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The route to becoming a professional footballer is a long and arduous one. The consistent knock backs and struggle to keep focused with the pressures of life make it incredibly difficult.

Few know those difficulties like Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. The Argentina winger, who won World Football of the Year for a second successive time this week, suffers from a muscle problem which stunted his growth. Many believed he would always be too small to cope with the rigours of professional football.

After starting out with Newell’s Old Boys, he moved to Barcelona, after turning down a move to Arsenal. Lionel’s parents didn’t want their son to play in England, favouring Spain.

Messi has revealed all about what it takes to become a professional footballer, and to go from a player many thought wouldn’t make it, to being wanted by Arsenal and Barcelona, to becoming the World’s best player in a revealing interview with FHM.

You can read this, plus conditioning advice from England rugby player Toby Flood, in this months brilliant addition. To top it all off, you can get £1 off FHM when you order it online. Fantastic value a truly exceptional read for those who wish to become professional footballers.

 

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Arsène Wenger has confirmed the club have not been in contact with Southampton over Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but refused to rule out a move in the future.

The Daily Mail claimed last night that Arsenal had agreed on a £5 million deal with the Saints, and that the transfer would be concluded in the next few days. However, a story shortly after on Young Guns said the club had been scouting the 17-year-old, but no talks had taken place. Wenger confirmed this today.

“I cannot speak about that. If we go any further with any player, we will inform you. The rest will be speculation. We are not close to signing anybody at the moment.”

The Frenchman also confirmed another story on Young Guns this week, that Japanese winger Ryo Miyaichi will head to the Dutch Eredivise on loan. Arsène mentioned Feyenoord had been in touch, along with fellow Rotterdam outfit Excelsior. A move will be completed shortly.

Elsewhere, Arsenal have rejected Hull City’s attempts to sign Vito Mannone on a permanent basis. Mannone has previously expressed his desire to stay at Hull if the Gunners decide to sell him, but chairman Adam Pearson admitted he was rebuffed and told he isn’t for sale.

Finally, Wellington Silva was officially presented as a Levante player this afternoon. You can watch the video of his presentation here.

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Arsenal are continuing to scout Southampton winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but no move has been made over a transfer as yet.

Oxlade-Chamberlain has been turning in rave reviews in League One, after being promoted to the first-team at the start of this season. He scored on his first professional start in the Carling Cup, bagging the second goal in a win over Bournemouth. He has since gone to become a regular in the Saints first-team, with a growing number of Premier League clubs sending scouts to watch him.

Arsenal first became interested in the 17-year-old after he played for England Under 18′s against Poland in November, a fixture in which he again impressed in. Liverpool and Manchester United have sent representatives on a regular basis, while the Gunners have only been fleeting admirers. Young Guns revealed they had begun to send scouts late last year though, and were present when he scored against Benik Afobe’s Huddersfield Town, and again in the 6-0 drubbing of Oldham Athletic earlier in the week.

Manager Nigel Adkins has confirmed Premier League outfits have been interested, but said they would only accept “Theo Walcott money”. He has since retracted that statement, saying Alex is not for sale. Liverpool have had the most significant interest, sending their Director of Football Strategy Damien Comolli to watch the winger on numerous occasions in recent weeks.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is an skilfull right footed winger, who has drawn mass comparisons to Arsenal’s Theo Walcott. Both are blessed with electric pace, but many believe Alex is ahead of where Theo was at the same age.

Southampton are believed to want around £10 million for the Portsmouth born prospect, although they would be prepared to take the money in large incentive based installments. Alex has two and a half years left on his contract at Saint Mary’s.

Welcome to the inaugural Young Guns web chat, hosted by editor Jamie Sanderson. Due to popular demand, you can put your questions to Jamie in an hour long chat. He will try and answer all of them over the 60 minutes.

If the concept takes off, it will become a regular part of the website, and will feature bloggers, journalists and former players. To ask a question, fill in the form at the bottom of the window. The window has an auto-fresh function, so you don’t have to leave this page. It starts at 7.30pm UK time.

Young Guns Web Chat

You can follow Young Guns off the site, on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Young Guns is three years old today. We’ve been bringing you updates and analysis on Arsenal’s Reserves and Youth teams and players since the 13th of January 2008.

