Leaving Arsenal: whatever happened to Mark Randall?

[psychoangus]

Fran Merida and Nacer Barazite were two that I thought would be 1st teamers.

Remember that game against Liverpool with Merida? He was awesome all match and his goal was also superb. I think that was one of his last matches too.

And whenever Barazite came on he looked really decent to me, albeit in the Carling Cup.

Oh well.

[TheCook]

There was a young English striker we had in the late 90s / early 00s,always knocking around the squad and sometimes on the bench.

He has now sunk without trace, but he did come on in a league match at Leicester when we were 3-0 up, and he scored near the end, but was incorrectly given offside, and was never heard from again - As mentioned elsewhere, luck like that can play a big part in young careers.

Now what was his name.....??

Got it : Graham Barrett

[SPUDMASHER]

Barrett retired from football in 2010 whilst playing for Shamrock Rovers.
He had an injury fraught career and I think he didn't even make it to 30 years old before calling it a day.

No idea what he is doing now though.

[QuartzGooner]

Barrett is Irish.

I thought the Danish player Sebastian Svard would be a good defensive midfielder for us but he left after just three games, seems he is currently clubless after a month at Wycombe after a lot of moves between various Scandanavian clubs and a longer spell at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Jo Kuffour is also at Wycombe, played a game for us but I cannot rememebr much about him.

I rated the left back Juan.
Couple of good games for us in 2001 then picked up a knee injury and left the club.

[Red Gunner]

I thought the Danish player Sebastian Svard would be a good defensive midfielder for us but he left after just three games, seems he is currently clubless after a month at Wycombe after a lot of moves between various Scandanavian clubs and a longer spell at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Speaking of Borussia, what about the centre-back Nordtveit? I had high hopes for him. He was our captain in the reserves but never really got a chance in the first team. He has been a regular in Borussia for a couple of seasons now.

[QuartzGooner]

I thought the Danish player Sebastian Svard would be a good defensive midfielder for us but he left after just three games, seems he is currently clubless after a month at Wycombe after a lot of moves between various Scandanavian clubs and a longer spell at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Speaking of Borussia, what about the centre-back Nordtveit? I had high hopes for him. He was our captain in the reserves but never really got a chance in the first team. He has been a regular in Borussia for a couple of seasons now.

He was touted as a future captain, what happened?

There are players who get sidetracked by drink, drugs and criminality as DB10Gooner has mentioned, and then there are those who gets serious injuries such as Selley and Garry, but players such as Nordveit and Svard as far as I know of do not remotely fall into those categories.

It is interesting that most of the players we let go in their late teens or early 20's do make careers for themselves in football, but seldom have consistent top flight careers as players.
The club feels there is "something missing", and they are usually correct.

(Andrew Cole was an exception, but there were reasons he was let go beyond what can be said on the Forum.)
Steve Sidwell was another who went on to be a success, at the time he was just behind a long list of established midfielders and had little chance of first team action.
Vito Mannone might also be one that bucks the trend?

Anelka cannot be included as he was sold for a lot of money rather than let go or transferred for a small fee, he can be said to have been successful with Arsenal.

[hugh jardon]

There was a young English striker we had in the late 90s / early 00s,always knocking around the squad and sometimes on the bench.

He has now sunk without trace, but he did come on in a league match at Leicester when we were 3-0 up, and he scored near the end, but was incorrectly given offside, and was never heard from again - As mentioned elsewhere, luck like that can play a big part in young careers.

Now what was his name.....??

Paul Shaw?

[g88ner]

I know that compared to many of the others named here he got a better run, but Stephen hughes was a player that I always thought was going to be a good player for us. He had a sweet left foot, loads of technical ability and seemed to have a good footballing brain but he was unfortunate to be breaking into the side at a time when the manager was trying to topload it with French players

Hmm... that seems an odd interpretation to me.

You make it sound like he was good enough, but was needlessly blocked for no other reason than not being French.

I'd say rather than "French players" being the problem, Hughes was unfortunate to be breaking through at a time when Arsenal were on the brink of embarking on the most successful period of the clubs post-war history. Perhaps a few years earlier, when we had players like Hillier and Jensen, he would have broken through easier than having Petit, Vieira, Platt, Parlour, etc. in his way.

In any case, although I liked the lad, his career disappeared from sight once he left us. Injuries may have had an impact, but he became a decent championship level player rather than "one that got away" whereas we went on to win trophies galore on the back of a midfield partnership (Petit/Vieira) that may well stand as the greatest in our history.

So, on balance, I won't blame Wenger for this one. He may have got it spot on.

But, I do see where you're coming from. I liked Hughes and he had a handy knack for scoring goals from midfield which is always nice! - was sad he never really broke into the side, and surprised his career was such a let down, but it's more a disappointment for him than Arsenal as we went from strength to strength as he slipped into the footballing abyss.

[augie]

In fairness g88ner, hughes was better than an aging remi garde and the headless (cult figure) that was grimandi so while it was totally acceptable to be behind PV4 and Petit in the pecking order, there was no logical reason why he was behind the other two except for the fact that they were former wenker players in france

Re graham barrett, I remember going to a gaa game in croke park many moons ago and we got a taxi from the train station and the driver told us that there was a great young striker at Arsenal who was going to be a star and it was barrett he was talking about. He said at the time that manure had tried to sign him and offered a serious financial package but that he turned them down to join us so he reckoned that we must have offered a fortune to him and his family. As best I recall, he had a great footballing brain and was skillful enough but lacked real pace which you need when you step up from youth level.

[REB]

There was a young English striker we had in the late 90s / early 00s,always knocking around the squad and sometimes on the bench.

He has now sunk without trace, but he did come on in a league match at Leicester when we were 3-0 up, and he scored near the end, but was incorrectly given offside, and was never heard from again - As mentioned elsewhere, luck like that can play a big part in young careers.

Now what was his name.....??

Got it : Graham Barrett

playing league of Ireland with Drogheda utd. saw him 2-3 years ago and he was still a great player but a bit overweight.

paul shaw had a good career with Gillingham I seem to remember and one player I thought would be a big star was Lansbury who I guess is having a good career at forest which isn't bad.

[g88ner]

In fairness g88ner, hughes was better than an aging remi garde and the headless (cult figure) that was grimandi so while it was totally acceptable to be behind PV4 and Petit in the pecking order, there was no logical reason why he was behind the other two except for the fact that they were former wenker players in france

Hmm.... I don't think that's fair.

There is logic in playing Grimandi ahead of Hughes. Griimandi often made the bench because of his versatility as he could offer cover at centre back and holding midfield.

Also, Grimandi was used to shield the defence whereas Hughes was far more offensive minded so maybe Wenger felt Vieira/Petit alongside Grimandi was a better balance than playing Hughes.

And again, considering the footbaling abyss Hughes fell into having left Arsenal and the huge success we had at Arsenal, I'm not sure there's much call for criticiing Wenger over this decision. If Hughes had gone on and done a Andy Cole and made us regret selling him then ok... but instead, the highlight of his post-Arsenal career was captaining Coventry City

As for Garde... I don't think he stood in Hughes' way that much. Due to injuries, he only managed a handful of appearances at the club over 3 years or so. He probably played a number of those at right back as well. Again, he was used because of his versatility.

[DB10GOONER]

Can you fuckers be careful what you write about The Grimster please. Remember how he "prevented" the possible vermin curse that little bastard Davids tried to put on the new stadium. Show some respect!