Arsenal confirm Bischoff departure as four turn pro
Arsenal have announced a mass overhaul of their reserve and academy system, by releasing eight youngsters and offering professional contracts to a further four.
Much of this news is unsuprising for regular Reserve and Youth followers, with the departure of Amaury Bischoff after just one season at the club the headline news from this announcement.
The departures of James Dunne, Rene Steer, Rui Fonte, Abu Ogogo, Vincent van den Berg and Anton Blackwood have also been confirmed, with the latter poised to cross the North London divide to join Spurs.
The other announcement reveals that four youngsters have turned professional. As Jeorge Bird’s Arsenal Youth revealed exclusively in April, defenders Craig Eastmond and Luke Ayling have both signed their first professional contracts.
Goalkeeper James Shea has also put pen to paper on a new deal, despite only initially being offered an extension to his scholarship, whilst Cameroon-born left-back Cedric Evina completes the quartet.
I would like to be a bit provocative here to stimulate debate.
I haven’t seen enough of the U21 tournament to say for sure, but given Arsenal’s cosmopolitan demographic at the academies I would have thought to see more Arsenal players on the other U21 teams. (I am no long curious about the England team – this has been addressed already the last few days.) Any thoughts as to why there weren’t very many on the other teams and what this means? Normally the future looks red and white, but reading the news related to this tournament has made me wonder if our club has missed a generation. So I have been trying to work this out in my head. We have a few 22-24 year old internationals now – Bendtner, Cesc, Denilson, Vela(?), Djourou, Vermaelen, Fabianski, Nasri, Song. And we have an amazing crop of U-18s and U-17s. Is it that our U-21s (I know this usually means 22 year olds anyway) are still awesome talents but don’t play for countries that made the tournament – Ramsey, for instance. Actually, who else is in that age bracket? Who at our club could have played but didn’t? Does it matter?
I don’t think there’s any need to be too pessimistic, just a bit more circumspect? Even if we haven’t missed a generation, the realization that those Swedish youngsters and Spanish and so on will be playing for other clubs means Arsenal’s youth set up has only given us a limited advantage against the other top European clubs. Right? The advantage would be longevity of playing together, a critical mass of top top technicians and athletes, rather than just one or two, etc. Perhaps the point is what AW often reminds us of, it’s very difficult to know which 16-years olds are going to be the stars as 26-year olds.
“Goalkeeper James Shea has also put pen to paper on a new deal, despite only initially being offered an extension to his scholarship”
That statement is incorrect actually. James was never told he was going to be on scholarship forms for a third year.
I can assure you that he was initially only offered an extension to his scholarship and Liam Brady converted it into a professional deal after the FA Youth Cup Final 2nd Leg at Anfield, when James was staying in a hotel in Liverpool.
Jeorge
Given that I was on the same coach home from Anfield as Liam (which left within an hour of the full time whistle), and the fact that the team followed on another coach within another hour, that cannot be true!
Was D. boateng born in England or in Ghana?
1 – it means there aren’t many non english below U21, of those left, Randall (English) was deemed not good enough (wrongly IMHO) and Barazite’s Netherlands didn’t get there. All the others I think are available for the U19’s tournament, apart from the ones released today (of which Fonte and Bischoff plays for Portugal U21’s who didn’t qualify)
2- yes we’ve missed out a generation
3 – 3 Arsenal educated players were in the starting 11, with Muamba also being present.
Q – Does anyone disagree with my view that Stuart Pearce should be the nations chief flag waver but shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a football field as a coach. like the fella but god the team had no shape or direction.
He doesn’t seem a great coach, he picked the wrong goalie and didn’t take nough forwards
What about Kerrea Gilbert? Is he gonna be sold or released? When does his contract expire?
These are just the players being released, assumedly we’ll want a transfer fee for Gilbert.
I still feel bischoff deserved a better chance he looked very good in some early reserve games especialy fulham, and looked good when coming on for first team. He would defo have been a better option than when we where playing bendtner or denilson right mid. Although i do think he got frustrated and lost interest towards end of season and was already set to leave.
Is Jay Thomas still a scolar or pro now? And do you think he’ll go out on loan now? He’s 19 this year.
Truth is, our 20 year olds tend to go into the main national team instead. Bendtner, Vela, Walcott, Fabregas, Djourou, Senderos, Nasri, Song, Ramsey, etc.
What nationality is Cedric Evina though?
Jay thomas needs to find a position. Henri lansbury and Jack wilshere for me are the most likely to break through next year. We could have gibbs, lanbsury, wilshere, walcott in our squad and maybe mark randall. There is definitely alot of english talent coming through
Fred: We have missed a generation?
Born in
-1987: Cesc, Nasri, Song, Djourou.
-1988: Bendtner, Denilson, Simpson.
-1989: Vela, Walcott, Gibbs, Traore, Botelho, Randall.
-1990: Ramsey, Szczesny, Nordtveit, Hoyte, Merida, JET, Lansbury, Barazite, Murphy, Eastmond.
-1991: Bartley, Ayling, Watt, Coquelin, Sunu, Cruise.
-1992: Wilshere, Frimpong.
Can’t really see that we are missing a generation.
Wouldn’t call it a mass overhaul. this is typical – player have reached the end of their cycle at the club. we typically release 5-10 u-18/u-19 players per season. Of the u-19s and u-20s that played in the fayc semis 2 years ago, we still have randall, merida. gibbs, simpson, barazite and hoyte. people may say that bischoff leaving is a surpise and that the gamble didn’t pay off. i would disagree. bischoff came on a free and i doubt his salary was that high – small change in the scheme of things. so no big loss really. bischoff leaving will also open a spot in the 1st team squad for someone like lansbury, jet. ,merida or wilshere. (who was officially there already if you look at last year;s squad #s from 1-28)