Arsenal have a wealth of defenders on their books at present, and one relatively unknown is impressing for his country.
Daniel Ballard is currently spending the season on loan with Blackpool in League One, but has missed his side’s last two matches due to being with the Northern Ireland squad.
The 21 year-old impressed against the USA in a friendly match yesterday despite being at fault for giving away the match-winning penalty, although replays of the incident show that he made contact with the ball.
This error didn’t deter the Belfast Telegraph from awarding the Arsenal youngster their joint-highest rating for the fixture (an eight out of 10).
The publication even moves to describe him as a ‘huge talent’ following his sixth senior appearance for his country, but where he ranks amongst Arsenal’s defenders is anybody’s guess.
The Gunners already have Pablo Mari, Calum Chambers, David Luiz, Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes vying for minutes in the first-team at present, while Mavropanos, Saliba, McGuinness, Harry Clarke and Zech Medley have all been playing regular football out on loan this term also.
Ballard and Mavropanos are the only of those loanees to be playing for their senior international sides at present, but whether that will get the attention of manager Mikel Arteta remains to be seen.
Will the Spaniard be looking closely at his loanees during the break?
Patrick
With all these centre backs under contract, it will be interesting to see how many will be released/sold at the end of the season.Personally I would like to think Luis will not be offered another deal .While he is over the hill as a player, he has the credentials to become a very good Coach after he retires.Saliba and Mavroponas have apparently being doing well on loan and along with Ballard they must be giving Arteta, food for thought.Surely 4 centre backs plus a versatile defender like Chambers, is sufficient in a pool of 25 players?
A team usually have 5 CBs
but only 3 will play most games
the 4th choice will get handful of games…..
Luiz can be a squad player
providing guidance and leadership
he plays hard on pitch
In my opinion,gabriel,saliba&mavropanos should be sold&david luiz released to give room for the young promising british defenders like ballard&mcguiness
Young British promising my foot.yes Sell off players that are having a good season on loan because they are none British players. I wonder how many of the good stuff you had mate
HOW YOUNG DO YOU WANT OUR CENTRE BACKS TO BE? THOSE YOU MENTIONED TO SELL ARE STILL YOUNGSTERS. Perhaps we should aim to run an under 16 team,if you had your weird way!
to think I was just defending you…now you should be banned for making comments that could be construed as detrimental to the future of our club
this was directed towards Matthew of course
Matthew. Ballard and McGuinness are Irish not British
Just my humble opinion,am not asking them to do it because am not kroenke @lynn
I was only kidding Matthew…everyone is entitled to their own opinion…I was defended you on an earlier post because you appeared to be facing a bit of a backlash due to your interactions with two of this sites real lightweights, Dan Kit and GAI…don’t ever let them deter you from voicing your opinion, as they’ve contributed basically nothing to any conversation Arsenal-related and that’s never stopped them from chiming in on a per hourly basis
Thanks for your support man