Pre-season is often an excellent opportunity for youngsters to play at higher levels and Kyran Thompson has certainly been a beneficiary in that regard so far this summer.
A highly-rated winger who can also play as an attacking midfielder, Thompson was initially at Arsenal when he was very young and subsequently joined West Ham’s academy before returning to the Gunners last season.
Thompson is now officially an U16 player for this campaign but he has already been promoted to the U18 squad and is now featuring for the U21s in pre-season, with a host of players unavailable at that level due to the fact that they have been training with the first-team.
Having featured in friendlies against Boreham Wood and St Albans, Thompson has already gained some hugely valuable experience and there have been some glimpses of the undoubted ability that he possesses.
On one occasion against St Albans the youngster showed excellent skill prior to pushing forwards and shooting just wide.
There have been a couple of occasions when Thompson has lost possession or been pushed off the ball by senior opponents but that will certainly help his development in the long term.
Arsenal clearly have a lot of faith in Thompson and he will hope to gain as much experience as possible playing above his age group this season.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird