The full-back came through the Gunners’ youth academy
Hearts new boy Daniel Oyegoke admits he ‘doesn’t like Tottenham’ and hopes to smash his former North London rivals at Tynecastle tonight.
The Jambos full-back, 21, was snapped up from Brentford last month but came through the youth ranks at Arsenal. Oyegoke used to relish facing Spurs during his time as a youngster and confessed he has an extra motivation to get one over Ange Postecoglou’s star-studded side in this evening’s glamour friendly.
He said: “I faced Spurs quite a few times. We used to beat them up! It was always a good fixture for us. They tried to tell us the importance of the derby when you are young. I’ve never really liked Spurs, so hopefully we can try to beat them up again!
“Oliver Skipp is a good few years older than me, but I caught him when I was playing for Arsenal’s Under-21s. Dane Scarlett, who is there at the minute, is a really good friend of mine. I’ve got quite a few friends there as I live near the area. Spurs have a good team but so do we. It’s a game we’ll use to build our fitness and hopefully beat them up again!”
Oyegoke was signed by Arsenal as a kid from Barnet but later signed professional terms with Brentford. His time at the Bees didn’t work out though, and after a couple of loan spells at Bradford and MKS Dons, the former England Under-20 powerhouse decided to try his luck in Gorgie.
He said: “I joined Arsenal as a winger but I quickly became a right-back in my first year. That was the best thing for my development. As soon as I became a defender I started to get involved with England at youth levels, and pick up a lot of new experiences.
“I look at my time at Arsenal very fondly. I made a lot of friendships and connections with people who helped me along the way. It was a good club for me. Obviously I was quite young, but I spoke a lot with Mikel Arteta. I was involved in pre-season games with them, training and other stuff. I had quite a few sessions with the first team.
“He’s a great coach and you can see the detail he likes to go into. You can see it coming out now in the way Arsenal play. It was good to take what I could from him and hopefully bring it to Hearts. I played lots of different sports when I was younger, but that’s just what you do when you are young and have lots of energy. It was always football for me.”
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