Wenger follows Gazidis in talking up promotion from the Arsenal academy

I am beginning to think that the Arsenal Board and Arsene Wenger already know who will be replacing Le Prof at the end of the season, and they have only delayed the announcement until it was privately confirmed.

Gazidis spoke about the next manager having to be prepared to promote youngsters from the Arsenal Academy, and Wenger has followed it up today by singing from the same hymn book. “It’s very important for our football club to show the young players some faith and trust,” Wenger said.

“As long as you don’t give them a chance – even if you say that you believe they’re a good player – as long as you don’t have the courage to put them on the pitch, they don’t really believe you. At the moment it’s a good opportunity to see how ready they are and for them as well to realise that it’s much harder than they imagined when they’re playing in youth-team games.

“If you look across England, for me that’s one of my main worries. If you look through the Premier League, there’s no young players. Everywhere you have academies, everywhere you have good players but nobody plays. Why? Because of the gap between the youth league and the Premier League and the pressure every manager is under to perform.”

So I wonder if the next manager has been told to concentrate on blooding youngsters rather than buying expensive players from the inflated transfer market, as Wenger also spoke about bringing through Reiss Nelson, who made his debut last week against Southampton. “Reiss can dribble, pass people, take people on, he has a change of direction, good technique, good crossing technique, good finishing technique… it’s all there in the locker but part of quality in life is to produce when it’s needed. That’s why the big stage is so important.

“When I speak about being inhibited, it’s vital that the players turn up in these kinds of games and are not fazed by the pressure. They have to resist stress and still manage to express their talent. That’s what it is about.

“That’s why I want to put young players into games where they’re under pressure, where every movement is analysed and scrutinised. It is part of the learning process to become a football player.”

Even further, Wenger even pinpointed some of our youngsters who could be following Maitland-Niles, Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock into the first team squad. “Emile Smith Rowe is close and Josh Dasilva is close,” Le Prof said.

“Mavropanos as well, but at the moment he is injured, and Osei-Tutu, the right back. These are the players who are close and they need to be developed before we slowly give them a chance.”

So this looks like Arsenal’s new policy going forward is to bring youngsters through more and more. It is an admirable quality if they actually reach that level, but how many games will we lose while we are going through this transition?

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19 Comments

  1. Promoting youth has always been a club policy…and Arsenal will still be run on a budget…

    This has been going on for years

    The new manager is not going to come in and spend 500million every season….

    Any new signings requested by the new manager is gonna have to seek Gazadis and the board approval

  2. what a great foundation AW has left for the new manager. U23 just won the league and are in the Intercontinental cup final. The U18 in the youth cup final. both teams scoring heavily. Thank and I hope he does come poaching these young stars of the future. particularly as some need a new contract.

      1. Theres a chance…

        Usmanov and Moshiri owns Everton….

        Usmanov has been a great fan of Wenger and always call for Kroneke and the board to back Wenger with signings

        Additionally during tough times, he has never call for Wenger’s sacking….

        Everton May be Wenger’s next destination and Wenger will be back to poach some of the young stars

        1. Usmanov does NOT own Everton.League rules do not allow anyone to own shares in more than one club.Think about it.And exactly HOW MANY youth players at Arsenal over the LAST TWENTY TWO SEASONS did Wenger actually bring through who had careers not just with us but who went on to play for other clubs? Gibbs and Cole.ANYONE ELSE?Do not come back with Walcott Anelka Ox Chamberlin as the we’re PURCHASED.
          Plus ANY NEW MANAGER will NOT play young players from the Acadamies in anything other than Carabao and Europa Cups.He will want his experienced players to give himself a chance of succeeding.Experimenting with Youth players will not happen

  3. We have not been promoting youth since the days of Cesc and Jack. Bellerin is the only player to come from our youth team to the Senior 11. We have to find and promote youth talent as we can not compete financially with the likes of City. But we are also not Tottenham we have money to buy a few stars. So a good mix would be ideal.
    Nketiah and Nelson look ready to play some games for the team. The new Greek kid Mavrapoulos could also be good.
    The key is to buy at least 2-3 really good players and then support with our youth.

  4. True promotion of youth through the clubs junior ranks to make the first team can and will only ever be severely limited in success. Global clubs at top level have to look world wide for players. We are all for youth , in theory, but in practice it has been of very limited success for ages and will only get less so. Lifes reality at top- level. Sad, in a way ,but certainly true!

    1. Barcelona and Ajax in the past have succeded with youth…We dont have enough money to compete with the likes of manure so youth is becoming then an absolute necessity…If they’r good enough

    1. And to think we reportedly turned down £40m from Barcelona for him last summer.Just look how well Debauchy is playing for St Etienne and we kept Hector.No wonder Wenger was sacked.

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