It was only a couple of years ago that Amario Cozier-Duberry was labelled “the next Saka” by some fans, and being tipped to follow Bukayo into Arsenal’s first team
The 19-year-old now finds himself without a club after Arsenal announced his departure.
Cozier-Duberry highlights just how big the jump is from youth football to senior, and whilst there was a contract on the table from Arsenal, he has decided to progress his career elsewhere.
Considered by many as the best of his generation, Cozier-Duberry’s progress has stalled over the last 12 months and has been overtaken by the likes of Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri.
His departure will lead to some fans complaining that “Arteta never gave him a chance”, but you have to remember Mikel and his team see these kids day in day out. And when you are in a title race you can not really give minutes to a kid to develop.
The situation reminds me a lot of when Henri Lansbury was cast aside.
Lansbury never really got his chance at Arsenal, despite generating a lot of hype as he came up through the youth system. Just as he got on the brink of the first team squad, and 16-year-old Jack Wilshere burst onto the scene. Suddenly there was no opportunity for Lansbury as Arsenal had a generational talent on their hands playing in the same position.
In Cozier-Duberry and Nwaneri, we have two players of similar attributes, playing at a similar level. But Nwaneri being 2-years younger is the differenc emaker when we decide which one we will focus developing.
The Cozier-Duberry departure comes on the same day a former Arsenal “wonderkid” also departs his club.
At lot was expected of Omari Hutchinson. Then 2 summers ago he decided to turn down a new contract and join Chelsea. He was apparently unhappy that we were proposing to loan him out rather than have him as part of Arteta’s first team plans.
What followed was a year of sitting in Chelsea academy, before joining Ipswich Town on loan. He basically lost a year of his career by moving to West London.
His performances with Ipswich were good enough for the Tractor Boys to spend £22m on him, but not at the level that Chelsea tried to keep him and progress him to their first team.
Everytime a good young player leaves a club, the likes of Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho are mentioned. But for every one of these that go on to be a global superstar (sort of!), there are hundreds of others that just drop down the league.
Whilst I wish Cozier-Duberry all the luck with his career, he is more likely to be playing for Bristol Rovers in 3 years than Bayern Munich.
And the same goes for Chido Obi Martin.
The club have also announced that Reuell Walters is also departing.
Arsenal have an abundance of full backs, so this one came as no surprise and highlights just how far we have moved forward under Arteta.
Two seasons ago I was talking about how Walters could be a good understudy for Takehiro Tomiyasu at right back. These days Tomiyasu is our 3rd choice right back and Walters would need at least 3 players ahead of him injured to get a sniff.
Enjoy your lunch!
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
As usual rationalising; defending Edu and Mertascaker destroying the academy since they joined. Wenger was giving chances but Arteta preferred continuing using ‘washed’ out players like Cedric while Reuel sat on the bench even when we had many goals ahead.
Omari Hutchinson? Chelsea has done well, making more money than Arsenal on Omari. Barcelona also made a lot of money on Auba.
Edu has not got what it takes to be a Sporting Director for a club like Arsenal. Compare Edu to Dein and the difference is clear.
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Cedric Soares played 197 minutes of football last season!
Omari Hutchinson played 2 games in 2 years for Chelsea
David Dein was the one that screwed over Ashley Cole
I write my blogs in the hope of educating someone like you
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