banduan wrote:
meh, I remember plenty of fan dismissals of Hayden back then. He hasn't suddenly become amazing overnight.
On the other hand he has won the Championship - twice - and played 80 Premier League games since then, which makes him more successful than virtually everyone fans were raving about in that youth team, so maybe it's not a great qualifier.
He'd been told by Wenger all the way back in 2014 that he would start for us against Hull in Premier League, so he was clearly rated. The morning before the game Flamini put a foot full of studs in his ankle and put him out for six months though. And when he was back from rehabilitation we had recalled Coquelin from Charlton and he was playing out of his skin, so we ended up loaning Hayden and then selling him. There's an article from a couple of years ago where he ponders the injury and the missed opportunity: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/dec/15/isaac-hayden-newcastle-arsenal-flamini-premier-league
