Should Wenger buy more English youngsters?
Today I am introducing a new Guest Poster, a 15 year-old Just Arsenal reader called Luke Shephard, who has something to ask Gooners in light of the failed England World Cup performance this summer. I believe any Arsenal fan should be given a chance to air their views (as long as it has a point and is well-written!), no matter what age they are. So I am going to publish this in full without any corrections whatsoever and leave judgement up to you the readers. Be gentle please. Over to you Luke……
We Need More ‘English’ Players!
Ok, so let’s get this point out of the way first, not meaning to cause offence here to anyone who supports Arsenal who is not English, but Arsenal is an English club, with majority of supporters English, majority of the coaching staff English. So why aren’t the majority of our players English?
We had three English players in the squad against Fulham on the weekend, Wilshere, Walcott and Gibbs. All good players, but not in the starting line up for England (when everybody is fit enough to play for England).
There’s no doubt in my mind and a lot of other people’s minds, that Wilshere will most probably be in the England starting line up in the not too distant future, based on his performances for Arsenal so far. But that’s only one!
I believe that the big clubs of the country should provide the international team with technically gifted players. Teams like Man U, Chelsea, Man City, Tottenham and us of course. And together, as the top teams of the Barclays Premier League, we are not providing them!
Recent World Cup winners Spain are a perfect example of how a country can have a good, competitive league (arguably the best in the world) and a fantastically gifted national side. All of their starting team in the final (exception for Torres) played for either Barcelona, Real Madrid or Athletico Madrid. They as a country, worked together, to bring the world, one of the greatest technically gifted teams in history! And we as a country are not doing this.
Arsene Wenger as we all know, prefers buying young talent from overseas, (not that there is not talent there) instead of looking in the very country he works, but it is understandable why. English players are valued to high. Take the example of the recent-ish Chris Smalling move to Manchester United. It took an offer of £12 million for him to move from Fulham to United. Where on the other hand, we bought Thomas Vermaelen for £7 million! That is arguably twice the talent, for half the price! So it is easy to understand why Wenger doesn’t buy English players.
We should have an identity that we are an ‘English’ club. Right now, our only thing English is the fans. We have about 3-4 maybe 5 players, including our reserves, who have a chance of being in the England squad in the future. Wilshere, Walcott, Gibbs, Lansbury and powerhouse JET.
Arsenal, as a club, we need to step up (along with the other ‘top’ teams of the BPL) and provide players for the English national team, if we as a nation, want to keep our hopes of winning the prestige World Cup once again!
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Your a idiot shut up Shep
Nah big loves for writing on the website I introduced you too might have to do my own soon.
Only disagreement is that we have loads of young English players coming through who are very good such as Benik Afobe, Sanchez Watt, Chucks Aneke, Frimpong is eligible, Tom Cruise.
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On loan we have Sanchez Watt at Leeds. When i saw him in the FA youth cup and carling cup previously i thought he looked ok, but a bit light weight, since going to Leeds he has developed into a very strong and technical attacking left sided forward. He’ll give competition to Arshavin when he returns. Kyle Bartley is playing week in week out at Sheffield united and he is a big, composed centre back. This is his second season out on loan and he’ll be fighting for a spot on the bench next season. Benik Afobe is only 17 and has been watched by scouts from Barcelona. That is how good this lad is. He is on loan at Huddersfield and so far had 3 goals and 3 assists in 7 games. He is only going to get better. Thomas Cruis looks a decent left back and is on loan at Carlisle. Lansbury has gone on emergency loan at Norwich and had a great game for them yesterday. Many have said the Wilshere is the future of Arsenal and England, but ask coaches at Arsenal and they will say Lansbury is only a small step behind, and will be just as good.
In reserve, JET, Eastmond, Frimpong (african but been in england from a young age), Aneke, are all English and touted to come through if they are patient and work hard.
If you want to know how these guys are doing and progressing i suggest you go on http://younggunsblog.co.uk/ great website and let you know what’s happening with all the youngsters before anyone else and put right stories that come out in the paper.
