Sounds like he was brilliant for the U23s today. His development may be a bit of a slow burn because he’s a bit of a late bloomer physically and seems a bit timid in his appearances so far with the first team, but I’m really anxious to see how his career unfolds. His close control is amazing. He and Reiss Nelson have the talent to make it here, and have got to be the best two english prospects we’ve had since Wilshere.
Lot of talent in general in that U23 team tbh–partly due to the club oddly seeming to say fuck it to loans for players like Zelalem and AMN–but I think you’d have to say Nelson, Willock, and Bielik are as interesting a trio as we’ve had since Bellerín, Gnabry, and Akpom. Except now there’s also Jeff, Zelalem, and then Malen and Coyle in earlier stages of development.
Interesting also that Ben Sheaf has been converted to a centre back, surely a good ball playing one considering his quality on the ball, and the results seem to be very good so far.
I’ve not followed him closely, as in kept up with his progress, game-by-game but always hear positive rumblings from Jeorge Bird. We seem to have a great crop at the moment, I’m just a little apprehensive of how to blood them into the squad. I feel like Wenger has to justify, and rightly so, the money he has spent on young talent like Walcott, Ramsey, Ox, Calum, Welbeck and Rob, thereby giving them plenty of time. There comes a time when you have to ponder how far these players have developed in that given time and whether you cut them free or keep them on. Especially when you have some of your most exciting prospects waiting on the fringe of youth level football.
Really keen on seeing how Malen’s career with us pans out too. He looks serious.
Worth a look at the highlights from the weekend, Willock scores a golazo on the 4th after a nice assist and penalty won on the 1st and 2nd, and Zelalem’s pass on the 3rd is
Anyways, re: Willock, obviously not as clear and grave an error as Gnabry, as his career could go any way really, all I can say is his close control is really cool…hopefully he carves out a nice career for himself but not quite nice enough for us to regret it.
I dunno, I suppose there’s more than one way to look at it. I kind of respect him for being willing to move to an entirely new country at such a young age because he thinks it’s the best thing for his career. He certainly isn’t doing it for the money.
Joe Willock the youngest of the Willock’s turning out to be the best of the lot. I did not foresee that development.
Good luck to Joe at West Brom. Probably would have got better opportunities if he stayed at Arsenal but hopefully the experience abroad served him well.
