A tough-tackling, combative midfielder, James Dunne earned some rave reviews last season as he helped the under-18s reach the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup. This season, however, has been a very different story. He was a regular for both the u-18s and reserves at the beginning of the season, and was playing well alongside Mark Randall. Then, Steve Bould decided to shake things up a bit in the u-18s and began playing Emmanuel Frimpong. Not disheartened, James continued to appear for the reserve side on a regular basis, until he was sent off against Aston Villa. Despite having many qualities in his game, the main negative aspect is his tendency to over-react to a tackle from an opposition player or to go in too hard when it isn’t absolutely necessary. Now some may argue that his red card against Villa was a little unfortunate, but he had been niggling away at the player all night. The actual tackle itself wasn’t too bad, but overall he deserved to go.
He returned to the reserves and in January scored an excellent effort against Birmingham. Goals have been missing from his game up until now, so it was nice to see him get on the scoresheet, and what a goal it was. However, again that negative side to his game was there. He was constantly on the lookout to foul an opposition player and doesn’t seem to know how to make a clean tackle. For a player with the ability that he has, he should be using it more wisely.
The emergence of Jack Wilshere has been one of the success stories of the under-18s season, and Jack was chosen to play for the Reserves against Reading last month, when he scored on his debut. However, he played out on the left and Craig Eastmond and Jay Thomas occupied the central midfield positions. James could have fitted in quite easily into that formation, but he was left out. He hasn’t played since February and after spending a couple of weeks out injured he is finding it hard to get back into the team.
The fact of the matter is, he is in a congested position. Craig Eastmond currently occupies the role for the u -18s, whilst Emmanuel Frimpong can play there as well. Mark Randall has gone on loan but is likely to return. Lansbury occasionally plays there and although Wilshere has featured on the left in recent weeks, he spent much of the early part of the season in central midfield.
With so many players in his position, and even more coming through, such as Conor Henderson who is rated very highly by the way, James’ Arsenal days seem numbered. He has a bad temperament and although he is a decent all round footballer, he just doesn’t seem as if he is good enough for Arsenal.
