19 year old Norwegian winger on a free, having impressed on trial before lockdown.
Looks like he'll go straight into the under-23's, rather than into the first team. Clearly a punt more in the league of Cohen Bramall than Yaya Sanogo (who was a huge youth talent whose development was stalled by injuries). Nonetheless, it's worth considering that Kolo and Yaya Toure are previous trialists with us, and sometimes a player does come out of nowhere.
There's extremely scarce video footage of him online, but what there is shows some interesting ingredients. Playing against nobodies or not, this kid is lightning, and his close control is excellent. He looks to progress with his first touch, and seems to prefer direct running angles. Capable of beating a player at his previous level, he is capable of improvisation at speed.
Question will obviously abound regarding his ceiling, whether his game is mature enough and if he can get ahead of the likes of Pepe, Saka, Nelson and possibly Martinelli. He'll have to see off competition from Trae Coyle in the youth system, though his path was cleared somewhat by Ameachi's recent departure.
I'm a big fan of these kind of punts. Particarly in the context of Coronavirus, we need to get more than our money's worth and football is littered with success stories of this nature.
Another Norwegian, Ismet Lushaku, was also due to trial with us, but Arteta contracted Corona 3 days before he was due to arrive. Hopefully he will get his chance soon.
New signing! George Lewis
posted on 9/5/20
Good strong Viking name that.
Strange signing on paper, turns 20 next month so will never fall into the homegrown category of player.
Lushaku is actually a Swedish born Kosovan international. Same age as Lewis, so also a weird signing given neither has a lot of first team football in Norway and Sweden respectively.
posted on 9/5/20
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 1 minute ago
Good strong Viking name that.
Strange signing on paper, turns 20 next month so will never fall into the homegrown category of player.
Lushaku is actually a Swedish born Kosovan international. Same age as Lewis, so also a weird signing given neither has a lot of first team football in Norway and Sweden respectively.
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Could be partly motivated by a desire to fill gaps in the U23 squad. So many talents have been promoted, sent out on loan or have left recently.
posted on 9/5/20
Also there is soon to be a strict restriction in foreign youngsters English clubs can bring in, so perhaps we are trying to stock up (although these aren't exactly youngsters in those terms.)
posted on 9/5/20
There's definitely an element of that. We're not the only club to be paying more attention to that department.
From the little I've seen of him, I can see how he's earned a chance at Arsenal. I tend to put a lot of stock in the way players use their first touch. I like how often he beats a player with it. Seems able to weight his touches to give himself space to run into without overhitting it. Players like that are excellent in transitions.