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Bartley promoted to first team, Ebecilio could be too.
By Tom Humphrey
Kyle Bartley has been promoted to the Arsenal first team following a series of loan spells in England and Scotland. Bartley made his Arsenal debut in 2009, featuring in a Champions League game against Olympiakos, a game that Arsene Wenger fielded a lot of the club’s reserve players in and that Arsenal lost 1-0. He then went out on loan to Sheffield United for the rest of the 2009/10 campaign. The following season he returned to Sheffield United on a season-long loan deal. The deal was cut short because Bartley asked to leave, due to fears of losing his place in the team. He then joined Scottish club Rangers until that deal was cut short by injury. Bartley featured in the 2011 Emirates Cup and he scored an own goal with 5 minutes left in the game against the New York Red Bulls, to hand the trophy to the American team captained by Thierry Henry. Later that summer he signed a new deal at Arsenal, before rejoining Rangers on a season-long loan deal.
After a few loan spells, Arsene Wenger clearly feels it is time for Bartley to be a member of the Arsenal first team now. He confirmed that he is officially a first team player at the club now via his Twitter account earlier today:
"Over the moon to officially be an Arsenal first team player. Thank you to everyone who has supported me. Hard work starts now! – Kyle Bartley on being promoted to the Arsenal first team."
He could be joined in the first team by a fellow reserve team player. Kyle Ebecilio has also been training with the first team lately and according to people close to the club, he is very highly rated and Wenger is considering adding him to his first team squad. He signed professional terms with the club in February 2011 having joined Arsenal from Dutch club Feyenoord the previous summer. Arsenal and Wenger seem keen to give some more young players opportunities in the first team, perhaps we will see more of Bartley and Ebecilio in the League Cup and the FA Cup this season as well as seeing them a lot in the pre-season games this summer.