Arsenal have made another acquisition for their under-18 squad ahead of the 2012/13 season by completing the signing of 16 year old midfielder Glen Roberts from Southend United.
A central midfielder, Roberts impressed Arsenal scouts on the several occasions that he was watched this season, and joins other recent recruits Tom Dallison, a centre back signed from West Ham, and winger Tarum Dawkins, who was acquired from Luton, in putting pen to paper on a scholarship deal ahead of next season.
Roberts’ signing increases next season’s intake of scholars to 12. Chuba Akpom, Jack Jebb, Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill, Austin Lipman and Josh Vickers have all trained at London Colney on a full time basis this season, whilst they will be joined by fellow Hale End products Alex Iwobi, Alfred Mugabo and Arinse Uade, as well as centre-back Leander Siemann, who was signed from Hertha Berlin last year and has been an unused substitute for the under-18s on two occasions.
As far as the current first years are concerned, Isaac Hayden and Jon Toral have already signed professional contracts, and are expected to be joined in that regard by Serge Gnabry, Hector Bellerin and Kris Olsson before the start of next season, which would leave Anthony Jeffrey and Zach Fagan as the remaining scholars.
The club have also yet to confirm their decisions on the future of the remaining eight second year scholars, although no announcement is expected to be made until the conclusion of the Premier Academy League season, with Arsenal travelling to face Birmingham in their final fixture later this month. Steve Bould’s sides chances of winning the title outright have diminished following their 1-1 draw with Watford last week, with Southampton, who also have one game remaining, having moved ahead of the Gunners on goal difference. Fulham, who have a game in hand on both clubs, also remain in with a chance of success.
Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth 
another CM, bloody hell
U18s have a strong squad for next season we have some great talent coming thorough the ranks,Vickers , Brandon ,Jebb ,Akpom
Do you have any idea about football? The more players the better regardless of their positions. Look at Barcelona. They have so many players to pick from that they know there is always talent coming through and do you think their fans complain when they sign too many CM??? Of course they dont.
Dont be a cretin. Trust the coaches, so far they’ve given us Lansbury, Wilshire and Frimpong to name a few. And any one of those new guys could be the next generation of Arsenal stars. You just need to keep faith in them and trust that the coaches know what their doing. Not complain about how many there are.
must be special though to get into the u18 squad brimming with talent in midfield….at least i hope!
You are never going to build a TOP team from your Academy. If that were so only Cole and maybe Wiltshire would qualify!
well everyones entitled to their opinion but a club like arsenal can’t splash cash all over the place and even if we could that would be boring, i personally wouldnt like though i realize i’m in a minority. You’re right though purely with OUR academy we wont have a top team. With regard to your comment though i think barca would beg to differ (assuming you’re extending your comment to every team)!
Yes You can!!
Song,Wilshere,Gibbs,Szczesny,Coquelin,Fabregas,Diaby all joined Academy .(at the age of 17 or lower) ,all would have been very pricey for Arsenal if we didn’t develop them
Take a look at barca ,Messi,Xavi,Pique,Puyol,Cuenca etc etc , they wouldn’t have been able to buy those players even.
there is also AJax who are winning league titles there
And who said developing your own players means you can’t buy players , Did we just buy Arteta,Mertesacker and about to buy Poldoski too
I’m sorry but Barcelona? Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, Valdes, Busquets, Pedro, Fabregas. Guess they don’t constitute the basis of a top team.
btw have u seen m’vila play or are you just going on hype?
thats daft, look how many we have playing for other teams in the game. it takes more than any academy can do to make it at Arsenal the raw talent must be there and be exceptional.
If Barcelona can do it why can’t someone else: Valdes, Pique, Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi, Fabregas, Messi, Pedo, Buschets.
They didn’t make Fabregas the player he is today Arsenal did
Please spell Wilshere’s name right
With all protocol observed, respect, honour and all, WE NEED MVILLA NOT ANOTHER UNDERAGE!!!!!
M’Vila is only 21. Guessing from your inability to spell his name you just assumed he was a 26 established pro.
You don’t know how thing work do ya?
