by Lewis Ambrose

Arsenal are set to send a youth squad to compete in the Durban International u19 Tournament, and they now know who they will be facing and when.

The tournament in South Africa will kick-off on July 29th, and Arsenal are going to be joined by youth squads from some huge European clubs – Celtic, AC Milan, VfB Stuttgart, PSV Eindhoven and Galatasaray are all taking part. They will be joined by a more local teams with a KZN Academy XI and the u19 South African side both taking part.

Competition

Arsenal are in a group with fellow Brits Celtic, who they face in the opening game.

Two days later the teenage Gunners will face a KZN Academy XI, before the final group game against PSV Eindhoven on 2nd August.

VfB Stuttgart and AC Milan are the biggest names in the other groups. Bundesliga club Stuttgart have a fantastic reputation for their academy, and young greek midfielder Georgics Spanoudakis actually snubbed Arsenal for the German club last summer.

AC Milan u19s finished second in their Italian league last season, and also have a famous academy.

Arsenal will be hoping to take part in the final on 8th August, which was competed by Santos and Benfica last summer.

Everton also sent a team last summer but finished bottom of their group with just one point, which came against the South Africa u19 side.

Hopefully Arsenal fare better as this summer’s Premier League representatives.