• ! ! ! IMPORTANT MESSAGE ! ! !

    Discussions about police investigations

    In light of recent developments about a player from Premier League being arrested and until there is an official announcement, ALL users should refrain from discussing or speculating about situations around personal off-pitch matters related to any Arsenal player. This is to protect you and the forum.

    Users who disregard this reminder will be issued warnings and their posts will get deleted from public.

The Under-18s Thread

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
The U18s started off their season yesterday with a 5-3 win over Aston Villa.

Marcelo Flores - a 2nd year scholar - was the star, scoring a hattrick as well as getting an assist. Khayon Edwards and Charles Sagoe Jnr scored the other goals. Seems like getting put through their paces by older teams may have helped.
 

Hunta

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
The U18s started off their season yesterday with a 5-3 win over Aston Villa.

Marcelo Flores - a 2nd year scholar - was the star, scoring a hattrick as well as getting an assist. Khayon Edwards and Charles Sagoe Jnr scored the other goals. Seems like getting put through their paces by older teams may have helped.
Flores staying with the u18s is a good decision, he’s not physically developed enough yet to step up. Best news in a while was getting Micciche and Betsy, should be fun.

Already encouraging signs that Patino, BNC, Hutchinson and Monlouis are all in the u23s. Four biggest hopes for me.
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
Flores staying with the u18s is a good decision, he’s not physically developed enough yet to step up. Best news in a while was getting Micciche and Betsy, should be fun.

Already encouraging signs that Patino, BNC, Hutchinson and Monlouis are all in the u23s. Four biggest hopes for me.
Agree totally re Flores. He looked totally overawed vs Boreham Wood, think getting himself back into a groove for the U18s is the tonic he needs a la Taylor-Hart, who started last season for the U18s.

U23s should have a good season in spite of their difficulties in pre-season. There's a lot to work with in terms of technical quality and athleticism.
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐

Highlights from the U18 game (at last).

Some performance here from Flores. Looks way sharper than he did in the U23 game. Sagoe Jnr and Edwards looked very good aswell. Wish we had better highlights.
 

Geofranco

Would let Saka date his daughter

Player:Saka

Highlights from the U18 game (at last).

Some performance here from Flores. Looks way sharper than he did in the U23 game. Sagoe Jnr and Edwards looked very good aswell. Wish we had better highlights.

Sweet looked pretty good too. Very technical players, but man, they are all so little lol. Only Bandeira looks like he has some physicality and power. Edwards is decently built, but doesn't look very physical like the way Balogun did at that level. We didn't even get to see Richards and also it seemed that Duberry had a quiet game.
 

Afro Mugo

Active Member
Sweet looked pretty good too. Very technical players, but man, they are all so little lol. Only Bandeira looks like he has some physicality and power. Edwards is decently built, but doesn't look very physical like the way Balogun did at that level. We didn't even get to see Richards and also it seemed that Duberry had a quiet game.
Taylor Foran is a unit . I think sth we do different to some other academies esp Chelsea , the focus highly on athleticism hence why most of their products are units and we focus highly on technique so you'll find more often than not we have less physical and more technical players.
 

AbouCuéllar

Author of A-M essays 📚

Highlights from the U18 game (at last).

Some performance here from Flores. Looks way sharper than he did in the U23 game. Sagoe Jnr and Edwards looked very good aswell. Wish we had better highlights.
Just seen these. Flores looks too good for that level, good to see him back, was worried we were going to lose him or he was going to get lost in Hutchinson's breakthrough. He's a very talented player he should be doing the business with Omari at the U23 level before too long (where's Cirjan btw?).

Bandeira too hopefully is partnering Patino for the U23s before long, he looks a bit raw (not much to go off on, just the one highlight a game you get of him really when they give you the U18 highlights) but certainly more first team upside there than with Henry-Francis.

Hopefully Akinola is off? Don't want to see him wasting minutes for us at U23 level this season.

