Young Arsenal defender Daniel Ballard has recently gone out on loan to League One Blackpool and we caught up with Sean McGinlay from utmp who gave us an insight into the young Northern Ireland international’s impact so far at Bloomfield Road.
Daniel Ballard is someone that has come to Blackpool with a lot of promise. At the age of 21, he didn’t have much first-team experience before this season having only made one start for Swindon Town, but is already a Northern Ireland international having captained the Gunners at youth level. That shows his pedigree as a top prospect and from his early spell at the seaside so far, he has all the makings of a real top talent.
For context, the Seasiders’ defence struggled quite significantly in the early part of this season and were desperate for a real commanding presence to organise the back four. We played a different defensive pairing in each of our first few games as we tried to find the best one, which resulted in very inconsistent performances and results for the team. Head Coach Neil Critchley, who managed Liverpool’s U21s before coming to Bloomfield Road back in February, was a keen admirer of Ballard having seen him through the various youth teams, and made clear that he was high on the club’s shopping list in the summer.
Ballard’s debut came in Blackpool’s 1-0 home defeat to Charlton. After our captain James Husband was sent off inside the first minute, it was a baptism of fire for the Northern Irish international who came on after just four minutes, but he took it all in his stride. Immediately, the Tangerines looked so much more assured at the back with him in the lineup and straight away you could see he was a step up from the quality on the pitch, not least with his ability to drive out with the ball.
Critchley has a clear long term philosophy he is wanting to implement at Bloomfield Road, and Ballard fits the role of the aggressive, confident, assured centre half both on and off the ball that Critchley requires. In that debut appearance against Charlton, Ballard made the most interceptions in the Blackpool side as well as the most clearances, showing his superiority against strong opposition. He was voted Man of the match, despite the night ending with an unfortunate 1-0 defeat.
Ballard has significant leadership qualities despite his young age and has showcased his ability to lead by example. In the previous games before Ballard came in, we’d leaked seven goals in our previous two games, but with him in the side we’ve turning the tide to make the back line a more compact and organised setup and only conceded once in his opening two games – following up the defeat to Charlton with a 1-0 win against MK Dons. Ballard again won man of the match with another assured display.
He made a frankly obscene nine clearances in the MK Dons fixture, miles ahead of any other player on the pitch. But what really summed up his all-rounded nature is his 76% pass success rate which was only better by one other player on the park. Not only is he confident in his ability to win a duel against an attacker, he’s also confident to take the ball from that duel, stride out of defence, and play a forward pass to spring a counter-attack. Now if that doesn’t fit the Arsenal mantra I don’t know what does.
His most recent game for the side came away at AFC Wimbledon. Again he proved his worth with and without the ball. His 10 aerial duel wins were way ahead of anyone else on the pitch and he also completed the most amount of passes on the pitch. He has this assured calmness about him that screams top level. Unfortunately, there was a sour note to this game, Blackpool losing 1-0 but Ballard also getting sent off. The red card was fairly bewildering and for an apparent elbow, and even having watched the replay countless times, it’s hard to see anything that happened – the club was even unable to appeal due to insignificant evidence. Since then, he has been serving a suspension, although he is back in contention for the club’s next vital game away at Peterborough United and surely likely to slot straight back into our back four,
Ballard will get his chance again and show us exactly why he is the best centre half at the club right now. We have seen that calm assurance from a previous centre half loanee in Taylor Moore who plays for Bristol City. He fits a similar mould, although I think Ballard is superior to him on the ball. Moore is destined for the Premier League within twelve months after adjusting to life in the Championship with ease. Ballard will ultimately follow that same trajectory.
His attributes culminate into exactly the kind of young centre half you want to see Britain producing. Despite his modern traits, he acclimatises to the more physical and demanding elements that lower league football can bring. The fact he can brush off those challenges with relative ease and come out looking assured is always a good sign when you are trying to develop a player into someone who could play at the highest level.
