Glen Kamara’s spell on loan at League One Southend United hasn’t been the greatest of success.
The Finnish under-21 international re-joined the club that Arsenal plucked him from in January in the hope of gaining some first-team football.
But Kamara’s game-time has been limited.
The greatest frustration is, when he has started, he has looked a class above League One level.
Kamara joined Arsenal in 2012 but didn’t make his debut until this season in a below par 3-0 defeat in the Capital One Cup away to Sheffield Wednesday.
In his time at Roots Hall since moving away from north London, the midfielder has made five appearances, four of which have been as a starter.
Out of a possible 14 games, that isn’t anywhere near enough, however Kamara has been unfortunate for a few reasons.
Firstly, the style of manager Phil Brown isn’t well-suited to the 20-year-old’s best attributes.
Kamara’s ball retention is fantastic, but a passing game isn’t really how the Shrimpers play. League One football isn’t known for this anyway, but Brown has his team set-up to play the ball forward quickly to the target man in Tyrone Barnett and then for, by far their best player, Jack Payne, to feed off him.
He has also been unlucky to be the one dispensed after his best run in the side came to an end when Southend were drubbed 4-1 away to Rochdale.
He was just finding his feet in the team, had started in one of the best, if not the best, Southend team performance this season away to Barnsley, and was showing why he is under contract at Arsenal.
Against the Tykes, Kamara broke up play, started attacks, kept the ball moving and played an integral part in the win.
He followed that by setting up Southend’s goal in their 1-1 draw to Gillingham which put the Blues in front and again looked a classy player. Then came the Rochdale game on 25th March which all but ended hopes of the Essex side reaching the play-offs.
Unfortunately, Kamara lost his place in the side and he hasn’t been able to regain it. That could also be put down to a slice of bad luck for the youngster because the manager decided to switch things up and change to a 3-5-2 formation.
With three midfield slots up for grabs, Kamara didn’t even make the bench.
Brown persisted with Gary Deegan, who has been a favourite of the manager for at least two months now and is very similar in style to Kamara, with the task of being the deep midfielder. Will Atkinson started alongside Deegan, his job being that of the box-to-box midfielder.
The little magician, Jack Payne, was always going to get in. Admittedly, that isn’t who Kamara is fighting with for a start because Payne plays as the number 10, further up the pitch.
With Deegan favoured, Kamara had his brief stint in the side quite harshly halted.
And just to make things even harder, a certain starter in Ryan Leonard has, in the last week to 10 days, returned from injury.
Quite often, Kamara has been out of the squad entirely or on the bench, with little chance of coming on.
It’s certainly not a reflection of his ability that Kamara isn’t playing regularly. When played, he has shown glimpses of his capabilities, however, his chances have been limited, as per the reasons above.
It won’t have been a waste of time, though. Any run in a first team will garner experience. He will have plenty to take back with him to London Colney.
