Youngster Oguzhan Ozyakup has recently stated his desire for more first-team football at Arsenal, after making his debut in the Carling Cup third round against Shrewsbury Town a few weeks ago.
It was a debut to remember for the young Dutch midfielder, as he set up Yossi Benayoun for Arsenal’s third goal of the game which sent the Gunners through to the next round.
Ozyakup spoke of his delight at making his senior debut for the club, he said:
‘I worked for this for three years, I came here in 2008 and left everything back home.’
‘That is what I worked for and I was really pleased that I could make my debut because my parents were in the stadium as well so I was very happy.’
Apart from expressing his happiness over his first-team debut, the 19-year-old also said that he wants to make more appearances for the first-team in the near future.
‘You never know, you never know.’
‘They always say you have to be ready when you get that chance so if I get it I will be ready.’
‘We will see. In training you have to show the boss that you can do it and hopefully I will get a chance.’
While the enthusiasm of the young academy graduate is praise worthy, I feel that his chances of making more appearances in the first-team are very slim.
I am sure Wenger will give him another chance when we take on Bolton in the next round of the Carling Cup and more chances will only come if the draw is favourable to Arsenal in the minor domestic cups.
Arsenal are realistically out of the title race and the Carling and FA Cup present the best opportunities for Arsenal to end their six year trophy drought. So I am sure Wenger will send out teams that he feels will be good enough to beat our opponents. So basically there will be very little experimenting with youngsters in my opinion.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the youngsters shouldn’t stop trying. As Ozyakup himself said, you never know when your chances will come. He will have to keep working hard in training and learn from the experienced players in the squad.
Personally, I also feel that he should try to secure a loan deal next season, if he is doesn’t this term. This would help him to gain experience and regular first-team football, and will do wonders for his confidence.
He is certainly one of the most talented players in the Arsenal academy right now and it is also believed that Robin van Persie has been tutoring the youngster quite a lot already this season.
So Ozyakup is certainly one for the future, but for now he’ll have to be patient and ply his trade in the Carling Cup.
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who can he learn from in the first team? coz 4 me, they don’t teach the youngsters anything apart advising them on how to lose games that weren’t supposed to be lost. I stand to be corrected, we don’t have those guys who’ll tell the youngsters where to move, where to close down opponents and how to cover up spaces. Le Coq can’t learn nothing from Song but you guys don’t see that. I’ve been mentioning this over and over again that when you have a defensive midfielder who thinks he is the playmaker it is difficult for the team not to concede as this guy is no where when we have to defend. Rosicky, Arshavin, Chamakh the list is endless can neva teach these boys how to play good football coz it is something they are not used to for a long time.
Sorry, Gooner I’m just stating the facts. Let these youngsters be part of first team and they’ll learn their way but Wenger should put senior players that want to help these boys and the team going forward.
Well, you’ve probably got a valid point, but at least he can look up to RVP….