Young Arsenal forward Benik Afobe has admitted that he is flattered with reports linking him with a move to Barcelona, but has committed his future to the Gunners, stating ‘there is nowhere else I want to be’.
Afobe has long been regarded as one of Arsenal’s brightest prospects after scoring 40 goals for Arsenal’s under-16s in the 2007/08 season and following that up with an impressive return in the 2008 Victory Shield. He has since progressed to Steve Bould’s under-18s side and, whilst he initially found goals hard to come by at that level, has now registered 20 goals from 20 starts (in addition to seven substitute appearances), eight of which have come this season.
With regard to the reported interest of the Catalan club, Afobe said: ‘It was a bit of a confidence boost to hear about what the Barcelona scouts were supposed to have said and I take it as a compliment, but my attitude was to shrug it off and continue with my game. I’m not the type of person who would let something like that go to my head.’ He continued, ‘I am an Arsenal player and that is a dream for me. My focus is to concentrate on being the best player I can and with the facilities we have here at Arsenal, there is nowhere else I want to be or club that I would want to play for.‘
Afobe made his first Reserves appearance of the season against Aston Villa at Underhill last week and is set to spearhead the attack when the Gunners begin the defence of their FA Youth Cup crown at the same venue against Crewe next month. However, he admits that it will be difficult to replicate the double-winning success of last campaign. ‘What the youth team last season in beating everyone out of sight and winning everything there was to win was amazing. We might not be as strong in every position this year, but we are a good team who have shown that we have the spirit and ability to come back from setbacks and recover strongly. I’m confident we can win things this season.’
Whatever happens in terms of trophies at youth level this campaign, one certainty is that Afobe has a very bright future ahead of him and, judging by his reinstated commitment to the club, it looks set to be at Arsenal.
Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth 
He has to keep developing bcuz competition is fierce and be patient.
I personally think that it is great news that Benik Afobe wants to stay, but if i am be perfectly honest here for just a second, i would have been more concerned if Chucks Aneke had decided to take up Barcelona’s reported offer to join them.
Chuks Aneke has really grown on me, his superb vision in his final-third, passing has been really impressive. On top of that he has good ball-striking and physical presence.
If he keeps developing well as well as improving his left-foot, his physical presence will give him a niche in the 1st team bcuz Wenger in ideal world would pefer the (2)in a 4-(2)-3-1 system to be “power house” that can also play well with ball, like when he had PV4 & Petit or Song & Diaby now.
KP- cant see why you say that hes got no chance of getting a look-in with the quality of centre mids in and around the first team.
I never said he had no chance mate, what i said was that i would have been more disapointed to loose Chucks Aneke to Barcelona than Benik Afobe, and even though they are both different types of football players and play in different positions, if i had to pick one of them i would pick Chucks Aneke injury and form permitting to go onto become a top top top football player, for both Arsenal and England in the future.
Totally disagree with you, he is outstanding prospect and on top of my prior comments he has workrate that player like JET dont have even though in an interview JET said he will start working harder. Also Wenger likes players who can use their weak-foot thus Aneke will have to improve his weak-foot.
looks like a great prospect we need players like him to bolster our team wenger just needs to show more faith in some of our newer talent
Your comments are a bit premature hes only got 1 goal all season and he reminds me of Huddlet…..?
He’s more mobile than Huddlestone, better dribbler and a better final ball. Not as good with the full range of passing as the big-headed Spud though. Also, Chuks has more than one goal this season mate.
Did you see his 1st touch and pass for Luke Freeman’s goal against Leceister? Just Fabulous
Mellor: he has scored way more than one this season. I can remember two games in which he got two goals…
TJ, I very often agree with you, but I have to disagree about lansbury & Bostock..
Bostock was injured for at least 2 months at the beginning of the season. he’s been with Brentford for 2 weeks, so no wonder why you heard more of lansbury’s performances.
He is great technically, is very level headed, and quite powerful. He wasn’t impressive in the youth cup last year, but I saw him a couples of times with England, and he was by far the most gifted player on the pitch (including the portuguese or the italian players England played against)
Didn’t know he was injured that long mate. Didn’t know he’s only been at Brentford for such little time too cos i don’t really follow Spuds youngsters too much. I agree with you about his talent though. He has all the tools to be a really good player someday. However, he’s not currently at the level of Lansbury. He may finish up a better player than Henri someday. Nobody can predict who’ll be the better player when both are at their peak (mid-to-late 20’s) but there’s a reason he’s been picked up by a League One club and not a Championship one.
It’s kinda like Randall. Nigel Clough chose not to take him on loan for the season to Derby because he wasn’t quite ready for that level this year (this is someone who can go on to be a PL footballer someday if he bucked his ideas up). Derby chose to instead employ the services of the Spurs youngster Livermore who was deemed a better bet, can’t say i disagree with that choice either (i know you’ve had a ding-dong with some Spuds on another blog at the beginning of the season about these two Supergunner, but i have to begrudgingly agree with the wa**ers on this one).
Majority of Derby fans on BBC 606 have not been happy with Jake Livermore at all, these is just the tip of the iceberg. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A60138010
It was N. Clough that got it horribly wrong by first thinking Randall was an attacking player instead of DM that he is. Even when he realised Randall was a DM he should have taken him and put him ahead “big-time charlie” “girly” Rob Savage. Clough is clueless, simple and its 50-50 right whether he will be sacked.
Great news. All I know about this kid is that he is a good goalscorer. He reminds me a bit of Murphy a couple of years ago who I thought would be great for us. Still have hopes for him though. I hope he become our Eto one day.
dunno why we bother with news like these. i mean, arsenal are struggling NOW – who cares about players who MIGHT become 1st team material in 6 years?
why not start caring when he is 1-2 years away from making it in the 1st team?
The clue is in the name of the site mate…….you know…..’Arsenal Youth’. It’s for the youngsters and not the seniors. We’re all pissed that the seniors are flopping right now but it ain’t the end of the World. We have talent coming through and many Gooners out there care to see what we have at our disposal at youth level. It’s a great feeling following the youngsters through their academy years to one day make it to the holy grail (first team)…..in a way, it’s like watching your own child grow to make something of themselves. 🙂
Jeorge
With all due respect, shouldn’t you have to mention that your article includes extracts taken from the interview with Benik that appeared in the programme for the chelsea game.
why not?
He is providing info for gooners that didnt have a matchday programme.
Vieira
You somehow seem to have completely missed the point, I was not suggesting that he does not reproduce information from the matchday programme, merely asking if Jeorge should acknowledge the source of his article.
Hiro you’re on the wrong blog if you’re not interested in young players..
Super – I’m pissed mate, i barely have enough time to visit these blogs nowadays, let alone watch the highlights of the youngsters on ATVO. I will watch it when i get the chance though.
You should, overall considering they are mostly 1st year scholars, there performance has been good and individual development is going well. Its a shame that Brisen-hall isnt that tall bcuz he reads the danger really well compare to Cruise & Evina and his technique is efficient as well.
GBH (<—ha) is a more conventional type fullback rather than the attacking greyhound type we've been producing in the AW era. He seems alright and he will grow a bit more so we'll see how he turns out mate.