When the Home Grown rules were announced by the FA all those years ago, Arsene Wenger made a concerted effort to either train from a young age, or buy, the best English youngsters that were available so that Arsenal’s first team could be powered by a loyal “English core” at some point in the future.
This included players like Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs, Carl Jenkinson, Aaron Ramsey (okay British!), Theo Walcott, etc. Now, five years later, only Wilshere (who has played just one game this season) and Aaron Ramsey are going to appear at the Euros this summer.
But Wenger is still aiming for English youngsters, and the latest prodigy that Wenger has his eye on is the 17 year-old Hull City left-back Josh Tymon, who was only making his second appearance for the Tigers when Arsenal played them in the cup earlier this season.
It seems Wenger was impressed by what he saw and is now trying to entice the youngster to the Emirates. It does make sense to bring in a left-back, with Kieran Gibbs future at the club in doubt, and with Nacho Monreal getting on in years but still performing like a star every week.
Tymon’s prodigious talent has been noticed by others too, with Tottenham also reported to be keen, and the Hull lad has also gained his first call up to the England U17 team.
I am sure he could be an excellent youngster, but having seen so many young Englishman come through the Arsenal system and ending up as mediocre senior players, I am of the opinion that we would be better off buying an established left-back, whatever his nationality.
What do you think?
Darren