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Understand where you coming from Sunny C, but i dont think any of them youngsters have the talent to be in the England team in the future.
Frimpong has got the talent, but he has already said he wants to play for his home country, Ghana.
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I do they gonna be class, plus your putting National team before Club team.
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Thanks IceDre218, now looking at videos of Benik Afobe, he looks one for the future, but can he contest with Arshavin and Wellington who comes over from Brazil in january…
Apart from that, i dont think many of the others you mentioned (excluding the ones i mentioned in my article) have the ability to play for England, maybe Eastmond, but thats the only one.
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Im putting national team because thats what this whole article is about, and if they are not good enough to be in the national team, it questions whether there good enough to contest with the national team regulars for there own countries like Nasri, Fabregas etc…
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Its true! Comments that aren’t written well often get ignored.
“i fink we shud buy suarez, carroll, cole, jagielka, hazard
plz wenger buy or we will lose plz wenger”
None of them comments are worth of reading, they’re just the blog readers that follow the transfer rumours, and that really annoys me.
As an Arsenal fan, you should support the club no matter what happens and keep faith in the manager.
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Wenger has changed the setup of the club so that we can produce english players of the necessary quality, as Young gunner says, there are loads of english ones coming through. Wenger is doing this because it is more cost-effective.
If you want “positive” discrimination for english players, you see it constantly at arsenal with walcott being given a 60k pw contract before playing well twice in a row, while extremely talented youngsters like vela cant get a game. Wilshere and gibbs deserve the chances they are getting, and theo should definitely be getting opportunities as well (not as many as he has had over the past few years h/e), but so does vela, and so did merida. I thought this club was about football, not which country you come from.
Arsenal is a club, a business essentially. They need to worry about making money not about producing for the england national team. It’s thoroughly insignificant which country the players play for. Patriotism is bullshit.
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Davi you legend!
If you are an arsenal fan from England, you will understand where im coming from, our performance at the world cup finals was terrible. And everyone in the country wants England to do well. The only way to do this is to give English Players a chance. Let gibbs play left back, let wilshere start, let JET on the bench, instead of bendtner as they are the simalar type of players, big, tall, physical. And let walcott play in the starting team in the champions league and carling cup. Possibly bring Lansbury in for Rosisky.
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Hes looking to bring the young english through instead of buying them as someone said it is more cost-effective, but at the moment theres too much pressure at arsenal just to win a trophy so we cant really afford to experiment with JET, eastmond etc.
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I’ve watched England since I can remember. Notice I didn’t say supported, as I haven’t cared about the England team for many many years. The international scene has turned into such a joke, I dread the international week. I love football, and I’ll watch anything – Spanish, French, Dutch football, lower leagues of England, but I do not even bother with internationals. England or other. I don’t see any good international teams that excite me, including Spain. I was lucky enough to go to the last two world cups, and every team I saw bored me. Everyone bangs on about Spain, but I would like someone to point out an exciting game they have had in the last 3 years. I’m happy to hear other opinions. The last exciting international tournament that I have seen was probably Euro 96. I would like to say France 98, but I’m not too sure! I have totally gone off track with my hatred of internationals, my point is, who cares about internationals. I want the best for Arsenal, and that’s something coming from an English guy, who is very close to the Arsenal ground and not far from Wembley! Arsenal are my team, they buy the best players for our style. I like the young exciting players, foreign or not. Internationals are a waste of time. Even if Arsenal supplied many players to England, I’d dread it as it would possibly mean more injuries. Internationals make my blood boil. Just look at what a joke FIFA is!! Arsenal, English players or not, are my team. I’m standing by them and them only!!
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A club managers job is to think of the good of the club, not whatever country he happens to be in. And if Country is more important than Club for you, you are not a true fan. Wenger has not bought many young English players because they are not good enough or cost too much (as you yourself pointed out). However, Arsenal is fostering a wonderful generation of new English players and therefore doing more than it’s share for the future of English football. Frankly, I find your dismissal of these young Arsenal players to be ludicrous. If you want to blame someone, blame the FA. They blew all the money meant for a training academy on Wembley, the number of high level English coaches and referees is pathetic, failing to address the ‘ardman longball culture etc etc. All of these matters are on a much higher level in all the other countries you mention.