It is certainly early days for Ballard and he has been incredibly unfortunate in the sense that, had it not been for his serious injury last season, he would probably already find himself at a top-end Championship club. It’s vital that he finds that full season of game time to really build on the talent that is quite clearly there and I’m sure he will be hopeful that Blackpool will provide that for him.
At 21 years old he is already at an age where he should be looking to cement a top division starting place by the age of 23 if he really wants to see himself in that Arsenal first team. I think, barring any major injury or severe lack of game time, he’ll naturally find himself on that progression path. As is the case with many really talented loanee that come to League One, their next season tends to be spent at a top-half Championship club, before they make the step to a West Brom or a Fulham, impress there and that’s when they see their chance come at their parent club.
Daniel Ballard can absolutely make it at Arsenal and I think Arteta is someone that will appreciate what he has to offer. We will make the most of him here at Blackpool and he fits exactly what the manager is trying to achieve with the squad. He just has to hope a bit of luck comes his way because his development has no doubt been affected by his injury.
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Boom
Masters is tightening up…
DJ’s lead cut to one,…now back up to two
Good luck to the kid but there’s no way in hell he’s breaking into Arsenal’s first team if he’s playing for Blackpool at the age of 21 already.
Whoops….should have logged in earlier. Good to get a report about one of our youngsters.
First team.
So refreshing to read, I just hope he can stay injury free and maybe Arteta would fancy him.
Upstate-If he was a midfielder or an attacking player I would agree, however at 21 a CB is still relatively young. Like the article mentioned, he’s got about a 2-3 year window where he either is going to make it with us or not. Time will tell. Hopefully we can sell him for a nice fee though if he doesn’t make it with us.
First team
Wow! Tiger takes a 10! on a par 3. Doh!
My advice to the CB Ballard, keep off the guiness
Mark
Saliba who’s younger and for whom we paid some serious cash can’t break into the team. That’s why I think this kid has no chance. If he was out on loan at a PL or even a Championship club, I’d say maybe but I really don’t think it’s gonna happen for him at Arsenal.
RIP Ray Clemence, a great player and by all accounts a decent human being too.
I like Ballard too. Hope he develops over the next 24 months.
It’s a sad state of affairs when folk are writing off 21 year old central defenders.
VVD was playing for Dutch gaints Groningen until he signed for Celtic at the age of 22. Then Southampton at 24. Give Ballard some breathing room.
Jamie, agree. Chances of making it as a top-level centre-back are low in general… but writing players off at 21 shows how many people don’t understand what it takes physically to be a top-level center-back. The writer even notes, at the level of Blackpool, centre-backs don’t hold down places until they are 23.
To add to the VVD thing, he was being written off at 18 as not good enough at all.
For every VVD there are thousands of failures
Good to see a youngster doing well on loan. IMO U23 football doesn’t really prepare players for senior football, good luck to the lad.
Pedro
Ian Wright didn’t even turn pro till he was 23 – writing off a 21 year old is a nonsense.
Good luck to all our loanees, it seems so few of them make it to first team level.
Pedro, could you please transfer my comment to ‘Graham 62’ from your last post to this one so that he and others can offer their thoughts.
Writing any 21 year old off with a certain level of ability is a bit of a con. Takes a marriage of a good club/environment and a level of application and you can explode as a footballer.
Why I’m always so bemused at how pitiful our academy asserts itself in terms of letting youth players go with little to no legal recourse sewn in.
Ballard this, Ballard that… people can’t even be honest with themselves on a fucking blog. Who actually believes that this kid will be playing for Arsenal’s starting XI in the next two years? No one. So stop with ” can’t believe some are writing him off at 21″ bull crap. As Sid rightly pointed out that for one VVD success story there are thousands if not millions of those we don’t hear about.
Can someone please remind me who the last homegrown CB from Arsenal academy was?
