Not really been all that impressed with Fortune. Had a poor season so far and, after a bright start last season, he wasn't much cop for most of last season either. Hence being dropped back to play U18 football and even then he's not a guaranteed starter at that level.

If you want to talk about U18 talent at the club, have a look at Emile Smith-Rowe and Trae Coyle - serious potential in those two.

Of the more familiar lot - Maitland-Niles, Jeff, Willock etc.  I'd say Nelson is hands down the most likely to be able to step up to playing proper football in the first team. He's easily got the most well rounded and mature game. He's just very good at nearly all things and has a couple of real standout attributes.

I just don't see it with him Tricky. Overall quite an underwhelming group

Bielik looks a proper player mind

Ricky1985 wrote:

Sanogo was astonishingly bad. Genuinely took me aback.

I agree entirely with the the posts above about our bloated squad. For me, having players in the squad like Gabriel, Elneny and Lucas Perez (and others) that cost the club £30m+ in transfer fees and continue to cost the club 100k+ per week in wages, is just not efficient. Even more so when you have a very good youth system, with some very good players champing at the bit to get a chance.

I agree that it's most definitely not efficient buying these players when you're obviously not planning on using them any time soon. Our youth setup hasn't produced any forward on Perez' level in donkey's years though so I'm generally fine with the purchase

Ainsley is the surest thing, he's absolutely brilliant. Only a matter of time.

I agree with Dula that Nelson looks mechanical when he runs. Not a great complilation of the kid.

What happened to Wis Chrillock? He was supposed to be the shit.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert wrote:

Ainsley is the surest thing, he's absolutely brilliant. Only a matter of time.

I agree with Dula that Nelson looks mechanical when he runs. Not a great complilation of the kid.

What happened to Wis Chrillock? He was supposed to be the shit.

Only until AW gets him into the senior team at which point his development will stagnate like every other internal development project, amd/or he'll become crippled by injuries,

Ref set the tone for this bullshit

flobaba wrote:

Ref set the tone for this bullshit

Our stagnating youth set-up?

Ha ha now we're at the stage where we even blame the refs for our shit youth development. Wenger would be well pleased.

How many of the likes of Toral, Zelalem, Crowley etc seem to be good enough along with Iwobi, Maitland-Niles, Rienne-Adelaide & Akpom?
Do we have the base along with the likes of Wilshere, Rambo, Chambers, Holding?
If so we have enough HG, otherwise we'll need to buy.

You guys expect too much of our youth system. We should just focus on poaching the best players in the world between 16 and 19 years old. Youth development is worse than early stage venture capital in terms of guaranteed results. We made one decent player, Wilshere, and even he's gone to shit. Now it is all on Iwobi

That's because for a couple of years our youth setup is horribly managed, while clubs like Chelsea and City in particular turn it around, built new facilities and went everywhere acquiring the best talents.

Our youth academy is not up there with the best anymore. The likes of PSG, Monaco should be role models we can emulate.

Liam Brady was the most lethargic man in a high pressure job I'd seen in my life. It was clear as day the guy never done any real work. He's a punit on Irish TV and said he quit arsenal when they brought in paperwork.

That is the same feeling I got over the years watching Brady from the outside. The academy has improved without question since he stepped down.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

I just don't see it with him Tricky. Overall quite an underwhelming group

Bielik looks a proper player mind

Bielik looks a proper player. By all accounts he has made a big impact at struggling Birmingham. He's gotten nothing but positive reviews so far from their fans and the local press. Heard he was their best player on Saturday against Newcastle playing as the ball player in the middle of a back three.

I don't think this is an underwhelming group myself. Think there's at least 3 or 4 that have first team potential. Asking for more than that is asking for too much.

22 days later
Ricky1985 wrote:

That is the same feeling I got over the years watching Brady from the outside. The academy has improved without question since he stepped down.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

I just don't see it with him Tricky. Overall quite an underwhelming group

Bielik looks a proper player mind

Bielik looks a proper player. By all accounts he has made a big impact at struggling Birmingham. He's gotten nothing but positive reviews so far from their fans and the local press. Heard he was their best player on Saturday against Newcastle playing as the ball player in the middle of a back three.

I don't think this is an underwhelming group myself. Think there's at least 3 or 4 that have first team potential. Asking for more than that is asking for too much.

What about this guy?
https://twitter.com/EddieNketiah9
Looks like we need Wenger gone before he can coach the scoring out of him.

He's a born goalscorer, no doubt whatsoever about that. At what level he'll be able to do it at is hard to say until he plays against proper defenders. There's nothing really stand out in his game that I've seen - he hits it hard with little back lift and in an instant always seems to knows the spot to hit where the goalkeeper will struggle most to save it (I suppose that's a standout quality in itself) - but technically and physically he's average. Can't say I'm very excited about him but with the sheer number of goals he's scoring, perhaps I should be.

The two I'm interested to see more of are Emile Smith-Rowe and Trae Coyle. Both playing for the U18s, although the former has played a few games at U23, and they look superb from what I've managed to see.

We'll have to wait and see, but he's going to score a phenomenal amount of goals at whatever level the rest of his game enables him to play at, that is certain.

A behind the scenes look at the newly finished academy training centre at Hale End.

Looks like they've done a lot of good work there.  

Gazidis is alive after all then. Interesting to see the club have set a target of one academy player being integrated into the first team every two years. Also good to see they're making progress on the conditioning and injury prevention front at all levels of the club.