Soler
Established Member
Originally posted on Thursday, 12 August 2004 8:43 AM.
Who needs Real Madrid's tired out Galacticos when you've got the Galactikids?
The Arsenal team that walked out onto the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Sunday was not the familiar Arsenal we all saw conquer all before them last season. Okay sure, Thierry Henry, Gilberto Silva, Ashley Cole and Dennis Bergkamp are familiar faces. One look across the substitute's bench, and the youth of Arsenal was on full display: Gael Clichy, Philippe Senderos, Justin Hoyte, and Robin Van Persie.
The 2004 edition of the Community Shield, the 96th in its history, was never expected to be a spectacle of the stars. Both Arsenal and Manchester United's big gun players were expected to be missing for a variety of reasons. Injury, Copa America holidays, Olympic duty or the suspension of one dopey defender. So instead it would be a spectacle for the squad players. Arséne Wenger and Alex Ferguson selected weaker starting elevens.
Although the aforementioned players are first-team regulars, one man is not. In fact, really, he can't even be called a man. Francesc Fabregas Soler is still a boy. At the age of 17 years, 96 days, the mullet-wearing 'Cesc' started for Arsenal against the mighty Manchester United, partnering Gilberto Silva against Roy Keane and Paul Scholes in the heart of the Millennium Stadium midfield.
Frankly speaking, he looked the dog's nuts. He was everywhere. Cesc played with an assured demeanour. He was very calm on the ball, strong in the tackle and looked very promising. Whenever there was a loose ball, the young Spaniard would suddenly appear out of nowhere and nick the ball back into Arsenal's possession.
He was good, shockingly good. Constantly he was getting himself into great positions and he show-cased his love of spraying the ball across the midfield with an air of arrogance to even dare try passes players ten years his senior would hesistate to attempt. In my ten years of following Arsenal, I've never seen anyone like him, never seen a player who uses his football smarts as much as he did.
His countryman José Antonio Reyes was man of the match. It has been eight months since the quick Andalusian joined Arsenal from FC Sevilla, and in that time he has grown to adapt to the English game. Yesterday against Manchester United, young José took French international Mikael Silvestre to the cleaners (although he hardly has any trouble doing that himself), and anyone else Ferguson lucklessly threw in at the end deep end as Arsenal poured attack after attack on the hapless FA Cup winners.
Reyes' burst of speed at the tail end of the first-half where he seemingly went through the entire hapless United defence was special to watch. He collected the ball and just ran with it in a way only the by standing Thierry Henry could do.
Reyes danced through opposition players with the ball at his feet, and then promptly raced around Tim Howard only to slice the ball into the side netting – shooting with his right foot is something that he needs to work on. José will prove to be one of the most exciting players we have and hopefully, a goal-scoring machine.
But aside from our two awe-inspiring young Spaniards, there is more. Robin van Persie, the young hot-head and oddly dressed Dutchman who joined Arsenal from Dutch triumvirate club Feyenoord of Rotterdam, looked decent on Sunday.
He didn't set the world on fire like Cesc did but his positioning for a running, glancing header after coming on for Thierry Henry in the second-half showed a lot of promise – sometimes we lack the ability to head in a simple, scrappy goal when the going gets tough.
A season away in Yorkshire in the relegation battle seems to have woken Jermaine Pennant up from his comfort zone.
With only a year to run on Pennant's contract the midfielder has begun to show Arsenal fans what he's capable of. In Cardiff number 21 played well, not brilliantly, but well enough. Pennant and Reyes linked well in the first-half, the latter passing the ball off to the former who had enough awareness to run onto it and cross the ball back across the box – it's just a bit of a shame he scuffed at an open net after some Thierry Henry magic.
Then there's Gael Clichy, our much vaunted and quite simply sensational left-back from AS Cannes, the club that produced Patrick Vieira and Zinedine Zidane. Whenever Clichy appeared last season he shone, not even the prospect of taking on Manchester United and Chelsea in successive matches last season fazed the young Frenchman.
Over the summer he looks to have built his upper body strength and is of such quality that when Ashley Cole is out injured or suspended there is barely a drop in standards whatsoever. It's still amazes me that Clichy is 19-years of age - Roberto who?
Francesc Fabregas, José Antonio Reyes, Robin van Persie and Gael Clichy are but a small sampling of what Arsenal has on offer in its youth ranks.
Defenders Philippe Senderos and Justin Hoyte are highly-rated, and have even been described as future replacements for Sol Campbell and Lauren. Midfielder David Bentley will spend this season in Norfolk on loan with Norwich City and already is off to a flying start with a cracking first goal for his club.
Ryan Smith will return from injury by the end of the year, Graham Stack is on a season-long loan to Millwall in The Championship and it remains to be seen whether Jeremie Aliadiere will make it at Arsenal.
And then there's Mathieu Flamini, Ryan Garry, and Sebastian Svard ...
The future looks bright for Arsenal. The coming League Cup campaign where Arséne Wenger will no doubt employ similar teams to last year – weaker, young and inexperienced players mixed with older squad players – should prove to be exciting and actually worth watching as lord knows the talent is there to comfortably finish in the top ten of the Premier League.