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I had already made that point myself elsewhere and I’m French. No offence.
Ideally I think there should always be a bare minimum of 6 outstanding English youngsters in the under 18 team.
I believe Arsenal has prepared this, there are enough of then at the club, just recently Arsenal bought way too many south Americans youngsters in my opinion.
Should balance that by 21-22 English players.
For the failure of the English team at national level, I don’t agree that you do thane the quality though. You do have it. You jut don’t have the right coach.
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Do thane = don’t have
Sorry, when writting on an iPhone, if text is long, can’t see the result of your typing anymore after a while…
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Is this article a joke? Is it Arsenal’s responsibility to develop players for the England national team? We all saw what the “golden generation” did in S.A. When was the last time anyone saw a truly exciting national team-when the guys are thrown together two days before a game! You have made marginal players into football heroes- the lampards, terrys, etc.
Until the FA address the myriad problems in english football, England will be a non-factor in the international game(am sure the same goes for a lot of other countries). Just watch how many teams play route 1 football in the EPL.
I could go on, but why borther.
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Arsene would love to buy more young english talent, but whenever he does, like Gary Cahill, they put ridiculous price tags on them. Look how much James Milner cost Manchester City £30mil, the same price that Barca put on Cesc Fabregas. I would much rather nurture and develop our own young talent like we do with the likes of Jack Wilshere, Keiran Gibbs and Jay Emmanuel Thomas.
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Yep, get English players like Ashley Young for 80m(??!!
) or Gary Cahill for 18m or Jagielka for 13m or Phil Jones for 10m. Not me, ratings by their managers.
When will undouted talent like Cahill taste top European competition if not in a great club? He is currently overpriced so he will hardly have the chance to be bought by a top club. Then when u unleash him internationally, he will have the ‘excitement shock’ and underperform, affect his confidence and he becomes…. another flop.
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Personally I believe if England are to preform better in the World cup English clubs across the board need to stop playing Sunday league tactics, train a lot more coaches, set up more programs in school in terms of P:E related soccer sessions and give more grants to clubs.
There around 159,000 qualified coaches in Europe, According to European football’s governing body Uefa, Spain had almost 15,000 Uefa A and Pro Licence coaches in 2008 – more than double the number of any other European nation. And that is despite it taking 750 study hours to acquire a Pro Licence in Spain, compared with just 245 in England.
Here the article just before Spain won the world cup:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8688093.stm
UEFA A & PRO COACHES
SPAIN ——————– 14,860
GERMANY —————- 6,570
FRANCE ——————- 2,588
ITALY ———————– 1,810
NETH’NDS —————– 1,137
ENGLAND —————– 1,010
That justs shows why England can’t do much “coaching wise”, even though the time to get the license is a lot shorter, people are not interested.
Its not just English players cost a lot more, England has unstable Fa, it also has the worst generalist always focusing on the negative, English league across the board focus on more physical game then tactical one.
But there a bright light in the end of the tunnel, arsenal are doing there best to bring out world class players who have that buzz of special talent, in time will see arsenal bring out talented English players, but it takes time, the newspapers don’t help also, they always love to pick on the different style of play, maybe its because of jealousy.
I believe in Arsenal system, they bring up players from young age, and teach them the arsenal philosophy.
English players lack that world class sense, except for a few, but they never really do shine in the world stage, it takes time to bring these players up, I see Gibbs replacing Clichy soon, and Wilshere taking command of Cesc position, having foreign players and managers gives the league a bit of diversity and new taste, looking over at Spain I always think of it as two horse race but look over to the primer league and it looks like 7 horse race anything is possible, competition is more interesting then two horse race.
& by the way, I live in Ireland but I don’t envy or dislike any country, I’m just viewing my opinion, I rather have a interesting world cup and competition in England then a Sunday league kick a about.
