PELTIER IN BETWEEN CARDIFF AND ARSENAL
National Youth team striker Lester Peltier spent four days on trial at Premiership giants Arsenal and brushed shoulders with the likes of French forward Thierry Henry and Robin Van Persie.
But the CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh player is now back at Championship Division team Cardiff City and made his first appearance for them on Monday , in a Reserve team affair with Hereford. According to reports, Peltier did sufficiently well in the first half before picking up a knock and was taken off by coaches who said they had seen enough of him to continue negotiations of a move to the club. Cardiff won the match 2-1.
But Arsenal youth director Liam Brady is also impressed with Peltier and has indicated to Jabloteh head coach Terry Fenwick that they have not taken their eyes off the former National Under 17 forward.
“He played on Monday and did enough for the coaches before they took him off at half time. They are delighted with what they have seen and have opened up talks on a deal,” Fenwick said.
“But he spent three days at Arsenal and Liam is delighted with his movement off the ball. He brushed shoulders with a lot of the first team guys even as he trained in the Academy. There was a nice touch to it as well when Thierry Henry made sure to tell him that he should make sure and sign with Arsenal because they are one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“We want to ensure that we do a deal that is best for the kid and that he is well taken care of. It’s a very interesting situation at the moment.”
Fenwick added that talks were ongoing with Cardiff, Milwall and Arsenal in that whichever club the player ends up at will form a partnership with Jablotel.
“This by extension will be a great boost for football in Trinidad and Tobago. This is what the club is about. We have thought long and hard about football in this country and the benefits and we have decided to go the way of developing the younger players and trying to boost the country’s football,” Fenwick said.
He added that Milwall arrives in Tobago on March 22 for a mini-tournament from March 24-28 with Jabloteh and Tobago United. Ajax Amsterdam had to pull out due to the dates but have made a commitment to appear in the future.
“We are looking for another team possibly a T&T youth team and we are going to call it the CLICO Cup and this is planned to take place for the next few years,” Fenwick said.
Colonden Reef in Tobago, owned by an Englishman and M&M Business management headed by Steve Davies are among those supporting the upcoming Cup tournament.
In related news, Jabloteh and T&T World Cup team midfielder Aurtis Whitley departs here on Thursday for Vietnam where he will link up with Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL). Whitley has a contract awaiting him and will spend a few days to see whether he fancies the conditions. HAGL recently teamed up with Arsenal. The partnership will see Arsenal and HAGL share training resources and establish Arsenal's presence in the South East Asian region.
The club will also help support HAGL's technical and academy development, whilst HAGL will build on Arsenal's commercial support base in Vietnam.
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger recent spoke on the connection, saying "We try to extend Arsenal in many territories, but in a way where we can make a difference with our technical cooperation.” (March 12, 2007.Photo shows Peltier (right) and Jason Marcano with Thierry Henry last week.)
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