The concept itself has been around for even longer, closer to five years, but under the name Young Guns, we celebrate our third anniversary today. The development and input from Gooners worldwide has been exceptional, and 2011 promises to be another fantastic year.

You’ll be able to catch regular Young Guns features in The Gooner fanzine, available outside the Emirates on match days, along with regular articles in the Arsenal Norway publication The Gunners Post. We’ve also launched a brand new iPhone/iPod application, with an Android one in production, due to popular demand.

With over 10 million unique hits, over 7000 Twitter followers and over 1800 Facebook ‘Likes’, the following from Arsenal and football fans has been fantastic, and we’d like to take this opportunity to offer a huge ‘thank you’ to everybody who has read, commented or followed us off site in the past three years, and we look forward to your contribution in the coming years.

One new regular feature will be a monthly web-chat with editor Jamie Sanderson. It will start from 7pm UK time. The first edition starts this evening, and is your chance to have all your questions answered by Jamie right here on Young Guns. Stay tuned to our social networking profiles for more information.

Elsewhere, Arsenal will play Chelsea in the Fourth Round of the FA Youth Cup after beating Sunderland 2-0 today. The fixture, due to be played on the 19th of January, is at Stamford Bridge, with a 7pm kick off time.

Arsenal go into the London derby as the favourites, but know they’ll face a massive challenge against Chelsea, who are the current holders.

Further a field, Wellington Silva was greeted at Valencia airport by a media scrum as he prepares to begin his loan spell with La Liga outfit Levante. You can watch a video of him arriving here.

In transfer news, Millwall have confirmed Arsenal rejected their attempts to take Craig Eastmond on loan until the end of the season. Manager Kenny Jackett admitted he was willing to give Eastmond regular playing time, but the Gunners have refused to let him leave.

Ryo Miyaichi has had his initial work permit application rejected, Young Guns can confirm. The Japanese winger will now follow Wellington Silva out on loan this month.

Silva officially completed his move to Arsenal today, as the club purchased the remaining 35% of his ownership from Fluminense. He has now agreed to join La Liga side Levante on loan until the end of the season, when the Gunners will try again to win the Brazilian a visa.

Miyaichi is in a similar situation. He has now arrived in London and signed a five year contract, and is currently training with Steve Bould’s Under 18′s. Arsenal’s application for a work permit for him was rated at 50:50, but it has gone against Arsène Wenger.

The 18-year-old will now go on loan, but interestingly, Spain is not being considered as the primary destination. Carlos Vela, Pedro Botelho, Samuel Galindo and now Wellington have all moved the Segunda  after failing to win visas. Arsenal will instead look to loan Miyaichi out to the Dutch Eredivisie.

A move has not been decided on yet, but Feyenoord are the front runners, along with Nacer Barazite’s Vitesse Arnhem. A deal should be completed in the coming days.

Ignasi Miquel is in the Arsenal squad to face Ipswich Town tonight, Young Guns can confirm. The Spaniard keeps his place in the first-team after being named on the bench against Leeds United at on Saturday.

Miquel was widely expected to be part of Arsène Wenger’s team for the Carling Cup Semi-Final, after he was not part of the Reserve team which lost 10-1 to Aston Villa on Monday. He was in the stadium, though, cheering on his team mates from the stands.

Arsenal are currently experiencing a centre back crisis, with Thomas Vermaelen going for an operation on an Achilles problem while Sébastien Squillaci picked up a knock against Leeds. Wenger is also keen to rest Johan Djourou, fearing a recurrence of his troublesome knee problems which have dogged his fitness in recent years.

A number of English based newspapers say Miquel will start against Ipswich, but this is unlikely. Alexandre Song dropping back to centre half is a more realistic option, something the Frenchman confirmed he was thinking about today when pressed on a possible defensive signing.

“We have solutions internally, with Miquel, with Alex Song, who can play centre back, and with Squillaci. Sébastien should come back very quickly.”

Miquel has never made a professional appearance for Arsenal, but did feature against Barnet in pre-season.