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Luke,
You don’t seem to understand that Barcelona is supported by the regional government, Catalonia. The team is a symbol for Catalonian pride, and the push for Catalan independendence. Barcelona as of last summer was 200 million pounds in debt, and got a bank loan to cover the deficit. Why do you think they were loaned such an incredible amount? Because the regional government guaranteed it. That’s why Barcelona can not only buy players of the highest quality at premium prices, that’s why they can afford to pay them enormous salaries to keep them from moving to another team. How else could you keep the majority of the Spanish national team on one side? I predict that by the time Arsene Wenger hangs up his red tie,the English press will be gushing stories about how this Frenchman built a self-sustaining club and in so doing saved and improved the English National team.
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look boy first team football is earned not a right walcott has had numerous chances but neva impresses wenger can buy players from afghan i dont care as long as we will win
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Good to see this is causing a debate without much insults!
People saying im not a true Arsenal fan is stupid. I care about club and country equally and want both to do well. Arsenal have got good English youth players coming through the academy, no doubt about it. And I admire how Wenger has managed to spend little money (in football terms) and still kept us at the top end of the BPL. What im saying is together “as a country”, we need to help out the national team. When representing in Europe, at times, there has not been one English player. And this is a worrying thought for me personally.
Please keep the relavant comments coming!
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@ Luke Shephard Wenger is doing what he can to build a team with decent English players in it but we all know he will not pay over the price that he values them at, so he has to build that team from youngsters. No one can predict who will be a star for their national team in the future. it is always a gamble. Some players look quality and develop quickly from a young age, but then dont develope into a top player and some take a little longer. Gerrard was not in the England team at 18, no one knew how good he would be and has come on to become an important player. Then you look at a player like Francis Jeffers who was tipped to be a massive England star and it didnt work out for him.
So no one can say whether our youngsters will make it or not, but as long has we give them the best oppertunity available, which Wenger seems to be doing, then we have a big chance of having big England players at Arsenal. Wenger has said on Arsenal.com that JET will go on loan to a premier league club in January in a bid to do the same with him as he has done with Wilshere. If it pays off, i can see him taking over from Bendtner. Like i said before the young enlish players need to be patient, unlike players like Bentley who couldnt wait for his chance and moved to Blackburn, he did well and when he got in the england side he went to Spurs and now he only plays in the carling cup. Who know’s if he would have been running the show at Arsenal now if he had stayed. I know Song is no English but when he arrived he looked awful, and then went on loan to Charlton and had a good season, came back and still didnt look anything special, but he stayed patient, worked hard and when he got his chance after Flamini and Gilberto left he made that position his own. So it is not down to Wenger to bring in more English players, but for the ones we have to prove they deserve it.
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It is not about having majority English players but about having the best English players and Arsenal and non-Arsenal fans alike will agree that we easily have 3 of the best young players for England.
“with majority of supporters English” this is also wrong, Arsenal have a HUGE foreign fan base. It is only because Arsenal play in England they seem to have majority English supporters. I have family that come from Pakistan who holiday to England at times when Arsenal will play Man United. I should note they are Arsenal fans not United fans lol.
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OF COURSE IF THEY ARE GOOD AND AT THE RIGHT PRICE
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Right now I’d be happy if all we bought were French players of North African origin.
I don’t care a snot about where a player comes from only that he’s proud to wear an Arsenal shirt, and he can bring something to the team.
Besides we’ve got loads of talented English youngsters from Theo, Gibbs, and Wilshere, to Afobe, Aneke, JET and Frimpong. (I’m still not convinced about Eastmond or Angela).
What many people haven’t quite grasped yet is that football is a global game. It’s also a branded game where ‘Arsenal’ means something in places we couldn’t even spell 10 years ago.
One of the reasons I support Arsenal is its lack of the kind of boundaries I experienced when I first started to watch football.
Arsenal allowed me in at a time when other clubs were still hostile.
Let’s not go back to re-drawing those boundaries.
