Arsenal’s strong affiliation with French side Lorient looks set to continue with two of the club’s attackers poised for moves to the Ligue 1 side.
Gilles Sunu, who spent last season on loan with Lorient, is poised to return there on a permanent deal. According to L’Équipe, Sunu has agreed a four year contract after growing frustrated at the lack of first-team opportunities he was afforded at Arsenal.
Having initially struggled to adapt to life in England following his arrival in 2007, the 20 year old went on to make 66 appearances at reserve and youth level for the club, scoring 17 goals in the process. A loan stint at Derby in 2010 proved rather unsuccessful, and Sunu, who was part of the Academy League and Youth Cup double-winning side of 2008/09, made only two first-team appearances for Arsenal, including a cameo in the Champions League defeat to Olympiacos in 2009/10.
Despite being called up to the matchday squad for Sunday’s mauling at the hands of Manchester United due to a lack of options, Sunu was aware that, should he remain at the club this season, he was unlikely to be called upon by Arsene Wenger with any great regularity.
Sunu is likely to be joined at Lorient by Costa Rican striker Joel Campbell, who was refused a work permit that would enable him to play in England at a hearing last week. Campbell is likely to link up with the French side on a season-long loan.
Lorient also possess another former Arsenal striker in Jeremie Aliadiere, and were interested in re-signing Francis Coquelin on loan, but Arsene Wenger has told the latter that he will remain at the club until January at least.
Further Arsenal youngsters may yet leave the club today, with West Ham one of several clubs interested in signing Henri Lansbury in what may initially be a loan move, whilst Sanchez Watt is for sale and may also depart.
Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth 
sell on clause in place, i wonder?
How come Campbell can get a French visa and not an English one? I didn’t think they were any more lenient than the UK.
How many players in the French team are actually born there compare to England Team
Actually only patrice evra is born outside the french border (dakar-senegal)…….many people believe that france national team is a fraud cause is full of blacks and some arabs , but they are all born in france …….don’t be fooled by the racist!
I hope you are joking?
To get any visa for the UK is extremely difficult, have you not seen the hundreds of illegal immigrants crowded at the ports in France, scrambling to get onto lorries. This is because they cannot obtain visas and not because they cannot afford them either.
Even once you are here, to get a visa to work here is almost impossible.
My Wife is a highly qualified Nurse from Asia, however, her English grade was only 87% you need 90% to be able to work as a nurse. Therefore she cannot work as a nurse in this country and can only work as a carer
Tell me why a 19 year old kid should be allowed to come here an play football anymore than she should be allowed to come here and continue the career that she studied 7 years for.
Please dont tell me “special talent” she has saved lives, not kicked a ball in a net.
its different way to get visas.here its special talent there french club are allow one player outside the EU by season
Players like Gilles Sunu not making the Arsenal team is bad, he is a decent winger who should making the step up, this cannot be good for the youth system.
I think Jeorge will agree Sunu is one player that stood out when I was able to watch reserve live games on ATVO few years ago, Played hard and especially both sides of the pitch. I believe AW is not given these players proper action in the 1st team? Good luck GS! Also had a really good WC for France 20’s? I’m still fuming over JET, never given chance? WTF AFC!
I dunno MQ, from what I can tell JET is getting pretty average reviews at Ipswich
Liam Brady’s academy seems to produce a comparative wealth of midfield talent but not so many defenders or strikers. Is this just a coincidence or do we need to shake things up a bit?
It is very hard to develop kids into defenders and goalkeepers and even strikers. Most kids groing up only want to score goals, however, many of them drop back into midfield as they are basically not very good at scoring. But very few kids want to be in goal or play in defence, it is usually a progression as they get older, as their coaches tell them they are not good enogh to play up front or midfield.
Once they do become defenders, it is a lot easier as a 19 year old midfielder against the likes of Frank Lampard than it is a 19 year old defender against say Didier Drogba.
Cast your mind back (or forward) to being a 19 year old, who would you be comfortable having a 50-50 with Drogba or Lampard?
interesting point bc but not very convincing! Midfield is the chief battleground, and players shouldn’t have any problem going into a 50-50 with Drogba or Lampard. They’re both quality pros who can take or give a knock, but what else would you expect?
defending isn’t intrinsically harder than attacking, if anything it’s the opposite – that’s the point you make yourself. so why shouldn’t we be able to produce a solid defense? if there is any merit in the idea of keeping players together for the long-term, surely it should be pay off in this area, where playing as a unit matters most.
scoring goals seems to be the least ‘coachable’ skill in football, so i accept that we have not had luck here. but with the wealth of brilliant youth team attackers that have passed through the academy it is disappointing that no-one apart from Bendtner has made the grade or even looked like coming close (apart from maybe Aliadiere).
Well, interesting isn’t it… It began with the signing of Fabregas, and now, appropriately, it could essentially end with the departure of Fabregas…Wenger’s grand experiment with young players that is.
I honestly don’t know if the over-reliance on young players is over but the buying that’s happening now may suggest so. If that’s the case then all in all, I think the talent we gained from “the youth era” has actually been quite impressive..
Six youth players that have become or look like becoming long-term first team contributors: Fabregas, Walcott, Wilshere, Szczesny, Ramsey (yes he, Theo, and Fab went straight into the 1st team but they did so at 16 and 17 years old, respectively), and Frimpong (I know the jury is still out on Frimpong, but I fully believe he will have a long and prosperous career with us). One from the group unquestionably world class (Fabregas), and two more looking like heading in that direction (Wilshere and Szczensy). I don’t know…we put so much expectation on these kids but so few really have the talent to make it at a top club. These six players represent a very good yield from the youth ranks.
The problem is over-reliance on youth because the rest of the slack should have been picked up by a balance of more experienced players. Many fans have argued this for years and they are clearly being proven right. If Sunday’s apocalypse has any value at all, let’s hope it lies in driving this point home to the boss as well.
We are also after M.villa and Goetze and Hazard so the youth project will never end. We got these players because they was cheap enough and still are very good. The other cost a shit load of money.
Hazard and Goetze are waaaaaay to expensive. If we can get Marvin martin or someone else who is very very good in CM I will be happy with the signings of this season.
Its not about the age onl but about the money we can offer and buy players for. The experience players ask for a very high salary and are very expensive. The youths can’t demand as much and are a lot cheaper.. we will also be able to sell them with profits.
If we can increase the income from Asia and get rid of the debts we will also be able to compete against city with the big signings.
The young players we have in the squad right now will be much better next season and we will for sure be a lot better next season with 2-3 more signings or players coming back and a lot more experience players in the current squad. Afobe, Chamberlain, Wilshere, Santos and Gervinho will replace Bendtner, Arshavin, rosicky, Fabregas, nasri and clichy.
I have no doubt Clichy, nasri and febrags will not be missed during the season. We already played good without fabregas last season. We did struggle when Nasri was out but with Gervinho and the much much improved Walcott this season I have no doubt there too.
We need a new playmaker in the middle and I think someone will come in.
Well said…!
Don’t get me wrong sunu is a good player , good enough to be a EPL player of a middle table team…..but he never gonna make it at arsenal……simply cause we got too many lads better than him in the same position…..arshavin,walcott,gervinho,ryo,chamberlain,park,afobe,freeman are a lot better than him in my opinion …..Anyway good luck gilou for the rest of your career.