Nacer Barazite has rejoined Vitesse Arnhem on loan until the end of the season. Barazite was previously on loan with the Eredivise outfit, but his spell with his home town club was cut short by mutual consent.

Vitesse held meetings with the 20-year-old and, after re-negotiating fresh loan terms with Arsenal, the Dutchman has agreed to see out the remainder of the season in Holland. Technical director Ted van Leeuwen confirmed to the media he had thrashed out fresh terms, but a large loan payment was made to Arsenal.

Welcome to this weekends Loanees Watch – Young Guns’ analysis, reports and updates on the progress of the young starlets currently plying their trade away from the Emirates Stadium. You can read all the latest reports below.

Sanchez Watt started and played 75 minutes in a 1-1 draw with parent club Arsenal at the Emirates. Watt began on the right of midfield and turned in a decent shift, shooting over twice and having a few good runs at Kieran Gibbs. He was substituted late on to mass applause as the fixture went to a replay.

Vito Mannone has extended his loan with Hull City until the end of the season, but will not be fit until February. He subsequently did not play as Hull City were dumped out of the FA Cup by Wigan Athletic.

Kyle Bartley played the full 90 minutes for Sheffield United as they crashed out of the FA Cup against Aston Villa. Bartley was arguably United’s most impressive player, and despite Kyle Walker cutting inside him and shooting for the opener, the made amends with a selection of dangerous balls out from the back and important blocks.

Benik Afobe was not able to complete his loan spell with Huddersfield Town against Dover, as he continues to nurse a knee injury. Talks are on going for Town to end Benik’s loan spell until the end of the season.

Cédric Evina re-signed for Oldham Athletic just in time to play against Swindon Town in League One. Evina played 75 minutes on the left of midfield and did well, as Oldham won 2-0.

Thomas Cruise started and played 72 minutes for Carlisle United, as they went out of the FA Cup against Torquay. Cruise had a quiet game but poor defending cost United, as they lost 1-0.

Mark Randall was not in action this weekend, as Rotherham United play on Tuesday.

Gavin Hoyte started at centre back for Lincoln City in their re-arranged FA Cup second round tie against Hereford United. Hoyte went off injured after nine minutes and was missed, as Hereford took advantage of poor defending to win a thriller 4-3.

Francis Coquelin missed Lorient’s French Cup win over Vannes OC due to injury.

Armand Traoré started and played 45 minutes for Juventus against Napoli. Traoré turned in decent shift, but was at fault for Edison Cavani’s second goal. He was subsituted at half time.

Pedro Botelho played the full 90 minutes and provided an assist as FC Cartagena beat UD Salamanca 1-0. Botelho, who again continued on the left of a front three, claimed the Man of the Match award against his former side. Pedro clearly had something to prove, and set out to do maximum damage.

He smacked the post in the opening minutes of the game before providing the ball for what proved to be the winner just after the half hour mark. Botelho showed superb skill and then composure to beat his man and cross for Toche to slide home from close range. He couldn’t miss.

Samuel Galindo is current nursing a broken ankle and did not feature for UD Salamanca this weekend.

Huddersfield Town are in talks with Arsenal over extending Benik Afobe’s loan spell. The 17-year-old’s stint with The Terriers expired today, but manager Lee Clark is keen to keep the striker in Yorkshire.

Afobe has enjoyed a mixed time with Huddersfield, having failed to score in nine appearances in League One. However, the England Under 19 international has found goals elsewhere, bagging strikes in both the FA and Carling Cups. A knee injury picked up in training last week has curtailed his time with Town, but both Clarke and Benik are open to an extension.

The powerful front-man has previously admitted his frustration at the lack of playing time with Huddersfield, especially over the busy Christmas period. However, he later retracted the statement and confirmed his desire to continue to fight for the team, as the Yorkshire outfit push for promotion from League One.

It’s not yet clear whether Arsenal would allow Benik to spend the rest of the season with Huddersfield, but the striker will continue to be part of the Gunners FA Youth Cup side regardless.

Elsewhere, Hull City have re-signed Vito Mannone on loan until the end of the season, although he will not play for The Tigers until February due to injury. Cedric Evina also extended his spell with Oldham Athletic today, agreeing to stay for at least another month, on a youth loan.