Arsene Wenger has revealed the reasons why he prefers to develop young English players at the Arsenal Academy rather than buy them from “smaller” teams in England. He thinks that they take much longer to come to terms with a move to a club where they are surrounded by other talented players and feel under pressure more…
Wenger said on Arsenal.com: “English players could have more of a problem when they come from a smaller club to this club because of how big the pressure is. They’ve fulfilled a dream because most of the time players want to come to a big club in England, and they could be under much more pressure than they’re used to.
“It could take them some time to express themselves with freedom so they can display their talent. They go from being regular players at another club to having their position threatened and that they have to face competition from inside that they were not used to. That, of course, can be destabilising as well.”
This summer Arsenal bought Calum Chambers from Southampton and Danny Welbeck from Man United. I guess they don’t count as being from “smaller clubs” as both those teams are above us in the League table….for now….
But Wenger also gave us an insight into the qualities he looks for when buying foreign players, as the have to learn to adapt even more. He also said: “First of all you have to look at the level of education of the player because they have to learn the language.”
“You have to look at their family’s history and whether they’ve ever moved somewhere else, the culture and where the player’s grown up.
“You hear that he doesn’t like to leave home, things like that. I believe it’s very important because not everybody is exportable without being negative.
“It’s not necessarily a quality to go to a different country because the target in life is to be happy and some people are happier when they are in their own environment.
“Some people have that desire to discover other cultures, other places and people, and they will be more happy, so you have to analyse that.”
So when JustArsenal readers say things like “Player X is brilliant so go get him Wenger”, we should all realise that it is not just a question of paying the money and he plays straight away. There are many more factors involved than we could possibly imagine….