Internationals and lower leagues

Morning.

Welcome to what feels like a very Interlull Monday. Let’s start with what our players were up to yesterday.

Jurrien Timber: He played 62 minutes at centre-half in the Netherlands’ 4-0 win over Finland. They were 3-0 up at that point, and he was replaced by Brighton’s Jan Paul van Hecke. That concludes his Interlull with 152 minutes under his belt.

Christian Norgaard: He started for Denmark and also finished for Denmark, playing the full game in their 3-1 win over Greece. He hasn’t played a lot for us thus far this season, but I think we’ll see him a bit in the next batch of games before the final Interlull of 2025. Hopefully this is useful playing time for him. Total minutes 116.

And that’s it for last night. Scrolling through the fixtures from yesterday, I saw Faroe Islands beat the Czech Republic 2-1. ‘Holy Puffins!’, as they say in Tórshavn! Fair play, that’s an incredible result. They beat Montenegro 4-0 the other day too, and they’re in third place in their group. They couldn’t, could they?

The other fixture that caught my eye was from the Spanish second division, where Malaga beat Deportivo la Coruna 3-0. Former Gunner Charlie Patino came on as a second half sub for Depor, so I was curious to see how he’s getting on there. Last season he really struggled for game time, starting just once and making only eight appearances in all competitions across the campaign. This time around, he’s more involved, with nine appearances so far, but still only two starts.

At 21, he’s got time on his side, but it’s interesting to see how the trajectory of a player can veer wildly from what people expect. I remember when Arsenal were struggling under Mikel Arteta, and as can often be the case, an Academy player becomes whatever the opposite of a lightning rod is. A thunder stick? I dunno. Anyway, the idea is that because the first team is doing so badly, the solution lies within, and a young player can re-energise some of these tired old slobs in the first team.

Patino’s name was certainly bandied about more than once in that context, and Arteta’s reluctance to use him became part of the wider criticism. He was a name people knew, and there’s no question he was well thought of at youth level, having signed from Luton with a burgeoning reputation. What we can see though is that the step from that level to first team is massive, and the difficult of making it is often underestimated. It’s why we need to acknowledge how incredible it has been to see Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri do it at 17, and how it’s genuinely remarkable that Max Dowman has done it, to some extent, at 15.

Arsenal gave Patino a different pathway, with loans at Swansea and Blackpool, but then when you return to try and make your breakthrough you have players like Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Jorginho ahead of you. The fact he’s plying his trade in the Spanish segunda is illustrative of how player development is never the same, it’s not always linear, and that there is often a tendency among fans to imbue young players with a level of talent/readiness that isn’t shared by managers and coaches. Miguel Azeez is another great example of this, he’s now playing for Morecambe in the National League (the fifth tier of English football).

Speaking of Luton, by the way, it seems that Jack Wilshere has been lined up to take charge of the Hatters after they sacked their previous boss. They’re currently 11th in League One, having suffered back to back relegation having been in the Premier League a couple of seasons ago. Wilshere was linked with a move back to Arsenal earlier this year, but couldn’t come to an agreement with regards the structure of that particular set-up, so it’ll be interesting to see how he gets on with the trials and tribulations of lower league football, but with the expectation that comes with achieving results every week. Good luck to him!

Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. We recorded an Interlull Arsecast Extra for you which you can find below, so happy listening. Till tomorrow.

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