- That was the start of the end of international football
- 6 new players tipped for Arsenal (makiing 65 in total), 2 more leaving (total 28)
By Tony Attwood
There has been a lot of talk about how few of the Arsenal youth teams actually make it into the first team squad. However although such articles often single out Arsenal in this regard, I think that is something that is happening across the Premier League as the standard gets ever higher, and the chances for a youngster to have a few ordinary games and find his way into the flow and feel of Premier League football gets ever fewer.
But there are one or two players who might make it through. Of the present youth squad .Ethan Nwaneri has made two short appearances and already has a market value of £8m according to TransferMarkt.
Myles Lewis-Skelly is a defensive midfield player who is still with Arsenal but is yet to make an appearance, although is highly rated by those in the know, and as I understand it Charlie Patino who plays in central midfield is still an Arsenal player but has not made an appearance. The same applies to goalkeeper Karl Hein whose name we do here mentioned some times.
But I suspect the days of a couple of under 21s making it into the team each year have now passed because of the ceaseless demand for success in every single game. There simply isn’t the chance for young players to find their way into the first team as there was before. In previous eras we might put up with a few slightly dodgy games from a youngster feeling his way into the top team, but now every game has to be won and there is no chance for a few “getting used to the pace” games.
Living in the Midlands I don’t often get to see too many games involving either the under21s or the company they keep, but even here the news did reach me that Arsenal’s under 21 squad have just played Enfield Town, a club from the part of the country I often pass through on my way back to the midlands after first team games.
And I mention that since that game against Enfield caused me to have a look at how that club was doing. They came third in the Isthmian League – a league that is now well over 100 years old, which is why I remember it from childhood days – although I hasten to add that I haven’t got near the century of years yet.
It’s a league of semi-pro and amateur clubs and while I remain in eternal sadness that the first football ground I ever went to (Wood Green Town – who unlike Tottenham Hotspur did actually play at a ground in White Hart Lane) is no longer with us. WGT lasted from 1911 to 1973 when it merged with others. At least that’s how I remember it although Wikipedia has information different from my memory in relation to the ground.
But anyway back to Enfield who are still very much with us and who last season gained promotion. And so as one of their pre-season openers to this season played against Arsenal under 21s as part of their preparation for their first season in the National League South.
Tottenham Hotspur under 21s beat them 3-2 last weekend, but unfortunately, our lads didn’t quite manage to emulate that. Arsenal’s team had beaten Boreham Wood the previous weekend and once again used the chance to give everyone an opportunity to get a game.
And that meant excluding many of the players who had played in that first match such as Ethan Nwaneri, and Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand who scored two in the previous game not getting a match.
So this time the team was for the first half Okonkwo, Julienne, Clarke, Kacurri, Ismail, Shuaib, Copley,, Dudziak, Butler-Oyedeji, Edwards, Kamara. All eleven players were replaced at some stage, either at the start of the second half or during the second half.
The next game for this group is against Rapid Vienna at X-Bionic Sphere at 11am kick-off on Saturday, July 27.