… that actually turned out any decent and made some senior appearances
We even bought Holding, ffs
I don’t know if this Ballard kid is gonna be any good or not.. never seen him play…. Hope he is..
But what I do know.. is never ever, ever sign a blank piece of paper. Y’all can thank me later for this advice.
We’re certainly due one.
Signing any player in a struggling team will almost certainly slow his development.
I’m surprised the board are not demanding the manager gets the best out of Pepe after forking out £72m for him
Marc
“ I don’t understand some posters who seem to have this memory of Wenger’s latter years being some feats of amazing football that fell just short of glory.
We’d been on the slide for a long time.”
Yeah. It’s just that now we are off the slide and wallowing in the sandpit.
Cc
It should be standard practice for us that all youth players sold have a sell on clause inserted.
Also I couldn’t figure out what ManU were doing in the summer with Pogba – he was down to a year left and yet no effort to sell him. Turns out they had the option (their choice not his) to extend by a year – this is something we should look at as well.
Wengaball
Haven’t you heard that’s not sand it’s sauce.
Just remind me never to take a recommendation from Pedro on a restaurant.
Pedro –
“To add to the VVD thing, he was being written off at 18 as not good enough at all.”
Bet there were loads desperate to be the first to announce he’d never make it. Elite foresight.
Jamie talking football …now there’s a first.
Ballard is much too clean cut , his nose is perfectly in place and looks to have a full set of teeth…..obviously doesn’t put his head in where it hurts ….has no chance of making it.
“, he’s also confident to take the ball from that duel, stride out of defence, and play a forward pass to spring a counter-attack. .”
A forward pass? ..i need reminding what that is.
NEW POD
https://audioboom.com/posts/7730567-the-big-assessment-mikel-arteta-so-far-good-bad-ugly
Players get written off far too easy these days. Everyone peaks at different stages. Just we see players appearing earlier and getting better and more promising at a younger age. In football terms being 30 something is old, makes me laugh. CB’s need to have physical and mental strength. Some have the physicality, pace when they are young and makes up for their lack of reading the game correctly getting them out of issues that arise. I think it’s great we have some promising CB’s at the club or out on loan that people are rating highly. Only can do… Read more »
England behind 0 – 1
“CB’s need to have physical and mental strength. Some have the physicality, pace when they are young and makes up for their lack of reading the game correctly getting them out of issues that arise.”
And then there’s Mustafi who someone wanted to give a new contract to.
England 0 – 2. England GK sucks.
Grealish is good. Mount is average.
Saka is coming in…..
Are you okay with me blogging here Pedro, because my comments spend so long in moderation no-one gets to read and respond to them!!!
Lukaku is now a complete striker.
Winks replaces Henderson in the 2nd half. You can’t play 2 DM’s, Rice and Henderson when you are chasing the game.
Why ask Mount to take the free kick???
The scousers are dropping like flies…
It’s a terrible thing Frank
I would replace Mount by Sancho.
Yeah. Mount is out. Sancho is in.
HERBS, take the apostrophe from your name. It gets clogged in the spam filter.
Yeah Marc, I’m truly devastated for them! 🤣
Saka n Grealish.. What a combination that would be for us
Pedro
At what point do you decide that someone’s just too stupid to be helped? You’ve told him that how many times?
Sancho was gash after coming on today
Grealish is such a special player, players like he’s Brazilian.
There was that move he puked off in the second half spontaneously with the flick.
Jadon Sancho is looking like the players I was knew he was; overhyped because he’s English
Saka had a very good game. Nice to see an Arsenal player play for England again.
*plays like he’s Brazilian
Pedro
Do you think we would be better off with Arteta just retaining his head coaching position under a very good technical director.
Arteta the head coach needs lots of time to get it right
Arteta the manager, co-equal to an inexperienced technical director is not a good thing for Arsenal.
Weagle will be here in an hour to take your pants down on Sancho there Dissenter. Or maybe not given your track record on players lol
Ok Pedro, cheers.
