Loan watch: Vela plays as Osasuna win

Seven young Arsenal players are on loan at other clubs in order to gain experience. They are Mark Randall and Kieran Gibbs, who are at Burnley and Norwich respictively, Jay Simpson is with Millwall whilst Fran Merida, Carlos Vela and Pedro Silva are all in Spain with Real Sociedad, Osasuna and Salamanca. Vincent van den Berg is with Go Ahead Eagles. Keep up to date on their progress here…

Carlos Vela- Osasuna 1-0 Real Zaragoza

Carlos Vela played 62 minutes before being substituted as Osasuna defeated Real Zaragoza thanks to Jarosliv Plasil’s strike just after half time. The Mexican looked a little tired after playing for Mexico against USA in midweek and wasn’t as lively as he usually his. He made some good darting runs before tiredness got the better of him and he was withdrawn. Match report here. (In Spanish).

Pedro- Salamanca 1 Cadiz 1

Pedro was only on the bench as Salamanca drew 1-1 with Cadiz

Fran Merida- Ejido 0  Real Sociedad 1

Fran Merida came on as a last minute substitute as Real Sociedad defeated Ejido 1-0. He replaced Nacho after a Diaz de Cerio effort secured the victory for Sociedad. Read more on this game here.

Vincent van den Berg- FC Zwolle 1 Go Ahead Eagles 0

Vincent van den Berg missed out through injury as Go Ahead Eagles lost 1-0 away to FC Zwolle.

Wenger: ‘I could have kept Bentley’

Picture from: Football.co.uk

Arséne Wenger has admitted that he feels David Bentley was good enough to play for Arsenal, but allowed the England international to move on in order to continue his development. Bentley rose through the youth ranks at Arsenal, and was a regular in the club’s reserve and youth sides before he made the first-team breakthrough in 2003. He scored with a deft chip at Highbury against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup and the signs looked good for a bright future.

        However, he joined Norwich on loan in 2004, and spent an entire season at Carrow Road, before returning to Arsenal. He soon realised that the likes of Dennis Bergkamp were in his way and joined Blackburn in 2005, before later making the deal permanent. Arséne Wenger says that he doesn’t regret letting Bentley move on, but admits that he was good enough to play for Arsenal, although he would have struggled to get regular games.

I think that he was certainly a huge prospect, but he just had to move on for his own development. I enjoyed watching him in the Youth team at Arsenal, and he always stood out from the crowd. If we’d have kept him, would he be an England international? I don’t think so, because he wouldn’t have been playing regularly for us. He can sure hit a mean free-kick and would fit in well with the current side, but we have plenty of young players coming through now who could be just as good as him, or maybe even better and Wenger knows that, so in the end I think he made the right decision to let him go.