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You see the double standard crap of de english? Here is dis boy luke callin on arsene to use those untalented-over-hyped players from england so that at the end of the day if the team fail to deliver, these same english media will be on the head of arsene, callin him names. Thank god we have a coach who doesn’t buy players base on passport. Just look at walcot, when is he gonna be dat player everybody dreams of? Mind u, he was bought for ten million, an amount dat could have bought a vermalen and song
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I wonder if the majority of Arsenal fans are English, anymore.
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Well we certainly must NOT buy anymore junks liKE DENILSON!
Well we certainly must NOT buy anymore junks liKE DENILSON!
Well we certainly must NOT buy anymore junks liKE DENILSON!
Well we certainly must NOT buy anymore junks liKE DENILSON!
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as many posts stated English players are ridiculously expensive and overrated
i would say sell Walcot and buy a decent winger
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Luke, I am from england, and frankly it gives me pleasure to see this set of players do poorly. If more quality (in terms of playing style) footballers like the ones coming through at arsenal, villa and everton in particular start to make it, then I might start to take more of an interest.
That should have no bearing on arsenal however. If theyr good enough, as jack has proven himself to be, then they should play. I hope lansbury, JET, gibbs and theo prove themselves as well, but until then, we cant sacrifice our league position because it *might* help england out. Theo MUST have cost us a fair few points over the years because we could have signed a number of better experienced players to take have his place in the squad.
And showing favouritism over the young foreign players is also foolish. Is walcott really so much better than vela to justify the extra game time and responsibility he has been given? I hate to sound like a theo-hater, Im really not, but he has been favoured over the mexican, and I really cant see why.
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It seems to me, that some dont care about our national side. That is awful if you ask me. You should always support your country. I understand that you want the best for Arsenal, but they can do as good, if they add some English players into the mix.
And I agree with the people who say that Wenger is bringing English players into the team through the academy.It is low cost, and obviously working as the likes of Wilshere, JET, Gibbs have been brought through the academy system.
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Luke – patriotism is bullshit. The england team doesnt represent me. Arsenal represents me better by not effectively cheating by spending money they cant afford to pay like some of the other clubs. This alone necessitates purchasing foreign players, but even if it didnt, there are very few english players who are currently good enough to play for arsenal in our style.
I support all the young players. I hope as many of them can make it at arsenal as possible, but it pains me to see some players getting more opportunities when they dont deserve to. It’s unfair on the others, and often it seems the foreign ones are discriminated against.
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You cant say foreign players are discriminated against in the Arsenal team. I think Wenger is fair with who he gives chances. He has given Song his chances over the past years and now is one of our best players.
Im not saying Arsenal spend ridiculous amounts of money to bring in English players, HELL NO!
When Wenger arrived, the likes Tony Adams, Ian Wright and Lee Dixon were in the team. Now those players were just as good as the players he brought into the team. It is not right, that an English team, dont have not many English players in the first team!
I respect that you may have given up on the England team, (if your English im not sure) but we need a sence of Identity that we are an ‘English’ team.
Wilshere has proved that English players are just as good technically, as foreign players like Denilson, Rosisky.
I do respect what your saying Davi, people have a right to have there own opinion.
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Yes I am english. I dont understand the logic that arsenal being an english club should have predominantly english players. Identity in that respect, is not important. It is important that arsenal has an identity of being fair – that is supposed to be an english trait, although I dont think many people outside of england would really agree.
Wilshere has proven that HE is technically gifted as other foreign playesr, but it’s nothing to do with his nationality. Most established english players are not, although I think the standard is being raised, particularly by arsenal and clubs like villa and everton. The reason players like jack and gibbs are coming through with this level of technical skill is that since arsene joined, that side of the game has been stressed more at all levels. We are starting to see the benefits. That doesnt mean they deserve more chances than the foreign players, if they are just as good.
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Why is it not right that an english club doesnt have many english players btw? I want to hear the logic.
I dont mean to sound disrespectful, I just don’t see it.