Champagne charlieNovember 15, 2020 21:51:59
Weagle will be here in an hour to take your pants down on Sancho there Dissenter. Or maybe not given your track record on players lol
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Did he not right off Federer a few years back in the Wimbledon Final.That he was done,spent,should retire?
CC
Wenger Eagle believes Sancho is this super-special exceptional talent and I obviously disagree with him. He places him at just a bit lower than Neymar. I place him in the same category as Hudson-Odoi or Saka. Either of these two will look like demi-gods if they were plying their trades in the Bundesliga.
I don’t think he’s better than Sterling or Grealish, even when adjusted for his age of development. He’s just another English player that can beat a man with spontaneity.
Dissenter
Like I say, he’s going to whoop you for the initial comment, but even more so with that follow up.
Hudson-Odoi? Bad enough you put him in with Saka, but Sancho? Oh Diss..
Champagne charlieNovember 15, 2020 23:46:41
Dissenter
Like I say, he’s going to whoop you for the initial comment, but even more so with that follow up.
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Bit like Trump-he likes to double down,even when the tide is going against him.
Not much difference between him and Bumford..Two birds of a feather flock together malarkey..
Sancho is tailored to Dortmund but elsewhere he’s nothing special and would be found out in the PL. He can get away being tubby running against weak Bundesliga defenders that back off him and make him look like a worldie but he is overhyped to the extreme. He would be just another good winger in the PL. Not enough goals or assists even at Dortmund to be classed anywhere near Neymar and co.
Saka is developing in front of our eye. If Arteta doesn’t play him on the left wing, then I’ll really question his knowledge to build an offense.I can predict Saka will gain some penalties. Today, he was brought down twice inside the opponent’s box.
CC
Ready to oblige you
It’s just an opinion; nothing special about Sancho
Have a good night. Hopefully real football restarts soon.
Dodge City 🙂
Lol
The second occassion since I’ve been here I find myself agreeing with Dissenter. Sancho is overhyped here because he’s English. He may turn out to be a good player but not worth the 100+ mil that Dortmund are asking.
Dortmund may rue not selling Sancho earlier. Not just in today’s game but he hasn’t looked the same player using the eye ball test this season. He is not playing poorly but just not the electric difference maker that you always expected something magical whenever he touched the ball.
No player is worth 100m in today’s market, although Sancho looks way more impressive than Grealish did when he was 20.
I don’t think there’s a single fan , a manager, or DOF who saw Grealish play in 2015 and said he would become the complete player he has.
Forget the impressive flick Dissenter was talking about , every time Grealish was on the ball in the final third three Belgium defenders closed him down.
KDB doesn’t attract this kind of attention.
Arsenal may have an awful lot of so called “promising” young players on its books, but the concern and priority at the moment has to be to build a successful and consistent senior team. There is very little benefit in producing youngsters like Ballard to play at Championship or League 1 level apart from earning perhaps “small beer” transfer fees. Arsenal have produced in recent years a large number of average centre backs at U23 and Academy levels, but none have progressed to first team level at Arsenal since Tony Adams!! As discussed on many occasions we have an excessive… Read more »
Grealish, Sancho…… we have been there before, countless times with these Englanders
Kane, Barkely the list keeps piling
KDB/Hazard all day over Grealish
“Arsenal have produced in recent years a large number of average centre backs at U23 and Academy levels, but none have progressed to first team level at Arsenal since Tony Adams!”
And there it is… thank you, and good night.
Mustafi getting linked to Barca
HAHAHAHA
“KDB/Hazard all day over Grealish“
The fact you even have them in the same sentence tells it’s own story.
Not to mention Grealish plays on a club that avoided relegation last season if only just, while the other two are on two of the richest clubs in the world.
Btw, Grealish scored/assisted in 34% of Villa PL goals last season, to KDB’s 32%
Without Grealish last year Villa go down, without KDB City probably still come second.
