Morning all.
Before this World Cup, I didn’t know who Pau Cubarsi was but I do now. His story is incredible really. He’s just 19 years old yet has already featured in 128 matches for Barcelona and 20 for Spain. (Assuming Wiki is correct) At 16 years old, one day before his 17th birthday, he was in Barcelona’s first team, a starter against Real Betis. He just missed out on the Euros 2024, instead he helped the under 21’s with an Olympic Gold medal. Yesterday, he became a World Cup winner, picking up the young player of the tournament at the same time. Incredible really.
Barcelona don’t seem to fear giving young players their chance and once they are in, they are in to stay if they do really well. Lamine Yamal is another example of that. Yet in England, certainly at Arsenal, age seems to matter.
William Saliba had to go out on loan before he was finally given an opportunity at Arsenal, both Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly have been in and out of the side despite showing great promise and right now we have Max Dowman and Marli Salmon who let’s be honest, have not really put a foot wrong. Both turn 17 years old later this year, Salmon in August, Dowman in December, the same age Cubarsi was when he made his La Liga bow.
I wonder, is it simply a case of the Premier League being more physical than La Liga which prevents Mikel Arteta taking the risk on playing our younger players more than he does or are these players really not as good as I perhaps think they are?
This isn’t me having a pop at our manager but one has to wonder why it took so long for him to play Lewis-Skelly in midfield last season when we all knew it was always likely his best position? Let’s be honest, as Arsenal chased down the Premier League title in those final few weeks of the campaign, he was very good.
I think footballers, sports players in general really, raise their game when playing with better players, especially when they are young and fearless. As much as I know we need to sign players this summer because we cannot afford to stand still, especially as other clubs are strengthening their own position but I hope we don’t leave top talented players behind as we go. No doubt that might be a good enough reason to sign someone like John Stones, if the rumour is true of course, because not only do we have Cristhian Mosquera in our squad but Salmon too who in my opinion, so far looks far to promising to have his future blocked by signing another 25/26 year old defender. Obviously I have no idea what’s going on with the fitness of William Saliba and Jurrien Timber, nor Ben White but sometimes, if a young player shows he’s got what it takes and he’s physically strong, believe in him.
I’m looking forward to our pre-season games because I think they will give us more of a clue as to who might be in Arteta’s plans for the coming season. As much as a clue as anything Arteta says or does ever gives us.
Lastly, congratulations to Arsenal’s Spanish trio of Mikel Merino, Martin Zubimendi and David Raya who were part of the World Cup winning Spain squad. For Arsenal reasons though, I’m glad all three didn’t feature much, or at all in Raya’s case. I bet Merino is still wondering how he missed his chance to head home a goal for his country. lol
Catch up later.