Gooner be a great one for the future

While covering some of Cardiff’s games this season I was fortunate enough to see one of the future Arsenal stars in Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.

Emmanuel-Thomas is a 20 year old striker who was employed by Cardiff manager Dave Jones as a winger and the lad repaid him with two goals in seven starts.

Jones – who lost his job with the Bluebirds yesterday following a six year stint – certainly proved his eye for a player with 6’3” Emmanuel-Thomas who has a great touch for a big man and might save Arsene Wenge a few quid in the transfer market next season. I suspect that he won’t be a regular starter for the Gunners, but on the evidence I have seen, he is more than capable of being part of the back-up squad and making cameo appearances from the bench o in cup ties.

Emmanuel-Thomas has already had other loan spells at Blackpool (where he nodded one in on his full debut against Watford) and Doncaster. He went on to make twelve appearances in the 2009/10 season without adding to his tally for Ian Holloway’s side, but then completed the season at Donny and netted five more times in fourteen games.

Aside from his eye-catching first touch, he also possess the high degree of skill you’d expect from a kid coming out of Arsenal’s set up, but h has a good temperament as well. In the games I saw he took a couple of heavy challenges and shrugged them off – preferring to try and punish the opposition with the ball instead.

Off the pitch I only spoke to him once (initially to find out where Jay Bothroyd was!) and he came across as quite a shy lad. Then again, he may have just been wary of a reporter he didn’t know. Either way, he was pleasant enough.

I’d be interested to hear from any comments regular Arsenal watchers. How do you feel has he progressed over the years? A star in the making or did I sup one pre-match beer too many?