Should Arsenal beat Sunderland and progress into the latter stages of the F.A Youth Cup on Friday night, they will no doubt have fellow Londoners Charlton Athletic to thank.
Injuries sustained to first choice stopper James Shea and his back up Charlie Mann saw Steve Bould spend most of last week rushing around trying to organise a replacement.
Polish stalwart Wojciech Szczęsny is still recovering after breaking both his arms before Christmas, so the young Gunners were facing the real threat of not having a goalkeeper for the clash with Southampton yesterday, and for Friday’s Cup game with Sunderland.
However, Head of Youth Development officer Liam Brady used his connections with the Irish Football Association to wrangle a deal with The Addicks for their second choice Reserves stopper Harry Lee – who represents The Republic of Ireland at Under 18 level.
Lee arrived on Thursday and was given his debuttwo days later down on the blustery South Coast as Bould’s boys took on a tenacious and well organised Southampton. He kept a clean sheet until the final 28 minutes where an 8 goal melee insumed – Arsenal’s new number one let in three – but was still on the winning side thanks to some killer finishing from his colleagues.
Harry spent time cutting his teeth with Maidstone United last season, where he earned plaudits for his mature and commanding displays. He turns 18 next month and will be hoping he can do enough to get a permanent stay in North London. But with fellow countryman Sean McDermott arriving in the summer, it remains unlikely.
The Sidcup based stopper will start between the sticks on Friday, and looks set to play a key role in any chances the youngsters have in making the next stage.
Article By – J.Sanderson
wow.
J. great blog as alaways. any news on Wellington and Conte and who, if anyone are we sending to the Union for the second half of the season to replace Nordtveit?
Thanks very much Hatch. If I have any news on things like that I will update the website with it. So if I don’t have any, there’s no updates.
j.sanderson how highley do you rate sean mcdermott and do you think he will be good enough to replace shay given for ireland when he retires
By “insumed”, do you possibly mean “ensued”?
This will be interesting, you know how long the loan is for, J?
How long will Shea and Mann be out for, do you know?
It’s a short term thing. Around a month or maybe two, depending on when Charlie and James get back.
great opportunity for this young stopper to impress steve bould, liam brady and everyone involved with the academy and youth at arsenal. im sure he would love a move to come as a result of a successful loan period
Good stuff j. And on a another arsenal blog i read that shea blackwood ayling and eastmonds scholarships run out this summer which ones do you expect to get new deals
how can you break both of your arms?
He was bench pressing and the pressure must have been equal on both of them and the bones just couldn’t handle it. I think something similar happened to an Olympic weight lifter in Peking 2008. It’s still amazing to break them both and must have been very hard to live with.
Arsenal website says charlie mann was on the bench?
Did we not have any u15 keepers to promote? Surely we have 1 per year group – what must that do to their confidence? “Hey, our young keepers are soooooo bad that we need to get someone else in for 1 game.”
u15 Goalkeepers aren’t ready to face players of FA Youth Cup quality. Imagine Nathan Delfouneso against one of our u15 keepers.
It might be acceptable in the league where we can bounce back but in the Cup, 1 defeat and you’re out, there can be no mistakes.
Plus, you seen many 6ft 13/14 year olds?
Ah well, hope he does himself proud but id rather see Szczęsny between the sticks… he diserves it. Is he guna return this season or is it likely to be as lengthy a recovery as Eduardo had to go throu… and how serious is breaking both your arms as a GK in terms of future ability?
Still, if this lad shows hes got something he could end up an Arsenal player next season, although letting 3 in isnt the best of starts although i havent seen the goals yet so i duno how much he was to blame…
He was the second choice for Charlton’s reserves so I’m guessing it was just the last resort. Must be some good though as he is an international with Ireland. When was the last time we had and English GK who played internationally? Richard Wright? Scezny is U-19 for Poland, McDermott is U-16 for Norway, I think, but Shea, Mann and all of the ones before don’t seem to have been that great
True stone, we dont tend to be a club thats all that good at producing our own keepers, not now and off the top of my head not ever really. Mannone is decent but i dont think hes ever played for italy at any level (might be wrong), and i dont see him displacing Fabianski as our number 2. The good thing is that in my opinion we have top class keepers in Almunia and Fabianski, possibly decent cover from Mannone and hopefully in a couple of seasons from Szczęsny. So we’re not too short in that department.
In answer to the england question, just did a short bit of reserch and as far as i can tell we’ve never prodcued a GK thats had both success for us and played for the national side. All the english keepers in our history who have had notable success and played for the national side started at other clubs.
In fact we’ve only ever produced one keeper in our history that has had both notable success for us and a national side who was Jack Kelsey, and even he wasnt really all us since we pinched him of a small welsh side aged 18, but he made 327 appearances for us and 41 for the welsh national side… according to wikipedia anyway.
Ny neighbour broke both his arms – lost his balance on a trampoline and fell off. Ouch!
J, can you do an article about the u16s match against Southampton?
I heard Arsenal won 4-2, is that correct? If so, who were the arsenal goalscorers?
Skysports reporting Arshavin deal going through. Arsenal have scheduled a press conference for 6.30. It’s after the stock exchange closes so seems legit as Arsenal usually do business that way. Projected fee of 14 mill plus 2 mill add ons.
ha ha very funny
who’s Nathan Delfouneso ?
He plays for Aston Villa youth team! Looks like a very good player for the future!
Delfouneso not only plays for the youth team but he has already scored 2 goals for Aston Villa in the UEFA Cup and is still only 17. He looks like a serious player
i seeen that lee kid play before he looks one for the future we had a touch getting him on loan trust me well up boys, delfouneso is top notch.
Who broke the Arshavin news today? suck it Chris
Harry Lee is the Charlton u18s second choice keeper, not reserves.
Went up to sunderland and watched the game friday. That lee looks well good, we will miss him when he goes back to charlton.
I agree with weasles comment. Lee has a got a lot of potential.
Very interesting post thanks for writing it I just added your site to my favorites and will check back.