Arsenal Youth Archives: 12/2016

2016 has been a memorable year for Arsenal’s youth teams but who have been the real standouts?

After he netted his seventh goal of the current campaign in a narrow Boxing Day win over MK Dons, Charlton’s highly-rated teenager, Ademola Lookman, is becoming increasingly close to a potential Everton move.

Daniel Crowley will spend the second half of this season on loan with the Go Ahead Eagles in the Netherlands after a deal was agreed between the two sides.

According to a report in Calciomercato, the Romanian media see 17-year-old Vlad Dragomir as the next Toni Kroos, while in London he’s viewed as Mesut Ozil’s ‘heir’.

There were more minutes for Arsenal’s players out on loan, with both goalkeeper Ryan Huddart and midfielder Jon Toral starting for their respective sides on Saturday.

Arsenal u18s have been knocked out of this year’s FA Youth Cup after a surprise 1-0 defeat in the third-round of the prestigious competition.

Wojciech Szczesny made a string of important saves, including a stop to deny M’Baye Niang’s first-half penalty, keeping a hard-fought clean sheet as Roma prevailed over AC Milan on Monday evening.

Stephy Mavididi netted a brace but Arsenal u23s were unable to take any points against a strong Liverpool side, which included the likes of defensive duo Mamadou Sakho and Joe Gomez, as well as Sheyi Ojo and highly rated forward, Harry Wilson.

Kelechi Nwakali scored his first professional goal for loan club, MVV Maastricht, on Friday.

Given a professional contract to celebrate his 17th birthday, it’s fair to say that talented winger, Reiss Nelson, has earned praise and rave reviews alike for an excellent 2016.

There were a few rare starts for some of Arsenal’s players out on-loan in the Netherlands, with Kelechi Nwakali impressing once more but the majority of players either were unused substitutes or didn’t feature in matchday squads at all on Saturday.

Arsenal’s young creative midfielder Dan Crowley is on trial at Go Ahead Eagles ahead of a potential loan move.

Arsenal have completed the signing of centre-back Zech Medley on a scholarship deal, following a successful trial.

Despite a spirited effort across this year’s competition, Arsenal’s u19 side have crashed out of the UEFA Youth League at the group stage phase after a 1-1 away draw against Basel.

A few of Arsenal’s loanees featured this weekend, with Wojciech Szczesny earning a clean sheet for Roma and Takuma Asano creating an assist during a routine VfB Stuttgart win the highlights.

Edward Nketiah continued his red-hot goalscoring form with his 10th goal at u18 level this season while Joe Willock equalised from the penalty spot shortly afterwards.

It seems that you can take the boy out of Arsenal but not Arsenal out of the boy.