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We have 28!!! English players listed in the CL/EPL squad. I think that’s pretty significant…
Walcott
Wilshere
Gibbs
Afobe
Yennaris
Meade
Brislen-Hall
Boateng
Obed
Deacon
Byles
Aneke
Bartley
Cruise
Eastmond
Emmanuel-Thomas
Freeman
Gilbert
Henderson
Hoyte
Lansbury
Murphy
Randall
Shea
Simpson
Watt
Evina
Frimpong
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Luke, you’re making a false assumption in the way you’re arguing. Many (most?) Arsenal fans are not English. They are from all around the world, myself included. I really don’t care if Arsene buys English or not except for one thing – most English haven’t gotten the desire to play outside of England. It’s harder to entice a British player to play in e.g. Italy or Spain than to do it to a Dutch, Brazilian or French player.
Looking at the English talent coming through Arsenal now, I’m not too concerned about that either. I do have to admit that the restriction put on English clubs in recruiting English talent outside a small circle around the club limits how early a club like Arsenal can start educating the players in the game.
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Davi;
Why is it not right that an english club doesnt have many english players btw?
I think a club that is English should have at least five or six players in there squad at games. You look at teams that have won the World Cup over the past years, Spain; About 75% of the players in there league are eligible, Italy; About 65% are eligible. In the Barclays, only 40% of players are eligible I am a patriotic person, like you have already probably guessed, this is because i want to see this country do well! And i think other teams, not just Arsenal tbf, need to bring more English players into there team and improve there academy, like Arsenal have.
T2T;
Fair enough, you named 25 english players in our squad, but only 3 of those play in the first team, and only one of them starts at the moment.
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Why is it not right that an english club doesnt have many english players?
Because its a sport, passport or the piece of land you were born on is not important. Because to say that it is not right for an english club (a club that sells it’s product worldwide btw) to have too many foreign players creates yet another division between people which is routinely exploited by the tabloids to stir up xenophobia.
Where is the link between nationality and football ability? Do you hold patriotism above fairness?
Arsenal is not the same as england. It has to look out for arsenal, that’s how a business works. If the fa wants to help the england national team, they have to do something to incentivize the clubs to invest more heavily in youth. Perhaps imposing a wage cap, or saying that clubs who live outside their means cannot qualify for europe, or will be deducted points.
All I am trying to point out is that there is no logic to your belief that there should be a certain number of english players for an english club. If you want the club to be discriminative, you must have some real reasoning for it. You cant expect them to produce/buy more english players just because you want the national team to do well.
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what next Luke? u gonna want all ethnics to leave ‘cos you want England to be for the “English” only?
Arsenal’s best players (for as long as i’ve been watching football)have been foreigners Bergkamp, Petit, Overmars, Pires, Viera, Henry, Fabregas, Persie and now Nasri!
English players are never as technically gifted as the French, Spanish, Brazilian, Argentinian etc. It’s not Arsenal’s fault english players are no where near as good as their foreign counterparts but 2-4 times as expensive.
You see the difference in quality when you switch from the Premier League to La Liga. It’s proper football- not hoofing the ball in to the box hoping Andy Carrol’s gonna get a head to it!
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btw Arsene Wenger is also not English but i don’t see you calling for his head because he’s not English….
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Wow, Davi your good.
Im just going to leave this debate at this.
I belive clubs from England, Spain, even Afganistan for all i care, should help there national side out. We have different opinions on this, you belive that Arsenal should only worry about Arsenal, whether I belive Arsenal should try to help the national side, as well as keeping the quality of there game. Im not saying have the whole starting line up as English, that would not be Arsenal, im saying that we should not forget Arsenal is an English club, and im sure anyone in the world can respect that!
Thankyou Davi, an interesting debate which has, not changed my opinion, but maybe altered it a little.
Thankyou.
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Oh and Davi,
If i do another article, please comment,
I would like to hear your views.
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Help the national team by paying twice the transfer fee for half the talent? No thanks, England’s squad is fine Capello isn’t.
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Luke, You’re just 15 so I’m going to be gentle and politely say that it is not Arsenal’s responsibility to develop English players. It is the FA’s job to do that. Youth academies are very important if a country has to consistently develop young talent. Something along the lines of France’s Clairefontaine. The FA has planned for one but it will only be completed in 2012. This is something that should have been done decades ago.
