Arsènal (10 page)

Occasionally the cast-off is recalled. Upson played enough matches in 2001/02 to earn a Premier League winners' medal. But the long-term outlook is bleak for those whose objective is to be regarded as an integral component of the first-team squad. Even if Jérémie Aliadière did notch up eight seasons, he had been farmed out three times before eventually getting a number of first-team appearances under his belt during his final months at Arsenal. But the surprise was that he had lasted so long. Just when it looked as if, having persevered in the face of competition from a plethora of international strikers, he might get his chance, injury intervened in the 2004 Community Shield, ruling him out for most of the season. By the time of his recovery, he had fallen back down the pecking order and eventually Wenger accepted an offer of £2 million for him from Middlesbrough in 2007. Three of the current first-team pool who have returned from their loans are Alexandre Song, Nicklas Bendtner and Justin Hoyte. Hoyte should be especially concerned as, according to the data, it is not until a player is given a number below 30 that he can feel the manager is seriously contemplating keeping him (Aliadière wore the number 30 in his last season; Hoyte sports 31).

Often cited as evidence in favour of both the academy and the loan system, Ashley Cole's progress through the ranks must be regarded as atypical. With the club ceasing to field the first-choice Brazilian-born left back Silvinho for fear of punishment due to his being registered with the football authorities using a dubious Portuguese passport, Cole was pressed into service early in 2001. He had been on loan at Crystal Palace, and just before the Silvinho predicament arose, a fee of £200,000 had been agreed to make the move permanent.

So the sweeping under the carpet of Wenger's first choice (quietly sold the following summer to Celta Vigo) opened the door to a genuine product of Arsenal's youth academy. The young man took his chance and was soon regarded as a permanent fixture. Academy head Liam Brady expressed pride that two of his former apprentices gained title medals in 2002, although goalkeeper Stuart Taylor, despite coach Bob Wilson's recommendation, was never given the opportunity to take over from David Seaman and only obtained the requisite ten appearances due to a combination of injuries to the two above him in the pecking order and a final-day substitute appearance.

The Arsenal academy has the responsibility for the development of boys between the ages of nine and 21. As it has been in existence for less than ten years, perhaps the 2001/02 season was a little premature to be expecting fully fledged first-teamers to emerge. However, by 2008, still no one had followed in Cole and Taylor's footsteps. The club's own website lists the players that the academy has produced. Johan Djourou, Fabrice Muamba, Sebastian Larsson, Arturo Lupoli and Nicklas Bendtner are cited among the more recent graduates, even if they spent their earlier years with clubs abroad. Going back a few years Jermaine Pennant, David Bentley, Steve Sidwell, Justin Hoyte, Jérémie Aliadière and Ryan Smith are mentioned. “With academy players regularly dominating the Arsenal reserve team line-ups and a steady progression of players being blooded in the senior side,” states arsenal.com, “the academy production line looks set to continue and produce players to grace the Gunners' new Emirates Stadium for many years to come.” If they do, it will be a genuine breakthrough.

There is no mention of Cesc Fabregas, Gaël Clichy, Abou Diaby, Denilson and Philippe Senderos, all of whom joined the club as teenagers. Theo Walcott famously came from Southampton at the age of 16. Where is the academy contribution to their development? The conclusion has to be that these kids were immediately drafted into the first-team squad due to Arsène Wenger's belief that, unlike their contemporaries, their innate ability marked them out as special (probably epitomised in his eyes by the initial impression Fabregas made on him, “At 16, to say no to Barcelona and yes to Arsenal, it was really astonishing. I was very curious to know exactly what type of kid is this to say to Barcelona ‘you didn't treat me with enough consideration, I am going'.”) He also believed that prolonged exposure to the coaching, even of his own staff, away from his watchful eye might fail to bring the best out of them.

