Marinkovic Jets In For Second Arsenal Trial

FC Lucerne left back Stefan Marinkovic will fly in with Arsenal duo Martin Angha and Elton Monteiro for a second trial with the club next week.

The 6 foot 1 inch full back has already played for the Gunners having turned out for the Under 16’s at the Emirates Stadium in a pre-season friendly with Chelsea. Like Angha, Monterio and Hajrovic, Marinkovic is Swiss-born but he can claim Serbian nationality through his parents.

Stefan’s explosive performances in the Nike Cup promoted Arsenal scouts to invite him to London Colney for a closer look. Four days later Liam Brady was still undecided and despite interest from Chelsea, the cultured defender has earned himself a make or break chance to prove his worth in North London with a second training stint.

Marinkovic is a tall yet skilful Swiss Under 15 international who loves to get forward – very much like Brazilian wing-back Pedro Botelho. Despite possessing a gaunt looking frame, he’s willing to put himself into challenges and is especially noted for having a scrappy tenacious nature. It appears Arsenal’s traditional mould of having diminutive and rapid left backs is changing in favour of more aggressive and tall ones.

Keep up to date with all the latest comings and goings in our updated Transfer Centre.

Article By – J.Sanderson

New Signings Angha & Monterio Jet In For Training

As the international break arrives and handfuls of Arsenal players depart London Colney to be with their respective national teams, two of the clubs summer signings who aren’t due to complete their transfers until January will jet in for training ahead of their switches in the new year.

FC Zürich’s Switzerland Under 16’s captain Martin Angha is joined by fellow centre back Elton Montiero who will join from FC Sion. The Swiss pair are due to touch down with their families on the 18th of November for a week-long stay before returning to their home land for a final stint with their respective clubs before becoming Arsenal players properly in January.

Angha, a life-long Gooner, is one of the most eagerly anticipated youth signings for a while after captaining Zürich to glory in the Nike Cup where they beat teams such as Monterio’s Sion and Sead Hajrovic’s Grasshoppers. The pacy 6 foot 1 inch centre half has had a fine campaign so far with goals from corners and set pieces coming in their plenty, he even found the net last week against FC Winterthur. A defender who loves to play beautiful football but who is not afraid to get stuck in and perform the ‘dirty work’, he’ll no doubt prove to be a very welcome addition.

Monterio, a 6 foot 2 inch left footed centre back who can also play in midfield, is oner of the lesser known lights in his homeland but one that the Arsenal coaching staff are notably excited about. His aggressive and powerful approach to the game will no doubt fit that of the competitive Academy League although both are expected to begin their Arsenal careers with Steve Gatting in the Under 16’s.

Young Guns will have more on the progress of the boys in the run up to their permanent switch.

Article By – J.Sanderson

Ansah Praised By His Dad After Under 16’s Goal

After bagging his 17th goal of the season for Arsenal’s Under 16’s on Saturday, striker Zak Ansah is building a growing reputation as one of the most exciting young talents in England at the moment.

His fantastic goal scoring record for Steve Gatting’s boys combined with a exiguous number appearances for the double winning Under 18’s has earned him a place in the England squad where he has one goal from two games. The name ‘Ansah’ will be a familiar one for regular followers of English football after Zak’s Dad, Andy, had a playing career where he notably made 157 appearances for Southend United.

Andy has since gone on to acting in the fictional football drama ‘Dream Team’ where he was player coach for Harchester United. He’s also appeared in the ‘Goal’ films and is currently working with Wayne Rooney on a programme for Sky called ‘Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker’. Ansah senior takes the role of judge in the show which tests the talents and skills of potential forwards from around the country. On Friday Andy was invited on the Hawksbee & Jacobs show on talkSPORT radio to promote the programme where he was also asked about his promising young son.

After briefly talking about Rooney’s son, Kai, Paul Hawksbee asked about his son and his England call-up.

“Thats right, young Zak Ansah. He played against Northern Ireland and I was over at Chester in the week.”

Andy was then asked about his first hand experience of the Arsenal youth system and whether it is really as good as the club and media portray. To which the unequivocal answer was:

“Arsenal have a fantastic setup. Just to have the education first and fore most is important. Whether they go on and play for them, thats great if they do, but the education stands them in good stead if they want to go on and be footballers.”

Zak is yet to find out if he’ll be included in the England Under 16’s squad for the final Victory Shield clash with Scotland, but his rapid goal scoring rate should see him claim a place in the squad as they, minus any major upsets, retain the Shield.

Article By – J.Sanderson

Loanees – Simpson Scores, Lansbury Assist, Hoyte Red

Welcome to this weekends Loanees Watch – Young Guns’ analysis, reports and updates on the progress of the young starlets currently plying their trade away from the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal currently have six Reserves & Youth players gaining experience elsewhere. Jay Simpson is taking part in his third loan spell in as many years with West London outfit Queens Park Rangers. He is joined in the Championship by Henri Lansbury and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas who are with Watford and Blackpool respectively. Gavin Hoyte has made his second loan move in a year by sealing a temporary switch to Brighton in League One.

The Gunners currently have two youngsters cutting their teeth abroad. Pedro Botelho is spending his third successive loan spell in the Spanish Segunda, but this time with Celta de Vigo, while Håvard Nordtveit is spending the campaign in Germany with Nuremberg.