Another point that you made – that Arsenal doesnt buy English. Its true because it makes no monetary sense. AFC cannot put blind patriotism in front and pay inflated values for English footballers. Instead, it develops young English players who are taught to play football the RIGHT way. Be patient, young grasshopper. 10 years down the line, I guarantee you’ll see your English team filled with Gunners or players are products of the Arsenal academy.
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It’s frankly not our job to supply England with good players. Arsenal play every week, England play every couple of months I’d rather see Arsenal do well than England. I love England but if English players can’t get themselves into the top team and can’t perform at international level then that’s a waste of our money, time and team !
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@Luke, thanks. Yes, this is what debate is for, I often feel the same.
It’s good to see someone who is open-minded and eager to engage in civil debate. I’ll look forward to your next post
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First, we don’t need YOUNG english players, we have enough. And we have developed many, for instance ashley cole is pure arsenal, the thing is that his current wage is paid by chelsea, but everybody knows that he is pure arsenal. And there are some other players alike.
Now it is coincidental that our trophy draught began since the moment we started to lack english players in our first team, especially defenders.
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CORRECTION – Arsenal may be an ENGLISH Club but it is also a global club, the majority of FANS are actually not English. Arsenal has fans can be seen in ASIA , AFRICA, USA and Europe. If you total the number im sure they are more than in England. Arsenal is a global brand not just for the English.
For Arsenal to remain profitable it needs foreign players. Football might be a sport but it also needs money to compete and survive.
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I believe the reason why we don’t field more English players is because most of them simply don’t make the cut on technicality that is required to play in a team like Arsenal. In La Liga it is different – the Spanish youngsters train on a small, 5-a side pitch where they learn how to execute precision passing and movement rather than the English game of long-ball, heading, free kick, crosses etc – essentially an old-fashioned style of play which is getting easier and easier to play against. How many times have we watched an England game where Gerrard has predictability heaved the ball upfield only to be headed away with ease? The English game needs a refreshment of ideas, and with the likes of Wilshere (who I would love to see as the key playmaker in-the-hole for the England squad in the future) hopefully it might happen.
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Luke,
maybe a true fan can care equally about club and country, but in practice is looks like you are willing to put the interests of England before those of Arsenal. And if you do that, you are not a true Arsenal fan.
You seem to feel that everyone should support their national side in sports? Why? Who cares? Why would you care about the fortunes of serial diver Gerrard, Cashley, Shrek and that despicable human being John Terry?
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Well im a person who wants to see club and country do well. Some people are more club supporters, some people are more a country supporters, me I support both equally.
But if teams like Barcelona, Ac milan, Marsielle, Borrussia Dortmund viewed themselves as global club, then there national teams would be awful!
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Hay Luke I’m also 15 and I dream of being a football manager one day. Maybe not a club like Arsenal or Barca, but any club. 1st of all, ur writing is great. You have got good football knowledge. But 2nd, Arsenal is not a feeder club to England (btw I’m South African). The fact that the National Manager is Italian shows that the system is not 100%. England need someone like Harry Redknapp who is English at heart-which will automatically bring that sence of pride, determination and patriotism- and the desire to suceed with the team will be there. Capello is only interested in how many 0′s are on his cheque. Clichy is too good to be replaced in my opinion. He is quicker, more attacking and experienced than Gibbs (who is excellent btw) and Gibbs will be great competition. Wilshire is a force and him in mid is great. Denilson is good but needs time (he definately has potential to be an important man in mid) he might not be the next Fab or Vieira but he is good non the less. You can’t compare JET to RVP, JET is still developing. Your club should be first before country in terms of football. Think of it as being employed by club but country is an extra-mural. I hope I have not angered or irritated any fellow Gooners and please feel free to reply. I’d be greateful to yall.
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@Luke
Let’s look at inter milan in italy. Let’s bear in mind that they won the champions league with very few italian players. All arsenal fans support arsenal but not all support england. It’s not arsenal’s responsibility to train players for the national team. If we didn’t have any english players, i would have agreed with u but that’s not the case.
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Hello.
manager most not buy young play dis time.
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