Is it a coincidence that of the recent graduates listed by the club, none became established first-team players, and only three – Djourou, Hoyte and Bendtner – are still at the club (all of whom, having experienced a spell on the outside, may yet be sold rather than start on a regular basis)? A cynic might believe that the importance attached to the academy nowadays is the result of the regulations regarding quotas of home-developed players (eight out of the permitted 25 in the squad at present) necessary in UEFA competitions. Because they were teenagers when they arrived, Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott fulfil the necessary qualifications despite, in all likelihood, rarely coming into contact with Liam Brady and the academy coaching team. So it is never going to be difficult for Arsenal to make up the requisite numbers in the Champions League squad, even if few of them these days are English.

Relaxing at his north London home, Wenger is prepared to submit to a friendly interrogation regarding his propensity for foreign youngsters.

“It is true [that Arsenal has more foreign youngsters] – but what you always have to consider is how you produce a player. If you want to completely develop a player, ideally you take him at the age of five and you bring him right through to the first team. But the reality is that he arrives at your club [much later] at 16 or 17. If you look at the top clubs in Europe, Arsenal is producing more young players than any of them.”

He is defensive when it is put to him that of all the major clubs in Europe, Arsenal has more foreigners than any other, retorting, “Yes, but what I don't understand in that is that it looks always like an accusation – why?”

“Because there would be closer identification between the fans and the team if there were more nationals, that's why,” responds his questioner.

“Maybe you are right,” he counters, “but I am against this idea. I think the identification should be with the quality of your display, with the spectacle you produce and the values you want to represent. And not with your passport. Maybe my thinking is not traditionalist enough, but I believe that sport can unite the world and can be an idea of what a modern society will be tomorrow. And if we regress and say ‘OK, we keep all the foreign players out and the foreign coaches', I am not against that because I can go home and work at home. But I believe as well the same people, if tomorrow they have to watch the Premier League with only local players, they would be disenchanted. So it is always ‘OK, we like what you play, we like what you do but we want that with English players'. I'm sorry, I'm not capable to produce it at the moment. I hope I will be one day but at the moment I cannot do it. And I do feel guilty for not doing that, but on the other hand I feel as well that for me the justice in sport is if tomorrow you live in South Africa and you grow up and you train to be a footballer in the best league in the world, that you get the chance to achieve it. That's what I think is beautiful. If somebody says ‘Sorry my friend, you cannot play with the best players because you have not the right passport', for me it's not really sport.”

Wenger can get away with such a view because his team is successful, overcoming the natural conservatism and insularity of supporters. His view is a more optimistic one of human nature than many experience in the stands at a match. He feels, “Fans can as well be educated. Five per cent of the most regressive sometimes expresses their opinion but it doesn't mean it's the majority. It takes time but I still believe that our fans are quite educated. I agree there is a price to pay, but at the moment the balance is not completely right because we should produce more local players, but the big clubs will always have problems now to win and to produce that. Why? Because you can only scout in a small area and the big clubs cannot only do that.”

Scout Tony Banfield is adamant. “Football in Europe cannot be viewed as being English, French or German anymore – it's European,” he says. “We can't go backwards. And if English kids don't reach the required level we will use those from other countries.” He is however optimistic that progress will be made on the home front. “Regarding the produce of Arsenal's academy gaining first team places, it will get better. We will have players who come into the side in the future.”

As a former defender now back in the fold as a youth coach, Steve Bould forecasts there will be more ‘locals' in the future, citing Kieran Gibbs, Mark Randall and Henri Lansbury (despite the spelling of his first name) as local boys with the potential to make good, allowing Bould to ponder, “Maybe that eight-year cycle is coming to fruition now. Maybe the academy set up is starting to produce. Over the next few years, we might see a bundle of these kids getting in their first teams, not just here but throughout the country.” These youngsters are probably the first batch to have overcome the English malaise of poor coaching in their formative years and will arrive at maturity with a sure first touch in both feet. However, Steve Bould is perhaps indulging in wishful thinking if he believes they are more likely to achieve first-team status at Arsenal than elsewhere. Although he is a biased witness, Wenger himself defends his policy: “I have tried to build an academy that will recruit young local kids. At present, we have exceptional under-14s and under-16s. Technically they are extraordinary.”

