Its common knowledge Arsenal’s Reserves team play their matches at Barnet football club’s Underhill stadium in North London, with the Young Gunners paying the League 2 side for use of the pitch and facilities, when they are not in use by the Bee’s first team.
It (Underhill) has a capacity of 5,568 and is the smallest Football League stadium in London, it is also famous for its slope from the North to South end. This term See’s its 100th year of use, so not only does the pitch take the full force of Barnet’s matches, but also our Reserves team, there-fore the already sloped, average pitch is left in a poor state around the turn of the new year, something which was highlighted during Arsenal’s Reserves League south fixture against Chelsea on Tuesday night.
With Arsenal now paying millions for the young talents that ply their trade for the Reserves, and with the game broadcast live, Reserves football is on the up and becoming big business with now all the top four Premiership clubs showing the second string’s games live on the official TV channels and with the other sides offering match reports, surley we deserve something better?.
Barcelona built a brand new stadium on the side of the Nou Camp, called Mini Estadi, for the B team to play, a truly awesome ground with a capacity of 15,276, and with the pressure already on for the youngsters to show what they are all about quickly when they arrive for us to then have to borrow a shoddy pitch is not allowing them to play the quick passing style of play, and show their technique which after paying all that money for them, they should is frustrating and annoying.
Arsenal’s Under 18’s games are played at the Colney training ground, on state of the art immaculate pitches, which has allowed us to play better football, however they are very open to the elements, and with no stands or seats, watching is often difficult.
So what do you think? should we keep playing at Underhill, or move them to the training ground? or should we build a new ground for the games?.
Leave your views below.
Article By – J.Sanderson
i was thinking we shouldve kept highbury and used that for reserve games, highbury was an immaculate pitch, so the youngsters would be able to play on a good pitch without bumps in the ground, and a slope lyk at underhill , ive been to underhill this season to watch our reserves and the pitch is awful it has loads of bumps and da slopes really bad, maybe we couldve kept highbury for reserve games, and youth games but it probably wouldve cost money etc
yep good points matthew.
Highbury was turned into flats which helped pay for the Emirates, plus it was a small pitch so i dont know if we would have learnt from it.
I personally think we should build say a 15 thousand seat stadium somewere nnear to the training ground like what Barcelona have were they play there B games IMO
The Barcelona B team plays in the Spanish League system and therefore probably have a bigger budget. I have never been to a reserve game but this doesn’t seem good enough. If the situation is that bad, then I believe Arsenal are working on a plan to fix it or I at least hope so. Building a new stadium is quite expensive. Maybe we could financially support Barnet to fix their stadium.
Matthew. I agree that it would have been amazing for the reserve to play on Highbury. However, it had probably been more expensive then all the reserve stadiums in England combined.
over the summer, re-surface underhill and build a new stand you could double the capacity with little effort, no?
I like the idea of having used Highbury as a playing ground for the reserves after Emirates was built. But I can also understand why they chose to develop the site instead to earn more revenue.
Now that Highbury is (sadly) no more, the idea of building a new playing ground for the reserves would be the best, I think. Provided that the club has the finances to do so at the moment. After all, they are still paying for the Emirates stadium, right? But something like that would really help our youngsters develop even further. Arsenal want to be a big club, and I think they’ve said at some point that the goal is to have one of the best akademiies in Europe. Now, the akademy is fine, but the youngsters DO deserve better. Somthing like what the Barcelona reserves have would be far better.
You know I actually thought that Highbury should have been left open to Reserves but obviously it seems Arsenal LTD had other ideas.
I believe that the situation with Barca B is justified by the league system over there.
We shouldn’t compae between FA Reserve League and Spanish B League.
Our reserve doesn’t have to play professional teams week in week out. Instead they play other reserve teams. The standard obviously will be lower.
With the Emirates stadium built, I was also hoping the club will build a mini stadium or a training centre beside the Emirates stadium to accommodate Academy and Reserve football. I thought they would at least provide a 10000 seater.
However, we shouldn’t give the players the wrong impression that they are better than what they actually are. Youngsters can get cocky and we don’t want that now do we?
Plying their trade at lowly Underhill is not such a bad idea as it helps the guys over there. Also it is close to Arsenal and reduces travel costs =]
It’s a good education, playing on a bog. Half the premiership pitches are bomb sites come the new year, so it’s a taste of things to come.
Do you know how much it costs to keep a stadium running?
It would have to be shared with a team that plays week in week out, its not financially viable to have a stadium sitting somewhere just for reserve games.
Small clubs like Barnet could do with a little more support from the big boys and maybe Arsenal could consider investing a little more to help Barnet bring the stadium up to the standards you might expect for the Arsenal reserves?
no building anything.. let them learn the tough way.. with pitches like wigan and even OT during the FA cup.. they have to be prepared… no need to spoil them.
I think ideas about 10.000 capacity stadium for the reserves are quite unrealistic. We need maybe a thousand seater and Barnet’s capacity is well beyond what’s necessary. If we have a big game, like Liverpool or Man Utd in the Youth Cup, then we can just play it on Emirates as we did last year.
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And not only is Barca B apart of the spanish league system, the mini-stadium isn’t “new”, it was built in ’82.
and underhill is good for these youngsters, keeps them grounded.
Someone mentioned that if we built a ground we’d have to share it with a team that plays week in and week out to pay for it which is quite true… and that brings us back to Barnet or somebody very much like them. I think the points about having to play on different qualities of pitch to learn the trade and a lack of glamour keeping the young reserves grounded are also good points.
As for financing them, we’re paying rent to be there, I’m sure. I like the idea of us staying there, and yes maybe helping with the finances for ground improvements if needs be. If we move elsewhere then we’ll end up in much the same situation with having to partner with a smaller team to pay for the ground. I think we’re doing a good thing working with Barnet, and I think more clubs should be doing the same as us if they aren’t already.
the up side is that they need to learn how to adapt to poor pitches, at reserve level they have amazing technique, but they dont have playing experience, and a cold windy night on a poor pitch is a good experience as thats what they’ll get at Wigan and bolton etc. I think its good for them