Quincy Owusu-Abeyie
A young, fast and dynamic youngster when he came to Arsenal in 2002, but by the end of 2006 Quincy Owusu-Abeyie showed very little to impress the Arsenal fans and Arsene Wenger. The Ghanaian international made a total of 23 appearances for the Gunners (15 as a substitute) and scored only 2 goals during his 4 year stay. He looked to be a very good player, and had the correct attributes to succeed, not just at Arsenal football club but in the Premier League as well. Sadly Wenger didn’t give the young winger a chance to showcase and develop his talent in the English game. However, whilst he was at Arsenal the striker obviously didn’t impress Wenger enough to earn a longer stay in North London. Eventually Quincy Owusu-Abeyie was sold to Spartak Moscow in 2006 for an undisclosed fee. In March this year, the forward decided to make the switch from the Russian league in favour for the Qatar Stars League side Al-Sadd where he signed a three-year deal. He is currently on-loan to Malaga.
Sebastian Larsson
Another very promising youth player for the Gunners yet the Swede never really showed much to the fans and Wenger when he was given time on the pitch. Larsson signed for the Arsenal youth set-up when he was 16 in 2001 and developed his skills there for 3 years. He was officially introduced to the first-team squad in 2004 but rarely got a game. In the 2004/05 season the midfielder made cameo appearances in the League cup and only managed to make 3 appearances that year. The following season saw a slight improvement, but not a great one with 9 appearances for Arsenal of which 4 of them were from the bench. Wenger sent the Swede out on a season long loan to Birmingham City in 2006 (with options to buy the player) in order for the versatile midfielder to gain much needed experience in the English game. During his time at Birmingham, Larsson decided to end his Arsenal nightmare and sign for the Blues permanently in 2007 which only made Arsenal a profit of just £1 million. Since then Larsson has improved immensely from the youngster we saw at Highbury 5 years ago. He was a promising talent for the Gunners, but couldn’t break through the ranks and as such he had to move on. Larsson has now become a regular for Birmingham City, making over 130 appearances for the club and has been capped for Sweden 26 times so far.
Steve Sidwell
Steve Sidwell was an extremely highly rated youngster in the Arsenal youth academy, but failed to make a single appearance for the Gunners senior team. Sidwell signed for Arsenal in 1999 and was one of many youth players that many would have thought could have made a number of appearances for the first-team. Unfortunately Wenger never gave the central midfielder a real chance to shine on the big stage. Sidwell appeared only at youth level for the club and had to make do by going out on-loan. Sidwell had spells with Brentford, Bevern and Brighton Albion before eventually leaving the North London club in 2003 to join Reading for an undisclosed fee. Sidwell then moved on to Chelsea in 2007 and after a year moved to Aston Villa. Yet another promising star that failed to live up to the hype in the Arsenal jersey, than again, his manager never gave him a real chance.
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