Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
A snippet of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas' ability on the ball can be found on YouTube (videos not found), but, unfortunately,the cameras were not on hand to capture his wonder-goal against Charlton last week.The 16 year-old beat the goalkeeper from around the halfway line to level the scores:
“It was better than Beckham’s,” he beams. “Their goalkeeper came out of his area to keep the ball in play so as to hit it long. James Dunne chased him down and the ‘keeper panicked and cleared the ball straight to me. I was inside our half on the left flank. I could see the ‘keeper was struggling to get back to his goal and so I touched the ball forward a yard or so into their half before taking a shot. The ball flew inch perfect into the goal. It was definitely better than Beckham’s.” The youngster also delivered a vital cross late on in the game to ensure the Gunners received a share of the points.
Jay is happy with his season so far: “It’s been good. We had a hard pre-season with a lot of running but I got used to training every day quite quickly,” he reports. “We were all a little bit sore for a few days but after that it was fine. Things have been made easier for me in terms of travelling because I am now in digs in Barnet. If I had stayed at home in Forest Gate, I would have to get up at 6.30 every morning to catch the 7.30 train to get in to training on time. Fortunately I can now use that extra time for recovery,” says the powerfully built 6 ft 2 inch scholar: “I really feel like I am going to have a good season.”
Jay has shown he is comfortable whether being played at left-back, centre-back, centre midfield or even on the wing: “I played left midfield in a training game with the first team at the end of last season and I think I did quite well. I feel I can adapt well to whatever position I am asked to play, which has been mainly left-back this season.”
When Jay trained with the first team he was still a schoolboy, but he was the only youth player to go up that day and so when he needed to pair up for certain drills, he was partnered with a great servant of Arsenal, who was also a product of the youth system, Ray Parlour: “Ray had come back to join the first team to do some extra training. He was in good spirits, but we didn’t really get a chance to talk because we were both concentrating so hard. In the game we played that day,” continues Jay. “I was on the left wing against Emmanuel Eboue. It was so good for me to sample the pace of the game. Even though it was a training match, it was played at a fast pace. Everyone was focused but relaxed. Emmanuel was quite funny,” he recalls, “and everyone made me feel very comfortable.”
Comfort was not an apt description of the games the youngsters experienced in Malaysia: “It was hot!”, exclaims Jay: “Over 37 degrees. We were playing and simply could not catch our breath. The air was so warm and it was so humid, when you breathed the air in you did not feel as you gained any benefit from it. The only time we had a chance to get some recovery was when someone was getting treatment. The lads from Flamengo and Milan were more used to playing in hot conditions and it showed. If I ever face such conditions again, at least I will now know what to expect and I’ll make sure that I take on plenty of water, before, during and after the game.” There was also added value to the experience: “We all stayed on an island off Malaysia in a big villa and it was fantastic. We were able to use the beach, go canoeing and we all had a good time together. It definitely helped with team spirit and got us looking forward to the new season.”
Jay’s targets for the new term are clear: “I played in the reserves five times last year and scored too. My target for this season is to feature in at least ten games, but hopefully up
to 15. I’m enjoying training and working hard and I hope that I can keep improving to play regularly for the Under-18s and Reserves.”