Kieran Gibbs has been named in the England under-19s squad for the forthcoming Elite Qualifying Round for the UEFA European u-19 championships. England’s games take place between the 26th and 31st of May, and a full breakdown is below.
26.05.08- Poland- 11.30am
28.05.08-Serbia-11.30am
31.05.08- Belarus- 2pm
Armand Traore is also expected to be in action for France in their set of qualifiers.
We’ll start with the news that on loan striker Jay Simpson has been named the PFA Player of the Year for League One. It’s a great accolade for him, but it remains to be seen where his future lies next season.
On the subject of awards, Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny has won my player of the month award for April. It was a tough decision, given the performances of Jack Wilshere for the reserves, but Szczesny has been Arsenal’s most consistent performer for much of the season and had a fantastic month in April. For the under-18s, he kept clean sheets in three consecutive games against MK Dons, Millwall and Bristol City. He conceded against Fulham, but made up for it with a superb penalty save. He then performed heroically against Vila in the Play-off semi-final and was unfortunate to end up on the losing side. Then last night, he proved an able deputy when Mannone was sent off just before half time. He has been fantastic this season and deserves the recognition.
In other news, Kieran Gibbs says that he may have to go out on loan again next season to continue his development. That would certainly be a good idea, maybe he could go to a Premier League club this time. He clearly has talent, but he is still a little bit off the first team so some good performances next season would do him a world of good.
You can read Neil Banfield’s reaction to last night’s reserve game here.
And finally, Havard Nordtveit was in action again last night as Norway under-19s lost 3-2 to Iceland in a qualifier for the UEFA u-19 European Championships. Havard played the full game and could be in action again on Friday when Norway take on Israel.
1.L.Freeman (4)
2.R.Deacon (3)
3.J.Emmanuel-Thomas (3)
4.M.Randall (2)
5.G.Sunu (2)
6.S.Watt (2)
7.R.Fonte (1)
8.C.Henderson (1)
9.R.Murphy (1)
10.J.Simpson (1)
