Arsenal make a signing but it is yet another player for the future

One for the future

Whilst news broke of Manchester United bringing in Phil Jones and opening talks with Ashley Young, Liverpool bringing in Jordan Henderson and Chelsea entering the race to sign Wesley Sneider, Arsenal fans turned on their televisions or opened their newspapers to find that they had signed…Carl Jenkinson from League two Charlton.

Judging

I am in no way judging the talents or otherwise of the nineteen year old Finland under twenty-one international defender, but I do feel it kind of sums Arsenal up. I hope Jenkinson turns out to be a great player and a fantastic piece of business, but the purchase can’t have had too many Arsenal fans jumping around and starting to believe that next season might just the one!

Jenkinson was born in England to a Finnish mother and has represented both countries at youth level. He can play full back or centre back and earlier this year captained the Finland under nineteen team. The young man, who comes from an Arsenal supporting family must be wondering how this has all happened.

Highly

His manager at Charlton, Chris Powell, speaks highly of him,

“I want to put on record how much I admire Carl as a player and, more importantly, as a young man. I wish him well on behalf of all the staff and players because it’s a dream move for him. If he grows into the right-back we all feel he could be, we could be talking about a player playing at the highest level for a long time.”

It is clear that Arsene Wenger, or at least one of his scouts, has seen enough of Jenkinson to believe he has what it takes. That belief hasn’t been fostered in competitive football however, as Jenkinson didn’t make his first team debut until December last year and has only appeared in eight games. His other first team experience came at non-league Eastbourne Borough, where he made four appearances. Add to that just one appearance for the Finland under twenty-ones and you have a very short career indeed.

Excited

Jenkinson is clearly very excited about the move and who can blame him.

“I hope supporters will understand why I can’t turn down such an opportunity, but Charlton will always have a place in my heart. I will always be in Charlton’s debt for the training they have given me since a young age. I’m grateful to the club’s academy and all the coaching staff, so I’m delighted the two clubs have come to an agreement.”

Problem

I have no problem with Arsenal buying players for the future, and that is surely the category that Jenkinson comes in to, but doesn’t Wenger always go on about how brilliant his current youngsters are? I thought they had a whole reserve team of young international talent just waiting to make the step up. I thought the reason that the first team isn’t winning anything is because they are too young.

Wouldn’t Wenger be better off buying experience rather than more young, promising, untested youngsters?