Mike Biereth

[Stoneleigh Loyalist]

Not quite another one that got away because last season he had made his mind up that he wanted to join Arsenal regardless of any offers we may have made.
Now still in his teens this Danish lad is on the verge of their first team and ended the season training with the squad.
On paper he is their third choice striker.
Was it the confidence that Arsenal gave him that he would be given a chance and if so what must many of our other young prospects think of the Fulham system?
Stansfield must be a very patient young lad!

[MickTheBeard]

I watched biereth a lot and thought he was the best of the bunch at playing as a striker,can play all a cross the front three, left ,middle or right.Where as stanfield plays deep more an inside forward and Bowie drifts to the left.In my opinion biereth was the best option,stanfield is mainly played as a no10 at the moment and Bowie is struggling to get a regular slot in the 23s he has been inconsistent in and out the side performance or injury's not mentioned.Ithink when biereth left he scored 26 goals that season.He is captain of arsenals 23s scored around 15 goals this season we did not seem to make a big push to keep him perhaps he did not want to stay,I'm wondering is their a problem in the academy,we know a route to the 1st team is hard,mainly because we are fighting to go up and fighting to stay there it's hard for a young player to learn his trade in the 1st team sort of playing with 10 men to he adjusts.I also think while we have so many of Tony's flops still about youngsters don't get on the bench and to me that is one of the big problems which look likes it's being addressed at the moment,which is long overdue.

[Surlyc]

With the increase in subs, I'd be very disappointed if there weren't two young players on the bench for most of next season. The likes of Harris, Stansfield, Hilton & Larkeche all deserve to see some minutes. I'd much rather see Harris or Stansfield get game time than a lower quality loanee like Quina or Maja.

With regards to Biereth, time will tell. Plenty of youngsters are accelerated to the Arsenal squad just to end up dropping down the league(s) after a few seasons.