Victory Shield schedule announced/ Lupoli regret

The schedule for the 2008 Victory Shield has been confirmed today, with England’s youngsters kicking off against Northern Ireland on October 3rd in a tournament to be shown live on Sky Sports. There will be Arsenal interest at the tournament with Benik Afobe, Chuks Aneke and Josh Rees all being called up for the first game. The likes of Sanchez Watt, Jason Banton and Emmanuel Frimpong have all featured in the competition in recent years and it’s a fantastic opportunity for viewers to see more of the talented youngsters the country has to offer.

The Three Lions’s schedule for the tournament is below:

Friday October 3rd- England v Northern Ireland (Ballymena)- 7.40pm

Friday October 31st- Wales v England (Llanelli)- 7.40pm

Friday November 28th- England v Scotland (TBC)- 7.40pm

The teams will compete in a mini-league with the team that top the group winning the tournament. I will of course keep you updated on how the Arsenal boys do throughout the competition.

In other news, ex-Gunner Arturo Lupoli has been talking about how he perhaps made his decision to leave Arsenal a little too hastily, saying

“I’ve thought about it for a very long time and maybe I made too hasty a choice. I had a contract with Arsenal until June, but in February I had already signed for Fiorentina.

“I should’ve waited until the end of the season before deciding.”

It’s strange how things have turned out. He formed a great partnership with Nicklas Bendtner in the reserves and under-18s and then at the start of the 2006/07 season they both went out on loan. Bendtner went to Birmingham whilst Lupoli joined Derby. Whilst Bendtner impressed whilst away from the club, Lupoli signed a pre-contract agreement with Fiorentina mid-way through his spell with the Rams. He still did okay for Derby but when he eventually joined Fiorentina he found himself on the bench and then joined Treviso on loan and is now with Norwich for the season and is yet to make his debut for Fiorentina, although he is still contracted to them. Nicklas, meanwhile has started 19 games for Arsenal in just over a year, making 28 substitute appearances and has scored ten goals so far. Lupoli is clearly a talented player and has scored 3 goals in just 4 games for Norwich so far. Maybe if he’d stuck around a little longer he may have got his chance but hopefully he still goes on to make a good career for himself.

More tomorrow, including a preview of the Reserves trip to the South Coast to face Portsmouth.