How is signing a 16 year old for the Academy affect First team transfer , This signings have nothing to do with the first team .
people need to understand that academy signings are completely different to first team signings its not rocket science
We shud gt fight 4 podolski & v p
Why would anyone be worried that we have signed another under 18 that is only 12 kids im sure we need a lot more than that to get through a season. bloody hell my sunday team has a squad of 30 and last week we only had 9 fit players still most of them were overweight or pissed so i dont really know where this is going. what i can say is the arsenal academy needs the best it can get cos if 1 out of every 10 players makes it to the first team from the age of 16 then that is a fantastic return 2 is simply outstanding.
By my reckoning the u18 line up is looking like this next season
GK – Charles-Cook, Vickers
D – Bellerin, Fagan, Uade, Siemann, Dallison, Ormonde Ottewill
M – Toral, Hayden, Olsson, Jebb, Roberts
F – Gnabry, Jeffrey, Lipman, Iwobi, Dawkins, Akpom, Mugabo
am i right? if so i suspect 1 or 2 midfielders may still be signed before next season.
off topic, how did newcastle get Ba and Cisse for under £10m the pair? Cisse is making Ba look like a 2nd striker now and it shows that it is very difficult to get a pair that both score as one always becomes provider naturally….well normally anyway.
I think Olsson and bellerin will be Reserve regulars.
Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole(our product) both used to score , If you have providers elsewhere you can pull it off , But I think Newcastle needs Ba to set up stuff
Yeah they usually leave acres of space between Cisse and Ba; and Cabaye, Guitierrez, Tiote and HBA. Most teams have been playing a high-line against Newcastle and Cisse has been the ex-factor that can negotiate staying onside with the relaxed back-line and clinical finishing has helped as well…
Gnabry is already being selected in the Reserves regularly, and I would think Toral, Bellerin, Olsson and Jeffrey will start to move into the Reserve fold next season.
We’ve also got 16 year old forward Jordan Brown coming through, lots of competition in the front three with Akpom, Lipman, Iwobi, Brown, Dawkins, Mugabo. Might see some of them tried out in midfield to give them all enough games and as you say, we don’t have too many in midfield at the moment.
Jb: please where is thomas eafield, i haven’t heard from him play a match for the reserve arsenal, since he was substituted in his debut
Jb: please where is thomas eafield? I haven’t heard from him play a match for the reserve arsenal, since he was substituted in his debut
I love your articles jeorge
Is he born 95 or 96
I’m Glen’s PE teacher at Acton High School, he is a 95 baby mate. Your getting a technically sound player but his attitude is Balotelli-like. We got quality footballers in yr11 here but Glen is just one of the lucky ones.
Anything on Nick Powell from Crewe.
I was wondering myself if we were going to sign Nick Powell…I have a feeling that he MIGHT be a first team signing though, sort of like Oxlade-Chamberlain was. I’m not saying he’s as good as Alex though, by any means, they are two different players and Alex was playing in the Championship, not League Two. But just going by all the glowing reports I’ve read and that fact that he is already 18, would make me think that he would be a first team or reserve signing.
I don’t know if we need Powell anyways. We have Rosicky, Wilshere and Oxlade Chamberlain to fill the central attacking midfield berth. I actually think that the Ox will, and should be deployed there more next season. He has the technique for it and it would ease the pressure on Wilshere coming back and being the focal point of all our attacks. I still feel Wilshere’s best position is where he played last season. As a builder of our attacks. I didn’t think it was before, having seen him play for the youth teams and reserves, but that display against Barcelona and some of his displays for England, as well as all the great play from last season sold me on the fact that maybe he should play a deeper role. I think in the end, he’ll learn how to defend as well!!! I might be wrong, but I can see Alex, Jack and Song being the midfield 3 in the future, with Chamberlain being the most advanced of the three. What do you guys think??? If we sign Powell, who is of similar age to Chamberlain, would he be happy sitting on the bench or would he overtake Chamberlain because of how good he might be??? I’ve never seen him play so I don’t know…
I see Wilshere becoming more advanced, I think he’s only “learning his job” as Wenger puts it, in a deeper position. He could just as easily have started his senior career out wide like Chamberlain has; that’s the position from which he really impressed as a 17 year old in the Emirates Cup against Atletico and Rangers. He was fantastic playing on the right side cutting in onto his left foot. Wenger tried him in a CM position the following pre-season (alongside Frimpong) because of injuries to Song, Denilson and Diaby, with Cesc still on holiday after the World Cup. He impressed and kept his place but I don’t think it has changed Wenger’s long term plans for Jack. I think Wilshere might even go back to playing wide; not as a winger but a wide playmaker in the mould of David Silva or Juan Mata.
