Arsenal’s Luke Freeman is fighting to rescue his potential as one of the most promising young forwards in the country, after the Gunners coaching staff switched his position to help him maintain certain development targets.
Freeman made the switch to North London just over a year ago, and despite a strong start, Luke’s performances have deteriorated in recent weeks, even leading to his complete omission from the Youth Cup run this campaign.
Steve Bould has opted to include Roarie Deacon and Sunderland super sub Benik Afobe instead of Freeman, despite the duo being younger and less experienced. His League form has also been erratic, and now Liam Brady hopes a switch to the left wing will help kick start the Datford born forwards career.
Tomorrow’s Academy clash with Crystal Palace has been postponed, meaning the former Gillingham man will not get a further chance to prove himself before linking up with the England Under 17 squad in Portugal for the Algarve Tournament.
Club colleague Afobe has been pushing him for a place in the Under 18’s all season, and after Benik’s strike against Sunderland, the 15-year-old could find himself in the starting lineup at Freeman’s expense.
Nicknamed ‘Owen’ when he first arrived, Luke must find some of Michael’s resolve and character to bounce back and show his true potential.
Article By – J.Sanderson
is it true he’s a fag?
Fair enough he’s been erratic, but when at he’s best is he top class? What do you think J, having seen him?
Fighting to rescue his Arsenal career is a bit of an ott staitment to make at this present time mate IMO.
is it?
never really struck me as a player tbh… looks a bit overweight too.
Bit dramatic aint it? The guys only 16… what can you expect from such a young lad?
Why? Did your gaydar go off, stafgooner?
Who really cares which way he swings? The lad’s 16. As for his career, form is temporary and all that…
your’re a cunt stafgooner. Kill yourself.
all i know is he’s rubbish on football manager 2009,even the arsenal edition. (and they’re never wrong)
i wonder how the boy and his family etc react to reading these overdramatic, hysterical type of headlines?
Could it damage the confiedence and harm the prospects of what is only a boy?
You should get a job writing hysterical headlines for the worst of the tabloids.
why the fuck do people have to make comments like ‘stafgooner’ ‘s? What the fuck does it matter? Get fucking over it mate. People have been worried all week about possible racism in Spain while blatent homophobia from football fans is just ignored.
When Bendtner wore pink boots, I felt terrible being a football fan for oh so many reasons. How he was treated by fans went from “player of great potential who’s just having some bad form” to “fucking pink boots gayer, sell him”. As if a colour of some boots was actually a statement about his sexuality. And as if the colour of his boots made it ok to jeer players on the team you support. That reaction was no better than Eto’o hearing monkey chants imo. All that shit, no matter how people discriminate, is terrible and needs to die. Luke Freeman could be gay or straight or he could have had his cock bitten off by a rabid fucking dog when he was a child and he’s a fucking unic with no sexual preference – does any of that shit matter when he’s on the football field? Or of it? No. So stop being such an arsehole.
I agree with kent paul, this is totally sensationalist. We paid £2m for this kid just a year ago, he is a great talent, still only 16, an England regular and in your own words he started the season well. Yet according to you his career at Arsenal is in the balance, seemingly based on the premise of him being moved to the wing? That is one incredible leap of logic. Players move around all the time, it is not a big deal. It is worth mentioning again he is only 16. I remember you saying something similar about Sunu last season too, apparently you still haven’t recognised the stupidity of thinking a young player deemed worthy of a high transfer fee would be shipped out at the first hurdle, not only does it make no football sense, it makes no fiscal sense either.
Also if he is trying to “rescue his potential” does that mean he potentially has potential?
i played against him in his final game for gillingham. It was for Rushden and Diamonds youth team. What a player. He scored 4 goals for them in 45 mins then was taken off. Defo got bags of potential
Hes a good player. Good in the air, good finish, good pace, good short passing ability, good at turning defenders and running onto through balls and crosses.
True he has had a bit of an off season but Fonte was rubbish last season, Sunu only picked his performances up near the end, people were saying Jay Simpson would never be anything more than a mid table premier league bench warmer (thats when he reached his full potential, which he hasnt done yet and hes already passed that mark)… a season in football when your young is a long time.
Yes he needs to pick his performances up, but i cant help but agree saying hes fighting for his right to stay in an Arsenal shirt is slightly sensationalist. Maybe if he doesnt score for the rest of the season, all next season, and plays aweful to boot, but a poor patch from a 2million pound young investment isnt going to turn into a situation where hes being shown the door.
I know you have your sources and might just be quoting what you’ve been told but it just sounds way over the top. Interesting article thou cuz i haddnt even thought about Freeman for a while what was going on with him, so credit due for that.
sometimes young player goes into a slump. if u have talents, u will always bounce back to the top. but i still think at arsenal u need to progress too quickly, even though its good for some player, some others who we can call late developer find it difficult to catch up. i think obvious example is upson, bentley and sidwell. they are good player but just needs more time. in other country, it is quite common to hear early 20’s player emerge out of nowhere and be a star player all of sudden. but that not happened in england. if by 20 u not a star player, then u won’t be a starfor the rest of your career. maybe the player himself dont want to wait to long for oppurtunity, some said better for u to go down playing football than stay up warming bench. the things about staying with top class team is that, u play with world class player every day and even without regular play time, u can gain more playing with them rather than fighting down below with low quality opposition. i’m glad simpson stay with arsenal even though he already 20. most of arsenal young player would leave at 19 if they cant break into first team, its just too soon to give up. this freeman kid, he got so much talent, i just hope the coach will give him time and he himself don’t rush things up. take ur time, u still just 16.
he didn’t cost 2mil he cost 200k, and just because he was bought for a fee doesn’t mean the staff will play them when theres a better performing youth product (afobe) coming through.
Good article. Isn’t the point of this blog that we can talk about the youth teams and discuss the potential of the players? I like articles like this one. They maybe don’t say much new (although the switching of positions is informative) but they show J’s opinion and are a good foundation for discussions among the readers. Keep it up J.
As for Luke. First of all, we did not sign him for 2 millions. It was more like 200,000 pounds, a big difference. Again to the circumstances of his transfer. Obviously he was very talented but like J pointed out once, he was bought to replace Jason Banton. That is not to downgrade Luke, just pointing out that we didn’t travel the world to buy him like some are suggesting. I hope he can reach his full potentials, he obviously has a bag full of them.
Pete u retarded mug we didn’t pay 2m for him we payed 200,000 for him. Get your fats right b4 u speak u donkey or don’t speak at all!
stafgooner don’t post again. You’re not wanted.
big boy is right WE didnt pay x amount of pounds…arsenal FC did…thank god it didnt come out my pocket.
oops… gd point, 200k not 2million.
Fighting to rescue his Arsenal career? How old is he again?
Good article, Luke seems to get off to good starts, but his form tails off. For those who are worried about him, he and his family are well aware that he is not doing well. If they choose to read youngguns then that their problem. Luke hasn’t scored in a while and is frequently substituted. It’s obvious to everyone that he needs to improve his perfromances.
Güzel Makale. Teşekkürler. Thanks…emek
I heard that Sunu is also having some problem and is going back to France to join Lyon. Is that true?
No, he might do, like Fonte might go back to portugal and join sporting again, but the descision is still in our hands…
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He needs to fix-up his focus to just football and nothing else.