Tag Archives: Football

Arsenal youth keeper actually 20 years old (and not the reported 15)

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Morning! We are 8 days into our 19-day break from football. Times like this does make me wonder what those who do not like our great game do with their time? Life is so boring without it.

Due to the lack of senior football, Arsenal.com are using the time to highlight the academy and women teams, so there is a real lack of real Arsenal news floating about.

As expected, the game against Aston Villa has been moved to Sunday afternoon.

Hats off to all those who had worked out that this game would be moved, and as a result the Munich away leg would have to take place on the Wednesday. These guys got some great deals on flights by booking for a Wednesday game before UEFA had officially announced it. I am still not too upset about £230 flying via Frankfurt. Although it does bite that return flights direct to Munich are just £61 the next week!

I was surprised to read yesterday how few players we had on international duty – just 12:

Aaron Ramsdale
Bukayo Saka
David Raya
Declan Rice
Jakub Kiwior
Jorginho
Kai Havertz
Karl Hein
Leandro Trossard
Martin Odegaard
Oleksandr Zinchenko
William Saliba

Just 7 of the 12 are first team regulars following Gabriel Magalhaes withdrawal. That means the likes of Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Cedric Soares, Gabriel, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira, Mohamed Elneny, Reiss Nelson, Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah are still at London Colney. Gabriel Martinelli and Jurrien Timber also remain at home whilst they return from injury.

To have 11 senior players training in the middle of the March international break must be a positive for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal. By the time we add in a few of the U21s, the boss will be able to run fairly normal training sessions.

One of those who has joined the senior team for training is goalkeeper Ovie Ejeheri.

I am not sure where the story has come from, but it has been reported that Ejeheri is only 15, which is clearly not true.

It shows how many Twitter accounts just copy and paste news without checking for themselves first. A quick Google of his name brings up his Arsenal.com profile which Ejeheri was born in 2003. In April he turns 21!

The Greenwich born keeper spent the first half of last season on-loan at National League South side Chelmsford City, keeping 12 clean sheets in 25 games. For the second half of the season he joined Finnish club SJK, with Ejeheri keeping nine clean sheets in 14 Veikkausliiga games.

Arsenal have quite a few young goalkeepers on the books right now including:

Karl Hein – Current 3rd choice, 21 years old
James Hilson – Current 4th choice, 1st choice U21, 23 years old
Ovie Ejeheri – 2nd choice U21, 20 years old
Arthur Okonkwo – Performing well on loan to Wrexham, 22 years old
Hubert Graczyk – Polish youth international on loan at Slough Town, 21 years old
Noah Cooper – Frist choice U18, 18 years old
Alexei Rojas – Essex born Columbian, signed from Chelsea, 18 years old
Brian Okonkwo – Arthur’s younger brother, recently joined Cheshunt on loan, 18 years old

With Aaron Ramsdale set to leave in the summer, it will be interesting if Arteta believes that Karl Hein is ready to step up as 2nd choice, and if so who from Hilson, Ejehri and Okonkwo will become 3rd choice.

My first thought is that we will probably sign an experienced number 2 to cover David Raya, with Hein remaining as number 3 for a couple more seasons.

James Hilson will probably be moved on, with Ejeheri stepping up to be 1st choice U21 keeper, backed up by Graczyk.

Okonwko (Arthur), will probably be sold on. His performances for Wrexham will probably see him fetch a fee in the region of £5m from a Championship side.

Cooper, Rojas and Okonkwo (Brian), will still all be eligiblefor the U18s next season. One will probably leave on loan to a National League side. We have history of sending the best U18 keeper out on loan so that they can gain some senior experience, so expect Noah Cooper to join someone like St Alban’s City.

It still baffles me why many are saying Ejeheri is 15. Is it a joke (and is then actually tinged with racism that footballers with African heritage look older than they are?), or is it just people not doing their own research?

Enjoy your Wednesday.

Keenos

Latest injury for long term Arsenal target “means a move is now highly unlikely”

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Is everyone have a zen morning? No Arsenal yesterday, so was a chilled Saturday made better by that Tottenham result.

It does not seem long ago that Arsenal were losing at Fulham, and social media was awash with Spurs fans claiming that they were I the title race and Arsenal would struggle to make top 4.

Three months on and we sit top of the league, whilst that lot up the road are 5th.

Media darling Ange Postecoglou is now being exposed as being the average manager we all knew he was – it is all well and good pointing to his achievement in Japan and Scotland, but the English Premier League is a different kettle of fish.

Spurs fans really have overhyped an average manager and average players. I saw one put out his combined Arsenal / Spurs 11 and it contained just 3 Arsenal players (Raya, Rice and Saka).

Despite Tottenham conceding 18 goals more than us, he had the entire Tottenham back 4! Sergio Romero and Micky van de Ven are basically FIFA pace merchants, and they have a pair of full backs that can not defend.

Yestersay’s defeat has Arsenal 11 points clear. By my math we probably only need 3 more wins to ensure St Totteringham’s Day returns again!

