The Dulwich winger talks about his formative years at Arsenal and getting up to speed as one of the League’s most dangerous wingers...

For the second week in a row, Jeffrey Monakana was named in the National League South’s Team of the Week. While it was Lionel Ainsworth who was on the scoresheet for us at the weekend in a 1-1 draw with Weymouth, Monakana looked just as dangerous down the opposite wing and hit the bar with an explosive effort - not dissimilar his memorable goal against Braintree the weekend before at Champion Hill.

For Monakana, that Braintree screamer was purely instinctive. “As soon as I picked it up, you don’t really think. I just go into a mode where as soon as I cut inside, the next player was coming out so I just ended up hitting it. Really and truly, I wanted to cut in and wrap it across the keeper, but cos the midfielder was coming in, it just ended up sitting up for me perfectly to unleash it. It was a good goal and a good memory.”

Making memories is what he is here to do. Having tasted the Playoffs with Wealdstone last season in the National League South, Monakana feels that Dulwich are more than capable of doing something similar themselves sooner or later.

“For me personally, come off the back of being in the Playoffs last season with Wealdstone, everything here just seemed to be up a gear” he says. “From the club’s perspective, they’ve given us every tool to be the best you could be as a player and a team, so that was really good. Probably one of the best non-league situations I’ve been in.”

The Dulwich fanbase has also been an overwhelming positive for Monakana during his time at Champion Hill so far. “Win, lose or draw there’s always really high numbers at every game. Before Braintree, we hadn’t won at home since August, but every week there’s still 2,000 or 2,500. It’s crazy to see. I’ve never been in a situation like that!”

“At most teams that I’ve been at, once you start losing, people stop coming and the atmosphere around the ground is just daunting to play in. But here everything’s more relaxed, people are happy and they just want to support.”

Monakana began his career at Arsenal, signing as a schoolboy after being spotted playing for his local team Broadwater Farm in Tottenham. “I joined Arsenal at 8,” he recalls. “I trained at Hale End from 8 to 16 and went on to train at London Colney, so you got to see the first team players and be around it, which was really good for me and a good eye-opener to the professional game.”

It was at the Arsenal academy at Hale End, under the tutelage of club legend Liam Brady, that Monakana was first moved out to the wing, having originally been more of a centre forward, and ever since he has really made the position his own.

“It was Liam Brady who actually moved me out to the wing, because I was playing up front for most of my youth career. I always used to just drift out to the wing and he realised that I could cross the ball. He pulled me aside and said, ‘You’ve got that quality where you’re fast and you can cross the ball - which is rare. I think it’s better that you move to the wing’. ”

“That wasn’t really the ‘Arsenal way’ coming up! Everything was about one or two touch football and I would always break the mould by just getting it and running at people, making stuff happen. That was more my way. Being at Arsenal it helped you with your technique, cos you’re training on it every single day.”

As Monakana knows all too well, there are fine margins in football and it’s not always those that shine brightest in their youth that go on to have the biggest careers. “Serge Gnabry came on trial, played a game and you could see as soon as he came in, you could see that this guy was good. I think it’s always the case - at Arsenal there’s so much talent everywhere, you don’t ever look at someone and think that this guy’s 100% going to make it, because you feel like anyone can make - that’s what actually happens.”

“Most of the time, the person that you think is going to be the one to get to the first team and progress, sometimes isn’t the one. For instance, younger than me you had Chuba Akpom, who I felt, looking down, that this guy’s stone-cold to play in the first team but it happened to be Alex Iwobi. When you looked at them, he was nowhere near it. There’s so much talent at Arsenal that anyone, if they keep on working hard, can get there.”

At Arsenal, there were also a few brushes with the main man Arsene Wenger. “I spoke to him a few times. I’m from Congo, so we do speak French. He obviously knew that and I spoke to him a few times. A real humble guy. I spoke to some of the players too, like Adebayor. It was great being able to watch them train and all of that gave you that hunger to play professional football. That’s the reason why I ended up going out earlier than I should’ve done. Everyone was telling me, you’re crazy to leave Arsenal, but I felt like I needed to play first team football right there and then.”

The opportunity came up to leave Arsenal at 18 and join Preston North End, where Monakana was immediately thrown in at the deep end of senior men’s football - which he was yet to experience. It was ‘sink or swim’, but he relished the chance to prove himself.

“I think it was probably the best decision I made in my career going there. I think once I went there everything just clicked, I was doing things that I never knew I could do. Everyone wants to be entertained, so when you’re running at players and making stuff happen, you start to become a fan favourite and the fans, to this day, are always messaging me. I was scoring goals, always assisting, winning Man of the Matches. It was just a really good time for me.”

“I’d never moved away from home, I’d never played anywhere else...I didn’t even know how to cook! All of them life lessons I had to learn while also trying to play for the first team. Luckily I ended up doing well in pre-season and it just continued.”

Although happy at Preston and with the warm reception he had received from their fanbase, a move to Brighton was too good to turn down. “When a Championship club comes calling, it’s kind of hard to say no, so I just made the decision that I want to try and see what I can do there.”

However, the move didn’t pan out quite as Monakana had hoped. “Oscar Garcia was the one that signed me, with a view to coming in the summer, playing pre-season and kicking on with the team. But as soon as the season finished, he resigned and a new manager came in.”

“I think any player will tell you, new managers have their own ideas, their own players, their own structure of how they want to play and if they feel like you don’t fit in that mould, sometimes it’s difficult.”

Taking up a chance to join Aberdeen on loan also proved to be a formative experience, as Monakana entered his 20s. “Going to Aberdeen, being involved in the Europa League tie that they had...when I think back it’s like a blur but talking about, I know that many players don’t get to be involved in those types of scenarios. Aberdeen’s a massive club.”

“There was a frenzy at the airport, all the cameras...going to the stadium, playing the first game and there’s 25,000. Sold out. The atmosphere in there! You couldn’t hear nothing,” he laughs. “I actually made my League debut at Celtic Park. When I came on, I ended up playing well and all the fans just started singing my name, so that’s when I started to realise that this is totally different to anything I’d been at. The fanbase is just so loyal. You’ll go to Motherwell and they’ll be 5,000 away fans! I can’t explain it, it’s just mad.”

The following years were difficult for Monakana, as a series of loan spells were racked by injuries. He even had to take six months out of the game entirely to make sure he could have a full recovery.

He entered non-league for the first time and a spell at Sutton helped him rediscover his fitness, while last season at Wealdstone was an important step to refinding his form. Now at Dulwich he is able to share his experiences with the younger members for the team as the club look to push on up the table

“When I can, I’ll always speak to them. You’ve got some real good talent here, like Aaron Barnes, Dylan Kearney and Ben Chapman. Young players who are trying to make their mark in the game and sometimes I do try to pull them to one side and say, ‘Maybe you should do this or maybe watch this’ - to try and help them in a way I never really had when I was younger.”

In particular, Kearney has caught his eye. “He’s a pest - I don’t think any defender wants to play against him right now. If he continues, who knows where he can go. Hopefully he can just learn his game as quickly as possible and I’m sure the goals will keep coming as consistently as they are.”

He’s confident that as a team, Dulwich are well-equipped to achieve something on the pitch soon. “I know for a fact that we’ve got a squad that can do something and I know we all believe that we still could do something this season in the League.”

Jeff and the boys are in action this Saturday January 18th at 3pm against Chippenham Town - get your tickets here.

Photo: Ollie Jarman