Of our current batch of prospects, after Omari and Patino (not including Balogun here--also why the hell are we not looking for a loan for him?), think it's a bit of a toss up who is our best prospect between Kido, Norton-Cuffy, Monlouis (Awe?), and Flores. Push comes to shove I'd probably say Flores is the best talent of those 4, though not necessarily the most likely of them to make it. Maybe Cozier-Duberry is even better than those 4 but haven't seen enough yet to say with any real judgment. (Forgot about Bradley Ibrahim here, he's probably in the discussion too--is he injured? ....... Salah-Eddine another I forget about, he seems talented at least though we've seen little of him)

Sagoe Jr. looks like he's grown a bit, that's good.
 
Last edited:

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐

Cozier-Duberry with a goal and assist, Edwards with a brace. That front 4 of Edwards/ACD/Sagoe/Flores is keeping Amani Richards out of the team!

Also might be time to see what Cozier-Duberry is made of in the PL2. He's in serious form at the moment and improving rapidly. Hutchinson appears to be injured - while Ideho is more senior, I think Cozier-Duberry might have next.
 

Geofranco

Would let Saka date his daughter

Player:Saka

Cozier-Duberry with a goal and assist, Edwards with a brace. That front 4 of Edwards/ACD/Sagoe/Flores is keeping Amani Richards out of the team!

Also might be time to see what Cozier-Duberry is made of in the PL2. He's in serious form at the moment and improving rapidly. Hutchinson appears to be injured - while Ideho is more senior, I think Cozier-Duberry might have next.

I always liked the look of Edwards. Def prefer his style of play over Nketiah and even Balogun. He looks more like an Arsenal forward than those two. Also like John Jules, just hope he gets over his injuries. Maybe as the season goes on Edwards will feature more for the U23 team so Amani Richards can begin to get starts for U18, but there is no rush as they are all still so young. Duberry is a beast, but I don't want to get too excited yet. Still need to see more of him and still concerned about his stature.
 

Tom349

Active Member
Has Henri Timi Davies featured for the 18's yet. Seems like he was highly sort after by a number of teams and we were the lucky ones who got him but haven't heard anything about him.
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
Has Henri Timi Davies featured for the 18's yet. Seems like he was highly sort after by a number of teams and we were the lucky ones who got him but haven't heard anything about him.
Everyone's been kept out by Khayon Edwards, who's probably ready to step up now. Has 6 goals and a handful of assists in 4 games. With Biereth as the main CF for the U23s however, Edwards is probably going to remain. Davies, Green and Richards have all been kept out by the likes of Edwards as well as Sagoe Jnr, Flores and now Cozier-Duberry. I expect that come January, with a few loans in the U23 ranks, space will open up.
 

Geofranco

Would let Saka date his daughter

Player:Saka
What are you concerned about with his stature? He seems relatively strong and tall-ish for his age, no? It's not like he's a small lad like Omari.

Duberry is a small boy. He is not only short, but has a small frame. Hopefully he has a growth spurt and keeps his agility.
 

Geofranco

Would let Saka date his daughter

Player:Saka
Sagoe Jr!!!!

Sagoe looks like he has grown into his body. He is so good at dribbling with both feet. That is the first thing that stood out about him to me when I watched some of his highlights from U16. Also very nimble and graceful with his movement. He looks like he could develop into a powerful runner like Joe Willock did after his own growth spurt.
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
Sagoe looks like he has grown into his body. He is so good at dribbling with both feet. That is the first thing that stood out about him to me when I watched some of his highlights from U16. Also very nimble and graceful with his movement. He looks like he could develop into a powerful runner like Joe Willock did after his own growth spurt.
Curiously was playing with the number 8 in that game aswell, so maybe they are also seeing the same thing aswell. There's definitely an element of Joe Willock about the way he scarpers away from the opposition when dribbling. He's become a lot more powerful, especially because he was so small. Interesting how many prospects are starting to show themselves now for both the U18s and U23s.

I'm hoping Cozier-Duberry can experience something of a growth aswell. I don't think him being small will be too big a barrier owing to how well he did vs grown men during pre-season but he could go up a level with a bit more power.
 
Top Bottom