend money on quality too. What you see now is that some top talents are going elsewhere just to be part of a great team. I don’t understand what the fuck Arsenal is doing right now. Bring in new players and get rid of some like bendtner and denilson who wants out. What Arsenal might be doing right now is that they wants to earn as much as they can and don’t care of the trophies. for 6 years have they done the same thing and every year a new player is gone that is suppose to be a legend for us.
So would any of you take your kid out of school to miss doing their gcses in the faint hope of being a first team player ?
Great news about Vickers ,Ormande & Jebb lads all have a great future ,Vickers one of best keepers to come from Hale end .
Akpom wants to finish school, lipman likewise must finish last year in school. Understand both will train 2/3days in London colney each week and full time during school holidays.
when does the European expenditure rules come in because when man city and chelsea are unallowed into the champions league, guess what fans will be laughing then. Yes every player wants to win trophies but they would more likely prefer to be in the champions league competing against the best year in year out. I wonder what clichy will think when his man city side win the league in a fews years time but are not allowed in the champions league. All man city was wanting last year was to get into the champions league, so it obviously means alot to them. So to say man city has greater prospects to us is gravely wrong.
A Morrow>
Only if you take what Platini says at face value. And if you do that, well, I’ve got some magic beans to sell you.
Platini’s a crook, just like all the others – Warner, Blatter, and so-on. There’s probably more chance of Arsenal falling foul of the FFP rules than any of his favourites.
Although the last two years scholars have been less then impressive i think we will start to see some improvements from this next group and it seems that we have some very promising players beneath them. 12 year old joe willock was voted best player at an intl tournament last year which we lost in the final to ajax, jordan brown who is 14 has been playing and impressing for u16 this year and then we we have the 13 year old ‘genius’ which we dont know the name of, our u14’s also got the final of a premier league tournament where we lost to chelsea. Speaking on chelsea their academy seems to be going from strength to strength and have beaten all comers at u15/14 this year!
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Chuba akpom was a great player for england U16 Victory shield, the season that just went as with jack jebb, Akpom is a good dribbler and can use both feet, he is a striker, Jack Jebb is a technical CM…ge=reat vision and awareness. And i kno that Anthony Jeffrey is the third fastest boy in britain for his age…How about that???