Official: Arsenal sign Carl Jenkinson + Afobe, Aneke and Ozyakup sign new contracts

Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce that promising defender Carl Jenkinson, 19, has arrived from League One side Charlton Athletic. His signing was confirmed as young Gunners Benik Afobe, Chuks Aneke and Oguzhan Ozyakup also pledged their futures to the Club.

Jenkinson joins Arsenal having featured nine times for Charlton Athletic’s first team. Predominantly a right-back, the 6’1” youngster can also play in the centre of defence. Although born in England, Jenkinson qualifies to represent both England and Finland through his mother. The defender has already represented both countries at youth level, and last season captained Finland Under-19s.

Afobe, a forward and England Youth International, joined the Club aged just eight and has risen through the ranks to play Under-18 and Reserve team football, signing professional terms in February 2010. The Leyton-born youngster returned from his loan spell at Huddersfield Town a firm favourite with the Terriers’ faithful, having scored eight times in 36 appearances. This helped Lee Clark’s team to a 25 game unbeaten run, culminating in reaching the League One play-off final.

Newham-born midfielder Aneke is another player to have come through the Club’s Hale End Academy, which he joined aged seven, to cement a place in Neil Banfield’s Reserves setup. Last term the England Under-18 International scored six goals in 17 games to help the second string to the runners-up spot in the FA Premier Reserve League South. Chuks signed professional terms in July 2010.

Midfielder Ozyakup has enjoyed a promising start to his fledgling Arsenal career, since arriving from Dutch side AZ Alkmaar two seasons ago. The Netherlands Youth International joined forces with Aneke and Afobe to help Steve Bould’s Under-18s to a Premier Academy League title in 2010 and has proven himself to be a key player in the Reserves, with 22 appearances to his name so far.

Everyone at Arsenal would like to welcome Carl to the Club and look forward to the continued progression of all four players in the years to come.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/reserves-news/carl-jenkinson-joins-arsenal

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We all knew the deal was practically done but now Arsenal have offically confirmed it. Youth signings aren't what anyone want to see but it is still early June.

good to see the promising youth are staying....

btw how early do you guys think Carl will make it into the first team bench/squad

he will be long term replacement for sagna-right?
think he needs loan spell and then will be back he can start in FA& CC matches
welcome to arsenal

he needs to go to a LC team for atleast half a season....and then come back and play some CC or FA games

lost interest in these guys, I don't see any of em making the cut, maybe just maybe afobe but he has to be able to get into a PL team by next year

On the contrary bloodless, these players will be seen a lot more if we end up facing a mass exodus after another trophyless season next summer, if at all things go that far.. Lets hope not..

Good to see a RB being signed, I have been wondering for a while now, who after Eboue and Sagna.. Sagna is the only listed RB in our first team, while Eboue is listed as a midfielder (on the official Arsenal.com site).. So another RB is a good addition..

What we really need, and soon, is to bolster our team for next season, instead of our squad in the long term,

long term signing again

Regardless of the clubs current position trophy wise, long term signigns are always going to be made. We haven't got a young, promising right back so hopefully Jenkinson can fulfill that role.

Remeber that it is still early days in the off season.

This is good in a way.. We didn't have a back up RB..

We are all looking for big name signings but let us not forget that we should not neglect the youth in the process.. We have built an excellent model and need to keep it going by signing good youth prospects as well..

However, we shouldn't limit ourselves to just kids and also look to strengthen where necessary with WC players.. Which we have been promised this summer..

yeaaaa first signing!!!

hopefully he does well at the Club, dont see him starting more then 15 games in the next season. Unless Eboue leaves which i dont want

The best thing about him is that hes a boyhood Arsenal fan and his family all supports Arsenal

Has anyone any video on Ozyakup? i have never seen him play.

RealGunner wrote:yeaaaa first signing!!!

hopefully he does well at the Club, dont see him starting more then 15 games in the next season. Unless Eboue leaves which i dont want

The best thing about him is that hes a boyhood Arsenal fan and his family all supports Arsenal

I smell loyalty, and a load of it. Yippeee!! God knows we need that!!

djoe26 wrote:Has anyone any video on Ozyakup? i have never seen him play.

dead ball expert, alarmingly similiar to cesc but much more stronger

dare i say the next riquelme lol ?

I see some good set-pieces in that..

Seems to be a good reader of the game and passer of the ball as well...

damn i wouldnt mind him being promoted to first team for cc & fa games.. seems like a brilliant player

RealGunner wrote:



dead ball expert, alarmingly similiar to cesc but much more stronger

dare i say the next riquelme lol ?

wow this guy knows how to pass.. lets hope he plays well in pre-season and convince wenger to give him chance.

he's english! wenger has changed...

If that also means "Wenger has changed" as in he's going to bring in some WC player, then yay!

hahaha, i meant that he's not after every french player out there and that he's finally looking to bolster our squad with English 'loyal' players who wont go looking for Barcelona or Inter Milan.

but getting some WC players is justtt....imp..impos...impossib...impossible!

As long as he is doing that, Conor Wickham and/or Oxlade-Chamberlain please.. Even if they seem surplus to our requirements... I'm sure we can sell some other English chap to Kenny Dalglish then.. And make money out of it.. By the look of things, Kenny is happy paying 20+ mil for any english U-21!

nah, but you got to admit it, Henderson got game !!!

On videos everybody is nice! Of course it's always nice to see a young player coming up, but not what we need right now! Was he on loan this season?If Not how come Connor Henderson got picked over him?

Henderson got a first team game against Leyton Orient as a left sided attacker when we had quite a few injuries. I think Nasri, Rosicky and Arshavin were all injured at the time.

Ozyakup is purely a central player and with the emergence of Wilshere this year and Fabregas and Nasri occupying the central AM role mostly there was just no room for Ozyakup int he first eleven. It is a bit odd how he's not been sent on loan yet, but I'm sure his time will come.

Anyway, Jenkinson, though born in England, is likely going to play for Finland int he future unless he actually turns out to be really good. He's already represented Finland at youth level and it'll probably be easier for him to get into that team than the England one.

More youth signing great, when the real signing is coming.

Jenkinson did start off by representing England though, then he switched to Finland so I think the probabilities of him joining England, assuming he turns out to be a very good prospect, are not that low.

As for Ozyakup...lets not start overrating him based on nothing. We barely saw one video showing a couple of neat passes. I really doubt he's anywhere near the level that Fabregas was at when he was 16 even. He's a good player who might make it, but with Ramsey, Wilshere and Fabregas all ahead of him, I somehow doubt that.