Coyle on Randall & Arsenal

Owen Coyle back in January brought exciting young Arsenal prospect, Mark Randall on loan to Turf Moor signing to the end of the season. The midfielder has perhaps had limited appearances to shine and has made only one start in total mainly due to strong competition in midfield. He has been named on the bench on a number of occasions but so far has only managed to play a total of 174 minutes for the Clarets.

Sometimes, he has looked a little lost and maybe the Championship is a bit too rough, brutal and harsh for an Arsenal lad brought up via a world-class Academy and expected to play flowing football with finesse and style. It`s all a good learning curve for the lad though!

He has though had a few injuries along the way and has also recently been dogged by an illness, some sort of virus doing the rounds that also laid low Berisha.

There are now only two games left of the season and Randall looks doubtful for tomorrow`s game at home to Cardiff having missed the last match against Southampton at St Marys last Saturday due to the virus. This will be the last time Clarets fans may have chance to see the young Arsenal Gun unless he is selected in the sixteen for our final match of the season away to Crystal Palace on Sunday 4th May.

However the gaffer has not ruled out a Turf Moor return for the 18-year-old next season.

Coyle first of all comments on the special relationship the club have with Arsenal

'We have a terrific relationship with Arsenal and Liam Brady, who obviously looks after the younger side of things.

'I've mentioned before that we want to get young players to the football club, so we'll wait and see what happens.

Specifically in relation to Mark Randall, the gaffer had this to say

'He's a level-headed kid, he's loved his time here, and we'd have loved to have had him on the pitch more than he has been.

'That's been a source of frustration for me, because Mark came in and did very well.

'He came on against Coventry and was terrific, then we started him at Stoke, and he did okay in the game.

'He then hurt his back.

'Sometimes people look and say 'he's not playing', but people don't realise the reasons for it.

'He wasn't quite right, and then he's been stop-start with a few niggles.

'There's no doubt Mark can play, he's gifted, but he knows he has a lot of stuff to learn in the game.'

So will we see more of Randall next season in a Claret shirt? Should we go ahead with the idea anyway based on what you have seen?
Do you think we might see other Arsenal young guns on loan to the Clarets next season?

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