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Arsenal starlet gets high praise indeed – “He’s got fantastic talent”

Portsmouth manager claims Arsenal loanee can become a “top player”

Hector Bellerin, Dinos Mavrapanos, Lucas Torreira, Reiss Nelson and Miguel Azeez have all departed on loan from the Emirates Stadium.

But the one thing that distinguishes Azeez from the rest of the pack is his future lies at Arsenal, rather than somewhere else.

Unlike Bellerin and co, the young Englishman will be expected to come back from a season-long loan at Portsmouth and fight for a place in the first team of the Gunners.

Arsenal have huge expectations from their 18-year-old midfielder, who is being hailed as the “next big thing” after Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe.

And it’s blessing in disguise at a time when the club is going through the roughest patch in their history.

If it weren’t for the youngsters, where would Arsenal be right now?

…

Even though Miguel Azeez was Danny Cowley’s 13th summer addition, the board at Arsenal were convinced that their academy graduate will be in safe hands at Fratton Park.

The reason behind their trust on Cowley is the development of Emile Smith Rowe, when he was loaned out to Championship club Huddersfield Town.

Cowley (then the manager at John Smith’s Stadium) had a clear plan for Smith Rowe and Arsenal hierarchy were impressed with the presentation that was put forward.

This time around, Cowley had a clear plan on Azeez. How many minutes he will play, where he will play, and how can the loan benefit him and Arsenal, eventually.

But the 42-year-old did not believe that a League One side would have any chance of landing the talented youngster. “Ben Knapper (Arsenal loan manager) highlighted him to us, but we weren’t quite sure it would be possible,” Cowley told HampshireLive.

He continued, “There was a lot of Championship interest and we also felt that maybe, that he would stay at Arsenal because he looked like their fifth choice (central midfield).”

An 18-year-old being a fifth-choice midfielder is no small feat, especially if it is at a big club like Arsenal.

Although the team has been underwhelming in recent times, fans sometimes don’t realize how big a club Arsenal is globally. And the pressure to play for the badge can prove to be extremely heavy for some initially.

Xhaka and Elneny’s departures in the future can pave a path for Azeez

Thus, loaning him out, instead of keeping the 18-year-old as a fifth-choice midfielder was a wise decision. A year one from now, when he has the experience of a whole season playing men’s football, Azeez can surprise many with his abilities and talent.

But Cowley won’t be one of them as he already has huge expectations from him. “Miguel is going to be a top, top player. He is still young, we have all got to remember that he is only 18, he’s not 19 until next month but he’s a confident boy.”

Cowley continued, “He’s got real belief and so he should because he’s incredibly competent. He’s got fantastic talent.”

That would be music to the ears of the Arsenal faithful, who have had little to be cheerful about in the past few years.

Yash Bisht

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Tags Azeez Danny Cowley

4 Comments

  1. Over hyping young players is almost always the kiss of death. Wilshere Ramsey Gibbs Jenkinson Chamberlain were the British core who along with Walcott and Chambers would take Arsenal back to the top. But they didn’t. Walcott was sent to the world cup at 17 after playing no more than a hand full of senior Arsenal games. Wilshere was barely 16 and rivalling Messi… so we were told, As young academy players Nelson Niles and Nketiah were gonna pull up trees.
    Now all they get is tree splinters from the bench.
    Guendouzie and Saliba guaranteed success for Arsenal. Both are now playing for Marseille.
    Martinelli is certain to be the next Ronaldo because the 20 year old has a four year contact
    paying him the tidy sum of 80,000 quid a week.
    Saka and ESR are superstars already apparently.
    Balogun is the next Henri or was that Nketiah.
    Now Azeez at 3rd tier Pompey is on the verge of Sainthood.
    Patino is the next Liam Brady.
    We never learn

    2. Hahahahaha.
      Let me tell you, loaning all these guys you named for a further year or selling them with buy-back clauses to smaller teams would have tremendously helped them. Kepping a player with no action for the whole year kills their talent.
      One other noticeable issue is that Arteta kilss talent in 2 ways: He is static in his system of play and secondly, he’s a bully who falls out with almost every play. under him, players lack motivation.
      He’s a very bad leader.
      He’s also a very bad manger. Look at his lineup against City with 5 backs leaving the midfield very weak.
      Look at his signings. We need anothe really strong defensive midfielder. Thye best defense comes from midfield but right now the midfield is still very vulnerable. Nothing is gonna change. If yes, for the worse, There’s absolute need for a strong midfielder. Xaka is full of drama and lacks commitment.

    3. fairfan, Cutting to the chase and ignoring the many wrong theories in both directions about young players, the truth is surely that only a VERY FEW youngsters will EVER make the grade.

      It is true that fans in general love to hype any half promising fringe youngster and call him the next superstar.

      But fans are biased almost always, so I tend to ignore fans comments for precisely that common reason of own club bias.

      I look independently, without bias – I am a real fan, but as a truth lover, I have always had the ability to set personal bias aside, in search of all important truth- and soberly at the case, both for and against, a young player making the grade at TOP LEVEL.

      I prefer my own judgement, not because I am a better judge(I AM NOT), but because I can easily set aside my own fan bias, and thus give a true disinterested opinion.

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