Arsenal starlet shining at perfect club for his progress

The Arsenal and USA under 21 international starlet Gedion Zelalem first started to draw widespread notice and acclaim from Arsenal fans and the football world in general over two years ago, when he impressed during the 2013 tour of Asia, drawing comparisons with the former Gunner Cesc Fabregas with his ability and style of play.

But the German born player of Ethiopian descent did not see his first team career take off like the Spaniard´s had and an injury early in the following season did not help. He did make his senior debut in the FA cup in January 2014 and then his Champions League debut the following season.

It is fair to say, however, that a lot of us were expecting to see a lot more of him and I was starting to wonder whether he would be another young Gunner not to realise their early promise. Maybe Wenger, the Arsenal coaching staff and Zelalem himself thought the same because he was loaned out to the Scottish club Rangers last month and so far it seems to have been the ideal choice.

The 18-year old arrived at the Glasgow giants with a bang, claiming two assists in his first game and he has been a regular starter ever since. As reported by Metro, his new club are delighted with him and the manager as well as their fans are predicting a brilliant future for him with Arsenal.

The Rangers boss said, “Gedion was first-class again, kept the ball so well, keeps it moving.

“He finds the pockets of space – I’m delighted.”

Some might question the value of him playing in the Scottish second division but what he will learn there is to battle and handle a physical challenge. Also, despite their recent troubles, Rangers are a massive club with a huge and demanding following and Zelalem needsw to be able to handle that pressure when he comes back. The report shows some tweets from the Rangers fans and one of them really struck me as good news for Arsenal.

It said, “Zelalem coming out his shell. And i am loving it. #Rangers”

Does this reveal why we had not seen more of the youngster over the last couple of years, and also why his move north was the perfect one for his career?

Tags Rangers Zelalem

9 Comments

  1. When hayden, zelalem and toral return we will have 3 ready made replacements for flamini, arteta and rosicky, not quite first team regulars, but they will have enough experience to be counted on if called upon. If gnabry, Jenkinson, Szczesney, Martinez, crowley, maitland-niles, sanogo, wellington and akpom can come back also fired up we could have some real competition for places. Though personally, I see sanogo, being let go, Martinez or Szczesney sold, crowley and maitland-niles forced to wait another season, whilst gnabry has looked well off the pace so far, still a long way to go for all the Loanees this season, let’s hope they all have good seasons, as long as their clubs don’t beat us to any trophies!!!!

    1. Atid have you been following Crowley? He’s beefed up a lot, I was thinking he may have some trouble in the lower leagues due to his size but he’s come a long way. If you haven’t watched TerryAFC’s loan watch videos give them a watch.
      Crowley also had a pretty massive game vs everton. Scored a goal in the 60th to put them 3-2 up. Massive, big-game moment. (relative to the team he’s playing for)
      He just seems to have a lot more of an aggressive, direct and versatile style of play than Zelalem. From what I’ve seen from our youth so far. IMO he looks more ready to contribute than anyone. (Bar maybe Hayden, but more because he’s competing with Arteta and Flamini as opposed to Wilshere, Ramsey, Cazorla and Ozil)

  2. Glasgow Giants 🙂
    Playing against
    football super powers like
    Falkirk, Queen of the south ,
    Morton, Alloa and Dumb-Barton 🙂
    Dumb Barton v Allo Allo Alloa
    attendance 715 .
    Giants 🙂 Wow.

    1. No need to be negative on this one dude. Gideon has win competition for Rangers starting line up, that’s one. I can’t wait to see his game against Celtic. Maybe you can gift your “WOW” after that!

  3. Anyone who doesn’t know about them, the loan watch videos on youtube by TerryAFC are fantastic!
    I’ve always thought to myself that there’s only going to be room for either Crowley or Zelalem. From the limited play I’ve seen Crowley just seems far more complete to me. Physically he developed a lot in the last year, direct, willing to take his man on and has an eye for goal. No way near as one-footed as Zelalem and has a greater passing range.
    Zelalem has an absolute highlight reel of passes, but so does Crowley, with a lot more to his game IMO.

  4. No doubt Zelalem is a genuine talent with with real class and flare with a worldclass defence splitting pass to go with it. I have watched a couple of his videos and i was impressed. But i think he needs this season and the next to be ready for first team action.

    The youngsters who i think would be ready for the first team from next season are Hayden, Akpom and Znabery. The likes of Crowley, Zelalem, Jenkinson, Toral, Sczcenzy etc should be ready the season after next.

    I think with the quality of youngsters coming through we will definitely have a team full of depth in quality in the coming years.

    But the truth is we still need to aquire proven WC players in the interim who can win us trophies in the present and who the youngsters can learn from when they return to the team.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors