When the Home Grown rules were announced by the FA all those years ago, Arsene Wenger made a concerted effort to either train from a young age, or buy, the best English youngsters that were available so that Arsenal’s first team could be powered by a loyal “English core” at some point in the future.
This included players like Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs, Carl Jenkinson, Aaron Ramsey (okay British!), Theo Walcott, etc. Now, five years later, only Wilshere (who has played just one game this season) and Aaron Ramsey are going to appear at the Euros this summer.
But Wenger is still aiming for English youngsters, and the latest prodigy that Wenger has his eye on is the 17 year-old Hull City left-back Josh Tymon, who was only making his second appearance for the Tigers when Arsenal played them in the cup earlier this season.
It seems Wenger was impressed by what he saw and is now trying to entice the youngster to the Emirates. It does make sense to bring in a left-back, with Kieran Gibbs future at the club in doubt, and with Nacho Monreal getting on in years but still performing like a star every week.
Tymon’s prodigious talent has been noticed by others too, with Tottenham also reported to be keen, and the Hull lad has also gained his first call up to the England U17 team.
I am sure he could be an excellent youngster, but having seen so many young Englishman come through the Arsenal system and ending up as mediocre senior players, I am of the opinion that we would be better off buying an established left-back, whatever his nationality.
What do you think?
Darren
*Clears throat*
I can’t understand why everybody is so adamant in selling Gibbs this year. Monreal will be our first choice, no doubt, but Gibbs will be an able deputy. Why waste money on a LB right now when we need to address other positions on a priority basis, i.e. ST and CB. So let’s focus on that first and then see what we need to do with to do with Gibbs next year along with the position of other players of our ‘british core’ like Walcott, Ramsey, Wilshere, Jenkinson and Oxlade…
Agree with you, I think Gibbs will stay.
Because he’s injured every two weeks after coming from injury
I think its more up to Gibbs at this point whether he wants to sit on the bench another year and watch Monreal be incredibly consistent, or look for a team where he would start every week. I dont think arsenal are in a hurry to offload him, but I do think if he requested a transfer, his request would be heard.
Why not sell Gibbs and sign a another proven English left back in Aaron Cresswell from WestHam…
The lad is very good and both capable in attack and defence..
Cresswell has england ambitions, playing second fiddle to Monreal will leave him in the same position as gibbs. I personally think that gibbs has been fortunate to get the appearances he has for Arsenal and England. Bertrand and Rose are clearly better and IMO opinion so too are baines and Cresswell. However as back up to Monreal there are not many clubs who have a better 2nd choice left back. Next season it will be a similar thing with jenkinson as 2nd choice right back, both will do for me. Obviously though if 2 better full backs want to come and try their luck against bellerin and Monreal then why not upgrade? But let’s not forget at arsenal we have Moore, Johnson and the 2 bold brothers who are all very good full backs and all 4 have recently signed new professional contracts.
Monreal may not really feature much this season, if Wenger can give him some assurances,am sure he would come!
Meanwhile,I suggested Cresswell because the Author said something about Homegrown rules.I believe Cresswell,Bertrand and Rose are very good HG players..
Nacho is the best 1v1 fullback out of all the names you’ve mentioned IMO. A consistent rock defensively. He probably has the worst delivery out of all the names but links very well with our attack.
OT: Juventus will sign Mascherano from barca…….. Bayern are fed up with Gotze and wants him out, but the player in question doesn’t want a move and is having mixed feelings towards joining the scousers…
[On T:- We best be shopping in Germany or South-America]
We are shopping in South America… Maxi Romero is supposedly close to completion according to his agent. However he would remain over there for 2 seasons.
Its better if he remains for 2 seasons till he is 19. Argentina has a very good championship and he will be getting first team football. great signing by Arsenal.
Nacho’s great. I highly doubt there’s many established LB’s who’d want to come to Arsenal to play second fiddle. I’d like to see us invest in a young talent, and keep gibbs until at least January. With the congested nature of the early fixtures (CC, CL group stage, F.A. Cup) there will be plenty of opportunities for him. Might even drive his price up a bit if he puts in some good performances.
I think Arsenal players who are not going to the Euro’s, Copa or any other competitions in the close season should be given a head-start by starting preseason a couple of weeks early, this should include our VERY promising young players; while the tournament goers are still recovering, these players kick start our season obviously mixed with a few of the more established players like the goalkeeper(s) who don’t usually suffer as much physical exertion in these competitions, they play the first two or three games of the league campaign, our first teamers are gradually re-introduced into the team giving them time to recover properly for the rest of the season and we get to see which of our reserves are ready for REAL competition who knows if Mavdidi or Malen might turn out to be finishers of repute? Afterall, we didn’t see Bellerin or Iwobi keeping Debuchy or Walcott on the bench…who saw that coming?
English Core at arsenal cant even make England Bench, wat a piece of crap
If we can sign a very promising seventeen year old we should do so, irrespectve of the position they play. By the time they can become a first team player a lot can change in the team, players leave or get injured.
Nacho and Gibbs are fine by me for this season altho i am slightly worried by the sight of nacho being bullied by michail antonio during the 3-3 draw with west ham…Other than that and the Mc 2-2 game, he has been solid all season. As backup, Gibbs is fine by me but he needs to up his game if he is to convince me that he is the long term solution for arsenal at lb….otherwise Arsenal need to start scouting jonas hector or faozi ghulam seriously next season…