Beware of too much hype too soon surrounding Gideon Zelalem

The hype that surrounded highly touted prospects in football these days is perhaps getting just a little out of hand.  Granted, it is only natural for a club’s supporters to get excited when they catch wing of exciting talent coming through the pipeline, but if history has proven anything to supporters in big clubs of the Premier League, it’s that you can be a wunderkind one minute, and a flop the next.

Arsenal, a club that proudly models itself on “doing things the right way” has for years tried to produce talent through it’s youth system, but with mixed results.  The current crop of young players, with Dan Crowley perhaps chief amongst them, has many inside the club buzzing.  But the player being hyped the most at present, is without a doubt 17-year old Gideon Zelalem.

Zelalem has been fast tracked at the club with the first team in mind ever since he joined after going on trial last season.  Born in Berlin to Ethiopian immigrants, the young midfielder began playing for BFC Germania 1888 before moving to Hertha Berlin’s youth system.  In 2006, his family moved to Maryland, and it was there that Arsenal scout Daniel Karbassiyoon spotted him during the Dallas Cup for his club side Olney Rangers.  So impressed with what he saw, Karbassiyoon contacted Zelalem’s coaches, and arranged for the player to go to London on a summer trial with Arsenal’s youth system; Zelalem signed with the club at the completion of his trial.

He’s been capped at youth level for Germany at U-15, U-16 and U-17 levels, and such has been the rapid growth he has shown, that many at the club have already hailed him the next Cesc Fabregas; there lies the problem.

"“Gideon has got all the passing attributes and the same sort of qualities that Cesc has.  It’s a very good compliment because Cesc is such a good player.  He has got a lot of growing to do because he’s still a young lad and we’ll see how he develops – but at a club like Arsenal I’m sure he can develop in the right way, especially under a boss like Arsene Wenger.  In the squad that we’ve got here there’s always a lot of time for youngsters and they’re allowed to make mistakes and learn from them – and the boys are there to help him along that journey, so I’m sure he’s going to do really well” – Alex Oxlade Chamberlain"

It is true, that, at least on the surface, Arsenal is the place to be and Arsene Wenger is the right boss you’d want a player like Zelalem to be involved with.  If you look at the way Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain have been handled, it’s surely pointing to positive signs.  But do not be fooled just yet; there’s always the possibility of falling through the cracks.

There is no doubt that Zelalem will benefit from being taken under the wings of the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain – two young players who successfully made it through the clubs system to become integral for the first-team.

Wenger himself has nothing but fantastic things to say about the player, even going as far to say that he did not bring Cesc Fabregas back to the club because everyone should remember that Gideon Zelalem is at Arsenal.  For all this hype, surely there must be substance behind it, but if you’re an Arsenal supporter, you’d do well to remember that there is always a young player with much hype surrounding him at the club, and not all of them end up becoming noteworthy.

Despite the success on grooming Walcott, Ramsey, Wilshere, Gibbs and Chamberlain to become integral parts of the first-team fabric at the Emirates, the likes of David Bentley, Justin Hoyte, Sebastian Larsson, and now in the very recent in the likes of Ryo Miyaichi, Thomas Eisfeld and Serge Gnabry have all had high expectations placed on them, but have failed to make the grade at the club for one of two reasons; Wenger not putting enough faith in them, or the clubs spending habits at their position made them expendable.

Truly, as many youngsters that have come through the club to prominence, just as many have failed to cut it at the final hurdle; so what does that mean for young Gideon?

If anything, the task facing Zelalem is even harder than those that cane before him, whether they successfully made it through the system or not.  Given Arsenal’s financial prominence now that their finances are well and truly in tip top shape, the club seemingly is more willing to spend on top talent rather than rely on the youth system and smaller purchases.

Already, Gnabry and Miyaichi have fallen through the cracks; Miyaichi has truly been on the outs for the past year or two, but Gnabry had a ton of hope surrounding him last season which has now all but dried up.  Eisfeld, in similar fashion, was once hailed as a potential first-team hopeful, but with the back to back purchases of Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil, Eisfeld had no chance at the club and left accordingly.

With the Gunners still in the market for a holding midfielder, and the prominent roles at the club that surround both Ramsey and Wilshere, where does Zelalem fit in? Truly, if he is the next Fabregas, that means he’s on course to replace one of those two, but the odds of Wenger displacing either player is slim at best.

If not brought straight into first-team duties, Zelalem could well do what Joel Campbell did to great success; spend a few years on loan around Europe, learn his trade playing first-team minutes elsewhere, then return to the club to fight for his place once he matured both on and off the pitch.

Whether or not the American/German/Ethiopian youngster will come straight into routine first-team duty, or if he will be loaned out for a few seasons (as Wilshere was, to very good effect) before he is expected to contribute remains to be seen.

The question that people must not forget to consider however, is with the increased financial power that manifests itself at the club, if players like Zelalem will truly get their chance, or if they will just be trained up and then sold for a healthy profit; if you want a prime example of what could be on the horizon, you only have to look at Real Madrid and their switch from development to purchasing.

Gideon Zelalem is no doubt a very talented young player, but with the ever evolving nature of the game, especially due to the prominent role that money now plays and has imbedded itself in the very fabric of football, there is no telling what will happen to a young footballer these days – truly, hype itself has become overrated.