Arsenal complete FIRST summer signing

According to reports in the English media, the Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has completed the first summer addition to his squad already. However, this looks like an addition to the academy rather than the first-team as the player is only 16 years of age.

A report from The Mail is claiming that the North London side have beaten competition from Manchester United and a number of top French teams to sign Yassin Fortune, who is a French U-16 international. The wonderkid is a versatile midfielder who is highly-rated in France and pundits of Ligue Un have referred to the player as the next big thing in French football, which is why it is no surprise to hear that Wenger has pounced and tied him down to a three-year deal.

However, I find it very interesting that Le Prof still continues to sign teenage midfielders, although Fortune can also play on the wing or as central striker, when the club have a multitude of options in that position in the first-team and even more so in the academy, the acquisition of Polish youngster Krystian Bielik is another example. Perhaps he is looking to build the future midfield core of the team in the academy and see how it comes along.

Anyway, what the Frenchman really needs to focus on is bringing reinforcements for the first-team, with Arsenal fans crying out for the signings of Alexandre Lacazette, Morgan Schneiderlin and maybe one of Raheem Sterling and Pedro Rodriguez if Theo Walcott’s transfer saga is not sorted out. Arsenal fans can only hope that Wenger switches his attention from the academy to the first-team as soon as possible.

Anurag

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22 Comments

    1. Sometimes you prefer a different perspective or the opinion of a Gooner and whether they believe or heard much truth in in it.

  1. since the end of invisibles arsenal have been buying young prospects to build a young future arsenal a trick that has backfired..the movement we start buying proven stars is the movement we will rotate around instant success and forget extending the ten years of waiting for the EPL glory..i repeat, the sanogos, cambells, Yassin Fortune and bieliks are not flops but future stars..if we want to win now we should strengthen what we have with current proven stars..otherwise we will go on waiting for the sanogos to start performing come 2018 and by then, our rivals will be over the bridge and we may never catch up..tots, Everton n livs will be on our necks..bladder…

    1. Completely disagree we did mostly buy young players for a period because they were the top quality players in a affordable price range during a tight budget period. The last couple of years we’ve started buying players in there prime again. Alexis, ozil cazorla monreal Giroud Gabriel. We do also buy a lot of young players but I dont think that’s a bad thing I enjoy seeing young players developing.

    2. Buying young kids, is low risk, high reward.

      I can’t wait for this kid to blossom, then sell him for a nice profit.

      1. Ivan you should get your people over to che academy and swipe a few starlets ala barca style.

  2. 16 year old! How about sign a player 4 our first team squad as i can’t remember the last time these so called 16 year old “talents” made regular appearances for the first team

    1. yeah i can’t remember one 16 year old player who made regular first team appearances after a home game against wolves where he scored. oh what ever happened to the kid, i think his name was cesc

  3. Who else bet on wenger’s first summer signing to be a 16 year old midfielder ?? Next its probably going to be some 18 year old winger from the french second division who can almost cross. Almost.

  4. I find it very interesting that Le Prof still continues to sign teenage midfielders? What?????? Who wrote this.

    Have you never heard of youth teams. All clubs have an obligation to develop youth players for the future of football. All clubs want as many top youngsters as possible. The % of players who make it at the top level is low but whatever you need an amount of players to field a team in youth leagues. You must be pretty retarded if your going to start complaint about us signing youth prospects. It’s a continuous cycle of players the most promising will reach an age where they make the step up go out on loan to develop further or sold and try make it at a suitable level. Also you can’t sign foreign young stars until they reach the age of 16 so that’s why you always hear about these youngsters.

    1. Very well said, I completely agree.

      Also, do other fans want us to sign 21 year old only who cost 45million, or does it make sense to try and get younger prospects for 5million who could end being the next big thing!?!