But of course, as Alan Hansen would say, "You win nothing with kids".
Who needs Real Madrid's tired out Galacticos when you've got the Galactikids?
The Arsenal team that walked out onto the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Sunday was not the familiar Arsenal we all saw conquer all before them last season. Okay sure, Thierry Henry, Gilberto Silva, Ashley Cole and Dennis Bergkamp are familiar faces. One look across the substitute's bench, and the youth of Arsenal was on full display: Gael Clichy, Philippe Senderos, Justin Hoyte, and Robin Van Persie.
The 2004 edition of the Community Shield, the 96th in its history, was never expected to be a spectacle of the stars. Both Arsenal and Manchester United's big gun players were expected to be missing for a variety of reasons. Injury, Copa America holidays, Olympic duty or the suspension of one dopey defender. So instead it would be a spectacle for the squad players. Arséne Wenger and Alex Ferguson selected weaker starting elevens.
Although the aforementioned players are first-team regulars, one man is not. In fact, really, he can't even be called a man. Francesc Fabregas Soler is still a boy. At the age of 17 years, 96 days, the mullet-wearing 'Cesc' started for Arsenal against the mighty Manchester United, partnering Gilberto Silva against Roy Keane and Paul Scholes in the heart of the Millennium Stadium midfield.
Frankly speaking, he looked the dog's nuts. He was everywhere. Cesc played with an assured demeanour. He was very calm on the ball, strong in the tackle and looked very promising. Whenever there was a loose ball, the young Spaniard would suddenly appear out of nowhere and nick the ball back into Arsenal's possession.
He was good, shockingly good. Constantly he was getting himself into great positions and he show-cased his love of spraying the ball across the midfield with an air of arrogance to even dare try passes players ten years his senior would hesistate to attempt. In my ten years of following Arsenal, I've never seen anyone like him, never seen a player who uses his football smarts as much as he did.
His countryman José Antonio Reyes was man of the match. It has been eight months since the quick Andalusian joined Arsenal from FC Sevilla, and in that time he has grown to adapt to the English game. Yesterday against Manchester United, young José took French international Mikael Silvestre to the cleaners (although he hardly has any trouble doing that himself), and anyone else Ferguson lucklessly threw in at the end deep end as Arsenal poured attack after attack on the hapless FA Cup winners.
Reyes' burst of speed at the tail end of the first-half where he seemingly went through the entire hapless United defence was special to watch. He collected the ball and just ran with it in a way only the by standing Thierry Henry could do.
Reyes danced through opposition players with the ball at his feet, and then promptly raced around Tim Howard only to slice the ball into the side netting – shooting with his right foot is something that he needs to work on. José will prove to be one of the most exciting players we have and hopefully, a goal-scoring machine.
But aside from our two awe-inspiring young Spaniards, there is more. Robin van Persie, the young hot-head and oddly dressed Dutchman who joined Arsenal from Dutch triumvirate club Feyenoord of Rotterdam, looked decent on Sunday.
He didn't set the world on fire like Cesc did but his positioning for a running, glancing header after coming on for Thierry Henry in the second-half showed a lot of promise – sometimes we lack the ability to head in a simple, scrappy goal when the going gets tough.
A season away in Yorkshire in the relegation battle seems to have woken Jermaine Pennant up from his comfort zone.
With only a year to run on Pennant's contract the midfielder has begun to show Arsenal fans what he's capable of. In Cardiff number 21 played well, not brilliantly, but well enough. Pennant and Reyes linked well in the first-half, the latter passing the ball off to the former who had enough awareness to run onto it and cross the ball back across the box – it's just a bit of a shame he scuffed at an open net after some Thierry Henry magic.
Then there's Gael Clichy, our much vaunted and quite simply sensational left-back from AS Cannes, the club that produced Patrick Vieira and Zinedine Zidane. Whenever Clichy appeared last season he shone, not even the prospect of taking on Manchester United and Chelsea in successive matches last season fazed the young Frenchman.
Over the summer he looks to have built his upper body strength and is of such quality that when Ashley Cole is out injured or suspended there is barely a drop in standards whatsoever. It's still amazes me that Clichy is 19-years of age - Roberto who?
Francesc Fabregas, José Antonio Reyes, Robin van Persie and Gael Clichy are but a small sampling of what Arsenal has on offer in its youth ranks.
Defenders Philippe Senderos and Justin Hoyte are highly-rated, and have even been described as future replacements for Sol Campbell and Lauren. Midfielder David Bentley will spend this season in Norfolk on loan with Norwich City and already is off to a flying start with a cracking first goal for his club.
Ryan Smith will return from injury by the end of the year, Graham Stack is on a season-long loan to Millwall in The Championship and it remains to be seen whether Jeremie Aliadiere will make it at Arsenal.
And then there's Mathieu Flamini, Ryan Garry, and Sebastian Svard ...
The future looks bright for Arsenal. The coming League Cup campaign where Arséne Wenger will no doubt employ similar teams to last year – weaker, young and inexperienced players mixed with older squad players – should prove to be exciting and actually worth watching as lord knows the talent is there to comfortably finish in the top ten of the Premier League.
But of course, as Alan Hansen would say, "You win nothing with kids".