All flights and hotels are now booked for Munich. Anyone else on the 11:50(ish) out of Heathrow on the Tuesday, flying via Frankfurt?

I picture and entire plane of people getting off at Frankfurt, then doing the internal change to Munich. They might as well leave us on the plane for an hour grounded, re-fuel and continue the journey.

I see that Ivan Toney has once again spoken about his desire to leave Brentford this summer. The more the fella speaks the more I do not want him.

Yes, saying he could go Real Madrid was tongue in cheek. But when a player is constantly talking openly about the door being open to depart in the summer you have to question their mentality.

Toney should be concentrating on playing football, scoring the goals that would keep Brentford in the Premier League and secure him a spot on the plane to Euro 2024.

Clubs these days care as much about character as ability, and I imagine everytime Toney speaks, another Head of Recruitment ends up wiping his name off the whiteboard. My bet is he will end up at Tottenham or Manchester United. They are the sort of clubs that will be desperate for a striker regardless of character.

Another one we will unlikely move for this summer is Pedro Neto.

I like Neto, but have never been fully on the hype train. He always came across as inconsistent and his injury issues worried me.

The Portuguese winger has now been ruled out for the rest of the season. His injury record does not make pretty reading.

One reason why we are top of the league this season is due to having a squad that has remained fairly fit.

We still have a handful of players (Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, Partey) who cannot be relied upon. But on the whole we have avoided losing key players for any length of time.

If we are looking to recruit another winger, it has to be someone who is able to stay fit and ready to be called upon. There is no point spending £50m on Neto, only for him to miss half the season injured.

Neto has been on the clubs watch list for a few years now, and we were close to launching a bid for him a couple of summers ago. Injury stopped us progressing our interest back then, and his latest issue means a move is now highly unlikely.

Enjoy your Sunday. I am off to the tip to get rid of some old tyres!

Keenos

Bayern Munich, Ben White, North London Forever and more

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Bayern Munich

Hello my old friend, we meet again.

It was always going to happen wasn’t it? In yesterday’s blog, Bayern Munich were my 2nd least favourite potential opponent. Only Manchester City below them. So we go and get Munich, and then if we beat them it is Manchester City.

Even though they were my least attracted trip abroad, the flights and hotels are already booked.

As always, airline prices jumped straight after the draw, and we are paying £230 return via Brussels. Go the week later and you can get return flights direct to Munich for just £61…

It is probably the worst Munich team in decades, but they are still a danger.

10 points behind Bayer Leverkusen, it is unlikely that they will win the Bundesliga. I would not be surprised if they rest players in the league and go all out for the Champions League.

Ben White

Two bits of Benjamin White news in the last few days.

The first was his new contract. Well deserved. The second was the news that he was making himself unavailable for England selection.

On the contract, the way White continually rises to the challenge shows what sort of player he is.

Signed a central defender, he was shifted across to right back to cover the injured Takehiro Tomiyasu. He never complained and just got his head down and did what Mikel Arteta demanded of him. When the Tomi returned, the Japenese right back did not walk straight back into the first team.

Then this summer we signed Jurrien Timber. White has since taken his game to another level which shows he is the sort of player that is not scared of competition.

White is one of the leaders of the team and, unlike Tomiyasu, his fitness can be relied upon – incredibly he has never missed a game through injury for The Arsenal.

And all this brings into light the issues with England.

Arteta and his coaches will be much more demanding of White than Southgate and his goons. If White has risen to the challenge of Arteta, and our manager backs him, then you have to ask what actually happened on that England camp.

I also find the criticism of White to be a little odd.

One of the loudest critics has been Stan Collymore. The woman-beater pitches himself as a mental health advocate, yet has spent the last 48 hours piling on Ben White for his decision.

The other biggest critics are Liverpool fans. You know them fellas that spout “Scouse not English”. You would think they would back as player deciding not to play for England. But instead the accuse him of letting their country down. It just shows they are a fanbase with zero morals. But that is nothing new.

At the end of the day, it is Ben White’s career. If he decides that he does not want to play for England than that is his choice.

North London Forever

Love this from Gabriel Jesus…

Fixture congestion

I saw an article yesterday about how “European football has thrown Arsenal’s fixtures into chaos”.

The article began by mentioning that the Aston Villa game would now be moved from Saturday to Sunday due to them now playing in Europe on Thursday. This game always had an * against it for this reason, so it is not like this is something the club knew nothing about.

It is the norm for teams playing on Thursday to have their games moved to the Sunday. A real non-story.

But the article continued pointing out that we have to re-arrange the Chelsea game, and potentially the Wolves game, and how this will create end of season conjestion.

Liverpool and Manchester City are both in the exact same position in terms of potentially re-arranging league games due to the FA Cup. And in-fact they will have more congestion than us if they remain in the completion. Likewise Liverpool will have every Saturday game after their Europa League matches moved to Sunday. Yet it is only Arsenal who get the negative press over fixture chaos and congestion.

It just shows again that Arsenal are the most newsworthy club in the world, whilst no one really cares about Liverpool on Manchester City….

Enjoy your Saturday.

Keenos