  5. We need a 16yr old coach to replace wenger! 🙁 🙁 🙁

  6. Anurag, how are you? It is necessary for both the first and the academy teams to have new faces signed in. The clubs academy teams we must remember also have their own league in which they compete in for title honour. They also have the youth FA Cup to play for glory. And they equally play in the youth UCL if they qualify to compete. So, academy is a productive school that could turnout senior players for their various clubs after a successful carrer in the academy school. I am looking forward to another academy graduates to senior Gunners team like Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin. They are there hidden. It is not only Akpom that can be discovered. The boss should fish them out.

  7. GOT TO SEE THIS?
    Arsenal hero Martin Keown has branded
    Robin van Persie an “embarrassment” at
    Manchester United.
    Keown feels United need to dump the
    Dutchman this summer.
    He wrote in the Daily Mail : “This year we all
    expected him to flourish under Louis van Gaal.
    The pair had worked together for Holland and it
    seemed a natural fit.
    “Instead, Wayne Rooney was made captain and
    Van Persie has disappeared into the shadows.
    He has almost become an embarrassment for
    Van Gaal; a problem the meticulous manager
    has not been able to solve.”
    ****************************************

    ARSENAL BOSS WENGER:
    EVERY PLAYER WE’RE
    OFFERED MAN UTD ALSO
    WANT!
    Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed
    Manchester United are already busy ahead of
    the summer market.
    United have already bought Memphis Depay
    from PSV Eindhoven.
    Wenger said: “It looks to me like they are on the
    market because every player I’m offered I’m
    told United are on the case as well.
    “It looks like they are very active and you
    expect them to come back with some strong
    buys.”

  8. I see nothing wrong is signing youth players provided we balance it out with players in their prime. Lets look at the bright side; if he comes good in future, we would have a good player who is home grown eventhough he is foreign and also at a cheap prize. Coyg.

  9. I know we are all anxious about the summer transfer window. We need to buy both youth and older players. Plus we have a list of players we need to sell and that could be difficult as well. Anyone want Prince Poldy…

  10. Low cost, low wages, chance to grow in Arsenal system & bond with other prospects like Beilik, Crowley, Zelalem, etc. also don’t forget the homegrown rule for squad inclusion. Facts are Arsenal aren’t an oil rich sugar daddy club like Chelsea or Citeh and we can build our entire squad of flavor of the month players like others do. Deal with it or support Citeh/Chavs/PSG/etc

  11. You guys complaining about him signing a prospect first are all idiots. Please, tell me how you would go about buying a player before the transfer window is open? Tell me how you’d go out and spend 40 million pounds on a player that is focused on, ya know, actually playing right now? Here ya go Wenger, call up Real Madrid: “Hey bro, I heard Bale is for sale. We’ll give you 90 million if you can have him here by Monday morning for training. Even though we still may end up in 4th place and lose the CL play-off, is agent has already agreed, and faxed us over the necessary signatures. Good luck with the rest of the La Liga season. Cheers.”

    Wait, what do you mean it doesn’t work like that? I thought we were playing NEWS FLASH! For all you Fifa Managers out there, you cannot even approach the club to buy outside of the transfer window. The game physically will not let you do anything more than scout, and ask them how much it would take to buy him.

    All that I’m saying is that maybe Wenger is focused on finishing in 2nd/3rd place, or on winning the FA cup. My guess is that he’s focused on both, and he’s already got a pretty good idea of the players that he wants to sign. If we finish in 2nd or 3rd and avoid the CL play-off, I’d be willing to bet that we make our signings earlier than usual. Being able to guarantee CL football on June 1st as apposed to August 15 is huge. Not only does it let us sign the CL quality players earlier, it allows their teams months more time to find replacements, thus they are less reluctant to sell.

    We all know for a fact that Arsenal don’t announce signings until they’re completely done. We could have already signed Cech, Schneiderlin and Dybala and you still wouldn’t hear about it until at LEAST July 1st. Maybe some of you need to use a bit of logic and stop complaining about the lack of transfers over a month before it’s even possible to sign players.

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