PS. Chamberlain actually never played in the Championship, Southampton were promoted last summer. He only played in League One before coming to Arsenal.
So next year under18 will be ;
GK: vickers,huddart
RB:bellerin, CB:fagan,uade,siemann,dallison LB:ormonde-ottewill
CM: hayden,toral,roberts AM:jebb,olsonn,mugabo
FW:iwobi,lipman,jeffrey,akpom,dawkins,brown
The team looks very talented from head to toe, my ideal 11 is:
………………..vickers………….
………..fagan……………….siemann
bellerin……………………………..ormonde-ottewill
………………..hayden………
……..jebb………………toral(olsonn)
.lipman………akpom…………….jeffrey
charles-cook is a second year scholar so this is is last year with the academy,I didn’t mention gnabry because i am sure he will be a reserve regualar next year and probably will make his first team appearance at the end of the season……toral could be a reserve regualr too but it depend on the loans of ozyakup,henderson and yennaris.
great line up. I’m very excited at seeing lipman and dawkins in particular considering they’ve been scoring pretty freely for the u16s.
Still think charles-cook will be involved. we tend to play the keeper as an over aged player frequently. if i am not wrong we did this with mcdermott martinez and shea. unless there is a mass exodous of keepers above reice lets not forget as well as those mentioned we still have wojech fabianski mannone and almunia. vickers and huddart make 9 & 10!
Vickers should be first choice as cook will be over aged,let’s not forget VIckers is 2 years younger than cook loom what I have seen and heard Vickers quite a talent and highly thought of at Shenley good luck to both of them cook should be pushing for reserve
to be fair i mcdermott is having trials at different clubs, shea is not likely to make it past next year (feel sorry for him he has great ability but not the physical attributes), manone has stated he wants to stay at hull, whilst fabianski and almunia are likely to be offloaded and martinez be sent on loan. Having said that i think we will buy a goalie as first team substitute to chesny though that will still open up quite a fair few oppertunities for some of our younger keepers.
Why would Wenger shift Jack back out to the wing??? We have soooooo many wingers and Jack doesn’t have blazing speed like Ryo, Walcott or Oxlade-Chamberlain. Granted Messi doesn’t have a tonne of speed, but I see Jack as more of a central playmaker than a winger. I would think he will remain a central midfielder. Jack has said that he likes playing through the middle, and even though Wenger used him out wide for a bit in the Emirates Cup, I think he proved to everyone that his best position is somewhere through the middle. And after coming back from his injury, I would never play him out wide. There’s too much sprinting involved and he could re-injure himself!!! I’d love to see a midfield of Song Wilshere and Chamberlain next season. And then eventually Frimpong or Coquelin could replace Song or spell him for some rest. I think it could work!!! Does anyone know how well Leander Siemann has played in his short time here??? I know he can play right back as well as in the middle…he was bought for a pretty big sum of money for a youth defender if memory serves me correctly, so one would expect him to play reasonably well!!!
Erm, not to be a dick but did you stop reading my comment immediately after “I think Wilshere might even go back to playing wide” and just ignored the rest of the sentence? I explained my thinking behind it hoping it would avoid this exact scenario; ie. someone arguing with me that Wilshere is not a winger, when I never said he was.
No matter how clearly I try to explain my opinion on something there seems to always be someone to misunderstand what I said, and then argue with *their* interpretation of my opinion.
i know we’re congested in midfield but i really wouldn’t mind getting powell especially considering the price being quoted is around £2mil and a more sensible purchase than luke shaw or calumm chambers from southampton. I’m getting really annoyed at the fact that liverpool are purchasing every english prospect under the sun. Though having said that it won’t be the end of the world if we don’t as we’re pretty well stocked there.
If wenger can by 16 years old boy defined Is a bright features player.
The first time I saw Jack was the Emirates Cup match against Celtic, the kid had sublime skill and composure that was far beyond his years…I thought “Whoa..this kid will conquer the world”..and he still can but as a different type of player even though I was hoping he’d be our equivalent to Messi, that thought seems crazy now..
