More Gunners departures for stars of the future
Two more youngsters have left Arsenal in the last 24 hours – further underlining their value to the Arsenal squad.
Nacer Barazite, who may have had more first team games under his belt but for a cruel dislocation in his second appearance, against Blackburn Rovers in the Carling Cup last season, has joined Derby County until the end of the year.
I think Barazite is just the sort of inventive player Arsene Wenger admires. Although he may lack a little pace, he has a typically astute Dutch brain and his record of 18 goals for reserves and youth last season is pretty impressive.
Havard Nordtveit, captain of the Reserves last season but hampered by injury, looks to me to be the player most likely to force his way into the centre of the Arsenal defence in years to come.
With the aerial power of Tony Adams and the passing ability of Kolo Toure, he impressed in pre-season and I’m not surprised he’s been sent to Salamanca in Spain to finish his pre-first team education.
If Carlos Vela’s experience is anything to go by, Nordtveit will come back ready for the rough and tumble of the Premiership – and that can only be a good thing.
Of course, there is a flip side. Fran Merida, tipped to be the next Cesc Fabregas, has hardly had a look-in this year since returning from a loan spell at Real Sociedad last season.
Merida played against Boreham Wood last week and admitted that the experience of playing in the first team hardened him up – but with Jack Wilshere moving ahead of him in the pecking order, I wonder if that suggests Merida has yet to do enough to convince Wenger of his worth, despite being labelled as “an absolutely amazing talent” by Le Boss last season.
I expect to see Barazite in the Arsenal first team, if only making a cameo, before the end of the season unless his loan is extended - but it would be nice to see Merida take the pressure off the established playmakers as well.
DA
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Reader Comments (5)
Merida only started training a few days before the Boreham Wood game. He was given a long holiday after being on international duty over the summer. To say he's not had a look-in smacks of ignorance, I'm afraid.
Well said Neal, i too was going to raise that issue. The reason for the extended holiday was because of his extensive involvement in the U19 championship that was going on toward the end of July i believe.
Merida is a big talent and i can see him grinding out a future with Arsenal so you should not be so quick to write playres off.
Guys, guys, I'm not writing him off at all - but Wilshere is a couple of years younger than Merida and is featuring more regularly in the first team/bench, is the point I am making. We've had other players come back late such as Cesc - and he was in the first team two years ahead of where Merida is now. All players develop at different rates and, as I say in my final sentence, I hope Merida comes in and starts to get a chance as a playmaker as well.
I went to see Merida in his 1st game for Arsenal last year - also against Borehamwood - and he scored one of the best goals I've ever seen.
The one worry I have for the lad is that I can't see him breaking into the team when Fabregas is playing. They are very similar players, albeit that Fran is not at the same stage as Cesc - yet.
But in an already crowded midfield, when will he get his chance? If he was fully fit, this Saturday would have been an ideal opportunity, but I can't see that happening.
Merida can play on the left as well and provide cover for the centre. In the long term, unless Cesc leaves I'd see him being a left winger for us which is where he plays for the Spain U-19's.
Oh and we can't tell if Wilshere's ahead of him because he had to first compete in the Segunda division for Sociedad which ended a couple of weeks after the PL, so he already had an extended holiday of two weeks but he had to compete in the U-19 Euro's as well, which ended after the proper Euro tournament. This meant he couldn't get a proper pre-season which sets players back by a massive margin (see Gilberto last season).