Young Gun: Taylor Foran

Throughout the season, we catch up with our young Gunners in the matchday programme to find out more about their route to our academy. This week, Taylor Foran explains how he ended up at Hale End, his favourite memories working through the age groups and what it felt like to get his first scholarship.

I grew up in West London and my immediate family has actually never been too keen on football. My heritage mainly stems from England but my grandad is Indian. It was that same grandad who was the football fan of the family. My immediate family’s background was more martial arts! 

For example, my dad, Chris Foran, is a 7th-degree black belt in kickboxing, 6th-degree black belt in taekwondo, 2nd-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a 1st-degree black belt in hapkido and a black belt in warriors' eskrima. He’s also been a world, European and three-time British champion, a sport he’s been doing for a long time. My sister, Holly Foran, is a junior Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion and junior Brazilian jiu-jitsu European champion. She’s also a 1st-degree black belt in kickboxing too. 

"My dad said you can have as many Match Attax as you like!"

So not surprisingly, from an early age I was doing martial arts but then I started playing football because a lot of my friends at school were playing it and I started to enjoy it. But, when I first began playing, I actually wasn’t very good! In my first football session, I played in jeans which was a memory in itself! But, as I said before I enjoyed it and I developed really quickly to the point where I went from Sunday league to playing at different development centres like West Ham, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal. 

The move to Arsenal came about when they asked me to come and play a game for them against Everton at Hale End. I was only around seven at the time too and I played really well and then after that game, I got offered the chance to sign for the club. I remember after hearing the good news walking to the car and my dad, who knew I loved Match Attax, said you can have as many Match Attax as you like!

The highlights from Hale End days would be the tours, one that comes to mind is when we went to Singapore and we won with me as captain. It’s such a beautiful country and has amazing hot weather. I’ve been at Arsenal for a really long time, I think the only player that’s still here from when I joined is Khayon Edwards. 

When it came to my scholarship decision, I was quietly confident given I’d been at the club for a very long time. I was playing well and captained the side so I always believed I would be able to make the step up for the U18s. When I first arrived at Sobha Realty Training Centre, it feels like your first day at secondary school but it’s even scarier than that and you’re going into an environment where you need to step up quickly and you see your role models every day.

"I sang Stand By Me and got a little sing-song going!"

When you train with the first team, it’s a massive step up. The tempo is crazy – you find that out very quickly. But, given that we train with them more regularly in the under-21s you get used to it more and more. Like anything, the more you do it the more comfortable you become. We’ve adapted and developed so much by training with them. 

The first team staff and players are great, they try and get to know us and give us pointers on how to develop our games. I’d say I’ve particularly built a good relationship with Aaron Ramsdale, Jorginho and Cedric. They’re really good with me, top players and nice to be around. 

Going to Dubai with the first team in 2022 was surreal. You get to experience what they do on a day-to-day basis, the level of training, the amount of tactical information you have to take on board from the boss is on another level and we also did team visits to places which was very cool to experience. I also had to do an initiation and I sang Stand By Me by Ben E. King which I was ready for! I wasn’t nervous, I used it as a way to get a little sing-song going. 

My loan move to Hartlepool came on deadline day last year, the day before I was meant to go to Newport but the deal fell through. Then, Keith Curle, the manager at the time called me and said he’d monitored me for some time and expressed a lot of interest in me. It happened really quickly and I shot up there that night. When I got there the Hartlepool fans were amazing, they are so special and to play in front of them each week was a pleasure. Up north particularly the passion for football is different.

The difference between senior football and academy football is that there’s a lot more hunger and desire to win because it’s so important. People are playing for their lives, playing for their kids, their mortgages which brings about that extra level of needing to win. We were in a relegation battle and unfortunately went down and the impact it can have on players is massive, so you feel that each week, some people will have to take pay cuts and lose jobs. In senior football you have to get results. 

The toughest grounds in terms of atmosphere I’d say was Valley Parade, home of Bradford City and it was an incredible experience playing there because they’ve got about a 25,000 seater stadium and they had over 18,000 fans there, so it was great to play in an atmosphere like that. They were one of the very few who had a decent pitch because some of the surfaces weren’t great so we had to adapt quickly. 

It’s also more physical which stems from the hunger to win. I remember when we played Salford City I was up against Matt Smith who’s 6ft 6 – so that was a challenge in itself. The experience was really positive and I took a lot of learning from it. 

My plan for the rest of the season is to play as many games for the U21s as possible but I want to be able to potentially go on loan and play senior football again, I really enjoyed it and I’m at the age where I want to push myself out my comfort zone and make a name for myself in the game. I also feel like I can thrive in a first-team environment.