We seem to have a really strong squad for next year with the most english talent coming through that we’ve seen since the class of 2009 i.e. JET, Lansbury, Watt etc
class of aneke and henderson was also very good with many english coming through. But yes next years scholars looks very cool. Hopefully they will do a great things like the class of wilshere. That year our academy was amazing.
Wilshere will become our engine for the next 15 years probably as he is Arsenal through and through and he will learn an awful lot from Arteta over these coming years and i am very excited at the prospect. As well we have Lansbury who i strongly believe will be a very good player for us or we’ll have to let him go because its not fair on him and i hope he goes to West Ham if he does leave as he will become a great player there
I agreed alot. but about the west ham part is wrong. He doesn’t play a lot lately and he is not awesome when he play for West ham. I hope he goes to a PL team with pass and move game.
But no doubt he can make it at Arsenal. I really hope he makes it but he needs to change the party attitude. Hopefully he will realize that before he turn 25.
Wrenny, I get your opinion. I think that he could end up out wide, but I’d rather see Jack stay in the middle. I still think that Silva and Mata’s best positions are through the middle as well. I don’t know why their managers keep playing them out wide. If they had the courage to, they could influence matches more through the middle than on the wing. For me the wide positions should be occupied by players like Ryo Walcott and even Chamberlain. Players who can dribble and beat men in one on one situations. I know they have tried Mata through the middle in some matches and it didn’t work, but I can see that he has the technical qualities to play in the middle. And it’s obvious that Silva can play there as well. So I’d like to see Jack stay where he is and learn from Rosicky and Arteta and Song too. I should have said in my last comment that I don’t really think Mata and Silva should play out wide either, but I forgot.
Carlos Vela scored 2 goals today…just saying…
what isit with big clubs taking our players and dont think he’ll be first team ive never seen him play for us (southend)
well tbh if he isn’t a certainty to be a star i think it would have been advisable for you guys to take the money and invest in order to obtain promotion as i’m sure we would have paid some form of compensation just as in the case of dawkins and dallison.
Alex, unfortunately, this is how the world of football works. The bigger clubs, like us, take some of their players from the smaller clubs. I bet Southend poaches players from non-league football clubs all the time too!!! And why are you complaining if you don’t think he’ll make it in to our first team??? How would you know anyways having never seen him play??? This is what scouting is for!!! On another note, what a player Arteta is!!! The only bad thing is, he’s already 30!!! This is the player Jack WIlshere should look up to most at our club, in my humble opinion. Him and Scholes (who obviously ISN’T at our club). It’s too bad we didn’t get Arteta 2 or 3 seasons ago!!! He could have deputised for Cesc when he was injured, and I’m sure he would have been a calming influence against Barca and wouldn’t have given away possession as cheaply as Cesc did when he tried that back heal against them!!! Oh well, he’ll be able to mentor the younger players coming through and I’m glad that we have him now!!! I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled with his signing at first. He didn’t seem to be the one that we needed, but oh how I was sooooooooooooo wrong. I could tell after a match or two that I was DEAD wrong…I usually admit when I was wrong, and I have done it a few times this season regarding Arteta. What a signing!!!
I think he means he’s not gonna start in our first team like AOC.
Arteta could well be our answer to scholes or giggs being over 30 and nearly 40 does not appear to have dented them too much.
new toral video!
I know he could be even better but his play here reminds me of Ever Banega and Fernando Redondo!!! I love his tight control and ability to spread the play.
It also seems like he can get forward a bit more than Banega can, and score some goals. His play at 1:38 to 1:43 was pure Redondo!!! Great close control to get past the pressing attacker and release the pressure on the ball!!!
JB – just reading your article again must point out that jon toral has already signed pro terms along with hayden
Does anyone have a update on our loanees? I haven’t heard anything in a few weeks.
I can see us trying to bring back Carruthers from Aston Villa
why would he come back when Liam said he wasnt good enough after signing Ozyaguk ? Mad hes well off out and lucky to have left at 16. dead academy for homegrown players –
I really think we should look at the policy of homegrown players under 21 because that may be detrimental to a fringe players development they are kicked out because they are too old because some dont even get a chance
miyaichi vs newcastle….brief but impressive perfomance.