Grealish -4 goals 6 assists in 700 min
KDB. -1 goal 7 assists in 700 min this season.
Where do you think KDB numbers would’ve been had he played on Villa last year?
Imo Grealish is a good example that genuine quality does not require some magical hipster insight to understand
Even in a crap team he has consistently dominated his position against opposition of all levels.
This is why I don’t get overly excited about players like zaha or Traore who look incredible on their day but there’s a lot of chaff with the wheat. Genuine class will be self evident even in average and poor teams
China
Traore is a one trick pony best deployed late in games Wolves drop deep on defense.
In possession against another low block team he’s practically useless.
Zaha is way better as an all around player but still lacks Grealish’s touch and vision.
Tom I felt that was how wenger should’ve used Walcott after it became clear he wasn’t going to coach him to develop further
He was a frustrating player in a dozen ways but make no mistake whenever Walcott came on against a tired defense in the last 20 mins he had them for breakfast with his direct running and pace. Far more threatening than if he started the game imo
Btw, the only goal KDB has scored so far this season came from the spot after he had won the pen.
When Grealish won his pen he gave the ball to Watkins.
China , that and the baby oil for his arms lol
“Imo Grealish is a good example that genuine quality does not require some magical hipster insight to understand“ That’s exactly right Can he receive the ball in tight spaces ? Yes Can he retain the ball in tight spaces under pressure? Yes Can he dribble with the ball to create overloads? Yes Can he run away from defenders? Yes Can he score? Yes Can he find the pass in a required range with the exact weight on it? Yes Can you bully him out of possession? No Now make a list of players who tick all these boxes ………….it’ll be… Read more »
Btw, Grealish scored/assisted in 34% of Villa PL goals last season, to KDB’s 32%
You do realise if KDB played for villa the percentage of his contribution would go up since the rest of the players do not contribute.
And if Grealish was in a bigger team he would not be as important.
He is good but other nations have similar players and not much fuss is made about them.
camvinga, aouar, lemar, Ndombele, tolisso
“You do realise if KDB played for villa the percentage of his contribution would go up since the rest of the players do not contribute.“ Pure speculation on your part. Fact is KDB is a different player than Grealish in that he is capable of beating his marker to create space but rarely more than one. Grealish ,on the other hand , notoriously dribbles past two or more defenders drawing fouls or creating overloads. KDB is also less robust than Grealish. I’m not sure how well Grealish woul do on a club like City, but I’m pretty sure It would’ve… Read more »
Don’t even start naming players from other leagues.
Heard of Pepe?
Ndombele has 2 goals and 0 assists in almost as many minutes as Grealish
Tell me you’re joking.
Grealish is special. But surely we don’t think he is already better than KDB?
CT
I didn’t say he was better, I said he was more valuable in the context of last season’s contributions to their respective sides and that he’s a complete footballer.
Very few of those around.
Arsenal have none.
Grealish completes 2.4 successful dribbles per 90 minutes at a success rate of 66.6%.(he plays a free role)
Ndombele is 5.65 with 81% success
The point is it depends on the role given in the Villa team, he is good but the praise is over the top in comparison to players with similar qualities.
Ndombele has 2 goals and 0 assists in almost as many minutes as Grealish
Tell me you’re joking.
The real Bamford has more goals than Auba
Im not joking
Why on earth do we keep on discussing buying English players. Most are average at best and are sold at grossly inflated prices.
You need only take a look at Man Utd’s recent track record in spending a world record fee for
Maguire!!!
Recruitment of English born players should be confined to the Academy eg Saka who has
similar potential to many of the players who are frequently discussed on wish list such as
Grealish and Zaha, but cost us nothing.
Tom
So you are saying Grealish is not better than KDB but he is more valuable and a complete footballer.
That statement is a contradiction in itself mate.
Also KDB is clear.
Sid
I’ll concede the argument if you promise to remove that feckless cunt from your moniker
@Tom, Hey thats my darling, dont go there