Read all the latest reports below.

Charlton 0-6 Arsenal – Under 18’s – Match Report

Arsenal’s Under 18’s ended their poor recent form with a 6-0 demolition of Charlton Athletic this morning at London Colney. Steve Bould’s outfit secured their win thanks to braces from Roarie Deacon and Luke Freeman while Conor Henderson and Nicholas Yennaris completed the rout.

Steve Bould welcomed back Benik Afobe who operated as the spearhead of an exciting front three which included Roarie Deacon and Luke Freeman. A midfield of Chuks Aneke, Nico Yennaris and Conor Henderson meant Bould had opted for an attacking approach. On loan ‘keeper Dunn continued.

Dunn
Obed – Boateng – Miquel – Brislen-Hall
Aneke – Yennaris – Henderson
Deacon – Afobe – Freeman

Charlton were exposed for their poor start after just three minutes. Deacon took full advantage of slack defending and bagged his 6th of the season. Arsenal continued to apply pressure and 10 minutes later the Addicks crumbled again, Freeman this time on target.

The Gunners continued to press and could have been comfortably out of sight by half time. Freeman did get another before the break to make it 3-0 but some of Arsenal’s performances recently have meant that wasn’t an all together safe lead.

However, they completed the job in the second half. Within 60 seconds of the restart Deacon made it 4-0 with his second and three minutes after that Henderson was on target with his second of the campaign. Holding midfielder Yennaris completed the rout in the 85th minute with his first Academy League goal.

An impressive performance from the Under 18’s who now face consecutive trips to the South Coast with Southampton and Portsmouth looking to claim notable scalps.

Article By – J.Sanderson

Buy Official Arsenal Merchandise at UKSoccershop.com

If you are looking to buy official Arsenal merchandise to make the perfect Christmas gifts this year for your friends and family, then you should head over to UKSoccershop – the leading UK online supplier of football shirts.

Since 2004, UKSoccershop.com has been the number one source for authentic Arsenal football shirts, training wear and official merchandise.

You can buy the latest Arsenal home shirts, away kit and 3^rd strips, complete with official shirt printing for all your favourite Gunners stars including Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Andrei Arshavin and Robin van Persie. You can also get your own name and number printed in the official Premiership style as well as official sleeve patches for the Premier League and UEFA Champions League.

UKSoccershop offer fast, reliable shipping on all Arsenal shirts and have all products in stock ready for immediate delivery.

You can also find a lot of harder to find Arsenal items such as official tracksuits, polo shirts, training jerseys and warmup jackets.

UKSoccershop also provide a large number of kids items, including mini kits, official jerseys and training wear.

Click here to visit UKSoccershop.com and find your perfect Christmas gifts.

Article By – J.Sanderson

Smallrivers: Introducing The Future Of Blogging

Smallrivers is a hugely popular web-based platform from Switzerland which helps blogs, bloggers and readers share interesting content with their counterparts who have similar interests and enjoy the same fields. Smallrivers is simply a catalyst which connects distant communities who have shared interests.

In todays over saturated world of blogs it can be difficult to always find the biggest and best sources of information and opinion. One of the only ways to connect blogs in the past has been using blogrolls, and linking. Yet in todays Web 2.0 age, Smallrivers believes the very way we look at blogs should be reinvented.

How good would it be if bloggers knew of their rivals or friends who share fellow interests. How interesting a place would it be if you could see other sites with related content, explore different views and ideas and all this without leaving yourprefered blog? well this innovative idea is to become a reality with a little thing called a ‘Portable Content Network’.

So how would it work? well very simply. You pick your topic but you may not know where to begin to discover news or views on it. Bloggers may not even know where to advertise so you will never find what you’re looking for. Smallrivers brings all this chaos to an end.

Bloggers grab a ’sticker’ from the Smallrivers website and paste it on their own. From their readers and other websites can take that ’sticker’ and use it for themselves. The passage the sticker takes is mapped and by magic everybody and everything can be interconnected. Clicking the ’stricker’ will open a sidebar showing everywhere else this same sticker can be found, what content can be found on these pages and what discussions are taking place on these blogs and websites. It is no ordinary sticker!

Smallrivers PRO is set to follow-on in the future with a paid subscription allowing users to access bigger and better details and tools. So whats next? well fellow bloggers and readers are needed to help hone the service by spreading the word, showing the service and helping start the web revolution. Remember, this is a platform for everybody.

Sponsored post

Article By – J.Sanderson

Eastmond In Wenger’s Arsenal Squad For Wolves Trip

Young Guns’ September Player of the Month Craig Eastmond has been rewarded for a fantastic month which included a run out in the Carling Cup by being named in Arsène Wenger’s travelling 18 for the trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers tomorrow.

The combative defensive midfielder is very much a surprise inclusion as the Gunners continue their title push with a 5.30pm kick off at Molineux Stadium. Eastmond has never been included in a Premier League squad and therefore the 18-year-old life-long Arsenal fan would be making his PL debut if he was brought on.

Interestingly Craig has been prefered to Francis Coquelin and Emmanuel Frimpong, both of whom were tipped to play for the first team by Under 18’s coach Steve Bould. Eastmond’s inclusion surely suggestions that he is in contention to fill the void left by Alexandre Song when the African Cup of Nations claims him during January.

Article By – J.Sanderson