League One club keeping tabs on Arsenal youngster
Portsmouth is considering signing Arsenal’s highly rated midfielder in Miguel Azeez on a season-long loan deal according to FootballLeagueWorld, but there could be a lot of competition for his signature.
The Gunners’ academy manager and former defender Per Mertesacker have shown willingness to loan out youngsters, instead of them playing out their late teen years at the youth set-up.
This season, several young players have already left the U23 squad to ply their trades in lower leagues, to gain experience and push for a spot in the first-team picture in a few seasons’ time.
Az-easy as you like 😉
💥 @MiguelAzeez pic.twitter.com/Nl0VeSdvau
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 29, 2021
Staff at London Colney have high hopes for Nikolaj Moller, who was loaned out to German third-tier side Viktoria Köln. But the real excitement is about Azeez, who has been one of the standout players at Arsenal’s Hale End academy, and there have been rumours that he may be promoted to the first-team squad.
Despite the League One side adding four new players at the center of the park, they have shown strong interest in the 18-year-old.
However, the Pompey are not the only ones in race to land the coveted young midfielder. There has been strong interest in Azeez from several clubs already. The midfielder made his debut in the Europa League against Irish club Dundalk last year, and is highly thought of by current manager Mikel Arteta.
A loan for @MiguelAzeez would be good
If we had Europe I’m sure he’d have got games that way
But if a season of regular 1st team football was on offer that would be ideal
So Portsmouth sounding interested that’s good
— saxon71 (@stuafc71) August 12, 2021
Loaning out the player at this stage of his career sounds like the perfect solution to aid his development. It is not beyond the realms of expectations that the England youth international will be an established player in a few years’ time at the Emirates Stadium.
Fans and staff have huge expectations from him, and he has all the abilities in the mix to be a massive success at North London.
Can anyone throw some light on Azeez’s contract situation at the club?
CIES Football Observatory states his contract runs until 2024
Thanks, mate. That’s a relief.
Completely dependent on how MA sees him. The manager is unstable!
If Arteta doesn’t like the way he walks even, he’ll do well to leave the club.
Troll
Hows that trolling? It’s common knowledge that MA either loves a youngster or completely leaves them out of his plans, no medium.
No it is not! It is only YOUR biased opinion! My opinion is that you are not a troll but that you are a poor and self entitled fan who quickly needs to mature in your life outlook.
You and your pathetic type are harming our club and as such become my enemies!
I agree, a season of regular first team football would be just the job.
He’s a special talent and I’d welcome him working with Danny Cowley (who I rate). Didn’t do ESR any harm at Huddersfield, did it?! 🙂
I completely agree! I read how they carefully managed ESR if they could do the same for Azeez that’d be great.
👍
Sue, a good call; however thd way Arsenal are going they may need to call Azeez up into the matchday team. He couldn’t do any worse.
Very true, Ozzie!
A loan to a championship level club would do him.
His biggest ability is his passing range.
He can pick a pass and is wicked for long passes just like Xhaka, but his biggest flaw is also his defensive awareness just like Xhaka sometimes.
He needs the loan, hope he goes to a team that plays football.
If sending a young, inexperienced novice player out on loan to gain experience and learn what professional football is really like in the Premiere League, with the hope that he learns what his job is really all about, would it not be a good idea to send Arteta out on loan? Maybe a 10 year loan deal to somewhere far away, like Siberia. I’m sure he will benefit. I know wecwould
U must be ready 4 anything when Coaching arsenal fc,imagine someone saying we send a coach on loan
Yep no need to force it.
Saka is one of the few who was ready.
Nelson 22 Niles 24 Willock 21 Nketiah 22 ESR 21 needed loan spells and only ESR has made it to the first team. So the odds of 18 year olds being ready is low. Azeez does not qualify as home grown for 3 years so better let him go on loan
Homegrown = any player who’s spent 3 years at the club before 21 years old. Azeez has been at Colney since he was 10 so he’s homegrown.
I guess what @fairfan meant was, there is no need to waste a “home-grown” slot on Azeez. Because, there is a maximum cap of 25 players. He can be included in the under 21 / academy slot for the season, which doesn’t have any cap. The number of U-21 players that any club can include is unlimited. We can save the “home-grown” slot for players above 21. Even Saka and ESR can be included as U-21 and we can save two more slots in the “home-grown” quota.
