Wenger monitoring young Israeli.

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Arsenal are “keeping tabs on” 18-year-old Barcelona winger Gai Assulin, which seems as good a place as any to keep tabs, but only if they’re properly secured with Velcro. (Guardian)

Obviously the fear of dealing with Barcelona on any front will once again get the Catalan giants trying to unsettle Cesc Fabregas for the 147th time this year but It wouldn’t surprise me if Arsene Wenger was indeed taking a close look at Israeli teenager Gai Assulin. The £8m rated 18 year old has been a hot prospect for a year or two now, coming through the ranks at the Camp Nou and managed to get his first senior appearance under his belt just a couple of weeks ago.

Pepe Guardiola is beginning to put more of an emphasis on youth in his first team squad and has pushed on with talented youngsters like Pedro, Sergio Busquets and Bojan and has done so at the expense of more experienced top notch internationals and that’s a brave move that might just pay off especially when you consider the La Liga club are in a little financial difficulty at present and are therefore looking to their academy players to succeed.

With this in mind Gai Assulin probably has to consider the merits of the two very teams who are most trusting to youth and may then make a decision accordingly, that is of course, if this speculation is indeed accurate. He may well look at the example of a player like Giovani who chose to leave Barcelona for Tottenham only to find it very hard to get a regular spot in the starting eleven at White Hart Lane and that was when the Mexican had already performed wonderfully well with Barca and even had a top level hat-trick to his name.

I imagine any move for Assulin would be sooner rather than later so that he could achieve his three years service at the Emirates prior to turning 22, the new ‘homegrown’ regulations may make teams look for younger players in the continental leagues so as to be able to see them count under these guidelines. I think this particular rumour has some merit and is well worth keeping an eye on.


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