One notable departure from the usual precedent of arranging loans to other English clubs has seen the placing of two teenagers in Spain. Fran Merida, plucked by Arsenal from Barcelona's academy in a similar manner as Cesc Fabregas, has been sent to Real Sociedad in the second division, whilst Mexican striker Carlos Vela, who at the time of writing had yet to kick a ball at any level for Arsenal, spent the 2006/07 with second-division Salamanca before going to top-flight
La Liga
side Osasuna. (In the case of Vela, to qualify for a UK work permit, he had to serve time in Spain.) Still to demonstrate the exceptional potential of a Fabregas, Wenger probably feels that they will learn more through being exposed to a league more conducive to their background and style of play than could be found in England and thereby have more chance to succeed than other loanees. If Merida does come out unscathed, he will be bucking the trend in a further way as he did train as one of the academy youths for a full season (rather than with the first-team squad). At least the two boys, together with their English peers, testify to Steve Bould's claim that the meticulous attention to scouting pays dividends. “First and foremost we manage to get hold of good players,” says Bould. “It seems a simple starting point – recruiting the best – but it isn't so easy when every other club is trying to do the same . . . whether from abroad or in and around London.”

“Do British kids have a right to play for British teams?” asks Tony Banfield. “ They have to earn the right.” He feels that the changing culture in affluent societies has handicapped their chances, reflecting that, “now, in working class London, kids can't play on the streets and develop themselves the way I used to. On my travels, I have developed the P formula – population plus poverty produces players.” Such an equation may go some way to explaining the English exception of Wayne Rooney, who as a child played football in the roads of the working-class Croxteth area of Liverpool, where a large number of the residents were unable to find employment. Banfield confirms that, as a rule, “kids in the UK have to be nurtured in a structured manner, as they don't play on the streets. But facilities don't make players. In Africa they play in bare feet, but the quality produced now is higher than many richer countries.” Of the competition to make it as a professional, he feels no sympathy for home-grown talent, stating, “It's an open market. So if you want to join Manchester United, you have to be better than a kid from France or Spain or Africa. And Spain is used as a stepping stone to the EU now for non-EU kids.”

To counter the greater competition for the best players, the catchment area for Arsenal targets has increased in size. Brazil was not an unfamiliar source for seasoned players

(Silvinho, Edu and Gilberto were purchased over a period of four years, whilst Barcelona's Edmilson might have joined them were it not for work-permit problems) but now the scouting system is working hard to secure teenagers from South and Central America, such as Denilson and the Mexican Vela. There is unquestionably a greater Hispanic presence at the club now, with Fabregas, Manuel Almunia, Eduardo and Merida (José Antonio Reyes and Julio Baptista providing further evidence from the recent past). David Dein says that “Arsène believes the future lies with South American and African players,” although Wenger himself would not go as far as to publicly admit it. It can be assumed that he holds this belief due to the perceived superior technique of Spanish and South American prospects and greater physicality of African players. In the English game, there is little debate that an element of aerial dominance and raw power in defence is a prerequisite to success, although at Arsenal it has to be combined with technique. Further forward, there is more of a mix, as pace and skill assume greater importance.

Master of all he surveys – he fulfils the role of technical director as well as coach and general factotum on the playing side – Wenger has built a team of scouts under the direction of Steve Rowley and Dave Holden who transverse the globe. Based in Italy, but with a territorial responsibility that extends beyond the Alps, Tony Banfield, explains: “Scouts are headhunters looking for players who are better than those we have. At the end of each year our aim is to upgrade the playing performance of the team, physically, tactically and technically.” These men are a mirror opposite of his players. “These English scouts”, as Wenger explains, “have been formed here [at Arsenal] but have my way of seeing things”.