For 20/21 season, our squad list is as follows:
25 Squad players (*Home grown)
Alves Soares, Cedric Ricardo
Aubameyang, Pierre-Emerick
Bellerin, Hector*
Borges Da Silva, Willian
Ceballos Fernandez, Daniel
Chambers, Calum*
Dos Santos Magalhaes, Gabriel
Elneny, Mohamed Naser Elsayed
Holding, Robert Samuel*
Kolasinac, Sead
Lacazette, Alexandre
Leno, Bernd
Macey, Matthew Ryan*
Maitland-Niles, Ainsley*
Mari Villar, Pablo
Moreira Marinho, David Luiz
Mustafi, Shkodran
Partey, Thomas Teye
Pepe, Nicolas
Runarsson, Runar Alex
Tierney, Kieran
Xhaka, Granit
U21 players (Contract and Scholars)
Adamo Gaspar, Luigi
Akinola, Timothy Olaoluwa
Alebiosu, Ryan
Awe, Zachariah Olumide Ebunoluwa
Azeez, Miguel
Ballard, Daniel George
Balogun, Folarin Jerry
Bola, Tolaji
Butler-Oyedeji, Nathan Jerome Chatoyer
Cirjan, Catalin-Ionut
Clarke, Harrison Thomas
Cottrell, Ben
Coyle, Trae
Dinzeyi, Jonathan
Edwards, Khayon
Ejeheri, Ovie Prince
Flores, Marcelo
Foran, Taylor
Giraud-Hutchinson, Omari Elijah
Gomes Bandeira, Mauro
Graczyk, Hubert
Guendouzi, Matteo
Hein, Karl Jakob
Henry-Francis, Jack
Hillson, James Andrew
Ideho, Joel
Igaba-Ishimwe, George Lewis
Jeffcott, Henry
John-Jules, Tyreece Romayo
Kirk, Alexander Michael
Laing, Levi Alexander
Lannin-Sweet, James
Lopez Salguero, Joel
McEneff, Jordan John
McGuinness, Mark James
Medley, Zechariah Joshua Henry
Mitchell, Remy
Moller, Nikolaj Duus
Monlouis, Zane
Nelson, Reiss
Nketiah, Edward Keddar
Norton-Cuffy, Brooke Dion Nelson
Ogungbo, Mazeed
Okonkwo, Arthur
Olayinka, Olujimi James Ayodele
Olowu, Joseph Olugbenga
Oulad M’Hand, Zine-Eddine
Oyegoke, Daniel Oladele Akinbiyi
Patino, Charlie Michael
Plange, Luke Elliot
Sagoe Jr, Charles Kwame
Saka, Bukayo
Saliba, William
Smith, Matthew Gerrard
Smith, Tom
Smith Rowe, Emile
Sraha, Jason Robert Osei
Swanson, Zak
Taylor-Hart, Kido
Teodoro Martinelli Silva, Gabriel
Vigar, Billy Joseph
Willock, Joseph George
yes he does
Bellerin in HG aswel
which also brings me to why the club are chasing English players
If AMN, Nelson, Bellerin all leave + Willock off to newcastle, that could mean 4 over 21 homegrown spots gone and teh club need to make those numbers back up
Please check my comment above for better explanation of fairfan’s comment.
Personally I would rather use Azeez from the bench than Elneny.
I agree but unlikely to happen. I’d like to see him at Arsenal until Xmas, start him in Cup games and go from there. If he isn’t ready then loan him out second half of season.
Great point Grandad! Give him 6 months off the bench and then loan him if need be.
Unfortunately MA is unlikely to use certain players he loves to bench certain players like Martinelli for example.
I’m not against sending out players on loan but why can’t we send them to championship clubs, why do we always send them to league one or the the German second division.
One thing that has definitely improved in the past few seasons is how our youth system works. Thanks to Per Mertesacker. Since assuming the role of the head of the academy, numerous changes have been made to the loaning system.
Traditionally loan systems are a mutually beneficial agreements. The parent club benefits by the game time the player gets while out on loan and the loaning club benefits by getting a talented player’s services at minimal investment.
Mertesacker focused more on our player development than the benefits of the club that wants the player on loan. The loaning club playing style must suit our player development and other terms like the expected minimum number of starts and total minutes are all taken into account before sending the player to a club. ESR at Huddersfield is the best recent success story of our loaning system.
I assume that League One and second division clubs in other nations are more receptive of our terms than the Championship clubs.
Unfortunately Steve Morrow, who was responsible for bringing many of these players to the Club, has gone.
I agree he should be sent to a Championship club on loan to further his development by playing regular first team minutes. He is a talent waiting to come on for Arsenal first team in the near future. My only hope is that Arteta does not treat him like another Saliba or Martinelli to name a few.
Michael Thomas started with a loan at Portsmouth and that turned out well