Arsenal - The other young Jack with a promising future ahead of him

While nobody ever wants to hype up a young player too much in the early stages of their development there can also be a propensity in this country for a players obvious talents to be ignored.

A star player however in the making should not have such an issue at his club where his high technical ability should endear him to the Arsenal hierarchy.

The player in question is Jack Jebb, and the first-name similarities are not where it ends with current first-teamer Jack Wilshere.

So here are a few stats on an English talent with the technical abilities we need to change our perception of how the game should be played in this country.

1. Jack Jebb joined the Arsenal academy a year early, similarly to Jack Wilshere and has testified to its effectiveness…

‘’Me and Chuba [Akpom] are almost a year ahead of the other boys in our own age group so that is obviously going to help us for the future.’’

2. Despite being just 16-years-old Jebb made significant strides last season, playing with the under-18s.

3. His development has not gone unnoticed as he signed his first professional contract with the club at the tail-end of last month.

4. A creative and talented technical prodigy he is also industrious, extremely fit and can cover much of the pitch with his hard working attitude.

5. He has also been compared to Paul Scholes and judging by his own assessment of his ability you can see why … “I try to be a creative central midfielder who likes going forward and having shots, while scoring is always nice I like to create opportunities for other players if I can.’’

6. He is also deadly from set-pieces as free-kicks against Leicester City and at international level for England against Northern Ireland last March.

7. An England youth international he has made five caps for the England under-17 side.

8. After receiving his first pro-contract he celebrated with a goal for the under-18s just three days later against West Ham United.

9. His Twitter page describes him as ‘working hard and always trying to improve’ which is necessary in such a competitive academy, but the reward of a pro-contract doesn’t come easily so there must be plans to see him feature eventually.

10. Arsenal fans believe in his promise along with that of Chuba Akpom, here are a few tweets about the talented 17-year-old.

Deano ‏@DeanAFC1989 Would quite like to see how Jack Jebb would do playing with Olsson, Gnabry, Akpom. Think it would bring the best out of him.

Melvin Kwok ‏@melvinkwok Liverpool youngsters have great potential? No, Arsenal has Jack Jebb, remember that name. 5 years time you see.

Brendan ‏@AFC_93 Good to see Jack Jebb in the U19's squad for the NextGen game tonight.

William Savage ‏@SavageGooner Jebb is promising, hoping he can kick on and establish himself this season. Akpom is a real talent, one to keep an eye on.

Rob ‏@r0bh0pkins he is so clinical! Had jack Jebb in our school the other day as our deputy head used to coach him #prospect

Certainly a name to look out for in the reserves, youth-team and NextGen fixtures this season….

images:  © Ronnie Macdonald

image: © Ronnie Macdonald