Arseblogger has a point, I’ve seen people say that they’re sure Afobe, Aneke (always get confused between those two, can someone help me out? :P) etc will become Arsenal legends before they’ve played a game for Arsenal.

But Youth sites obviously perform a great service too, especially for gooners who don’t live in London; I live in New Delhi, and will probably never go to London, but I would like to know what’s happening at my club, know about the reserves etc.

I think there’s a very simple and effective solution: simply make a list of those talents who promised so much and then failed to deliver (Aliadiere, Lupoli etc) and put it on the home page, along with a line that reminds everyone that almost all the players you report on haven’t played even one game for Arsenal, even in the Carling Cup.

Wilshire is about to become a top player in a top club, if he was not a couple of notches above the youg talents of wolves it would be weird huh? If he did not earn more than the Everotn talents it would be weir huh?

If smalling gets 25K a week then wilishire is worth 30k a week as he is alot better than smalling.

The average youth player will have to realise they’ll have to work their socks off despite their pay cheque, because balancing out raising wages for youth players is the fact that youth football is so hugely competitive. Youth players who don’t progress don’t get offered professional terms, or get offloaded. Generally you need a good attitude to make an impact.

As for more mercurial talents like Wilshere, such young players have ALWAYS been treated as “a bit special”, and we basically have to hope that they keep their heads. C.f. Mardona, Gazza, Robinho. As far as Jack is concerned, he seems very well liked by the entire Bolton squad, which to me speaks volumes about his attitude.

I believe that it was in the mid-1990s that the quality of German football had taken a rather precipitous dive in quality after years of excellence. Alarmed at what they were seeing and what they saw as the future for the national team, a number of influential figures in German soccer, including Franz Beckenbauer, other former players and managers, not only spoke out about the need for changes in the country’s youth development, but got together to improve that system and encourage coaches and club management at all levels to adopt the kind of changes that they felt needed to be made.

As I recall, a lot of the changes that they wanted to make in the youth development system involved concentrating more on developing technique and keeping young players at home and in the system as long as possible in order familiarize themselves with playing the style of football played by the senior national team (which I believe they also talked about wanting the national youth teams to play as well).

I think we saw the products of the program that was instituted as a result of these efforts in the last two World Cup finals, where Germany finished third both times–this time with a team that was very young by World Cup finals standards and featured a number of emerging young talents in the starting XI (as well as no fewer than 10 players who were either born in other countries, children of immigrants, or eligible to play for other countries: Klose, Podolski, Trochowski, Ozil, Tasci, Marin, Cecau, Gomez, Boateng, Khedira, Aogo–many who started or logged significant minutes in the tournament).

Despite the fact that England is the birthplace of the sport and its national teams have boasted a host of big-name stars, the fact remains that, in recent years, the England national team has not achieved the same level of results as the German national team when it has counted most. Perhaps it is time for the English to put aside their pride and take a serious look at what the Germans did–the changes that they made in their youth development system–to resurrect the quality of their national team and make it more competitive at the highest level.

Since most English players–youth and veterans–tend to stay and play at home, the issue of inculcating a system and keeping the players in that system would be moot. The biggest problem would be for the leaders of the English game to set aside their egos and attachments to “the English game” or whatever prejudices they may have in order to take an unbiased look at what would be necessary in order to produce a senior national team that can not just compete, but be a serious challenger for the World Cup title (striving for anything less would be a waste of time). This might be quite difficult, but, if the Germans could do it (they had their attachments, biases and prejudices, too), there is no reason, in my opinion, why the English could not do it too, if they put their minds to it, in the interest of the country and the betterment of the English game.

I sincerely believe that, if the English were to do this (and they should get the input of foreign managers, like Wenger, Ranieri and Capello, etc. who have coached in England and are familiar with English and foreign players) that not only would the quality of the young English players improve, but the question of whether they have the technical quality to compete with the national teams from other countries on the youth and senior levels would be affirmatively answered.

I think that blogs like this one and Jeorge Bird’s perform an invaluable service to Arsenal fans who are not based in the London area by letting us know about the young talent that the club in bringing in and how those players are progressing in their development. But, I also agree that it is vitally important to keep in mind that, whatever the hype or potential, only a small number of these players are ever going to develop their game to the point where they are capable of playing, let alone starting, for the Arsenal first team.

I think that may be perhaps a bit easier for us North Americans familiar with the NHL and major league baseball drafts–where many talented 17 year olds are selected by the various clubs, but we know that only a few will ever make it to the major league (first team) level with the club that selected them. But, it is very true in sports that “many are called, but few are chosen”. Even in American football, where players are not allowed to join a professional team until they are at least 20 years old, the failure rate of the highest rated talents selected in the draft is almost 50% after 3 years–and that’s with players who are much more skilled in techniques, much more physically developed and more mature at age 20 than an athlete who is 15, 16 or 17. The fact is that it isn’t the amount of athleticism or talent that these young players have that will determine which ones will ultimately become successful on the highest level of the game, but rather their attitude, willingness to continue to work and learn to constantly improve, discipline and drive to do whatever it takes to become the best is what will determine whether they develop their talent and become successful or end up falling by the wayside. Talent and athleticism matter, but they are only the initial ingredients–without the work, learning, drive and discipline and a proper attitude, they will had up to nothing more than unrealized potential.

And, arseblogger is right to warn that expecting too much of young players before we have any indication of whether they will be able to realize their potential to the point of being able to be contributors to the first team, let alone crack the starting XI or become stars is something to be wary of and to avoid. It’s nice to know that Arsenal is bringing in young players with a lot of potential, but it is also important not to get too excited about them until we can see which ones are actually going to be able to realize that potential.

The best thing they could do is go and play somewhere like Spain.

Watch them have one or two off days and get absolutely slaughtered by the media/”pundits”/opposition fans….ironically the same people who where vociferous in their criticism of AW for not having English players.

Deacon and Watt have been looked at for the U19s and played games this year in the qualifiers, but didn’t make the final team.

Cruise is going to the U19 tournament as he has done well when selected.

You also have to remember that there are other teams that have very good English lads that can rival some of those here at other academies, who are able to make the national team aswell.

but on a lighter note. we could have a high number of youngsters breaking into the first team in the next two season. i no most of them aint english, but we see why we search talent around the world. to much english hype gets you no were. just a big headed player. i hope to see player like whilsere, ramsey, welington, Big thomas, sanu, lansbury, bartley and many more get there chance to show they are arsenal material because its sad to no you was a investment. i do no football is a business. but damn its a cruel world!

That said he is often the youth player I have seen putting the boot in, in some uncompromising challenges.

Who knows if he will make the grade at Arsenal – he’s not yet to the level of his peers (JET, Wilshere, Rambo) but he could make a strong DF midfielder if he keeps his head down. And we all know how valued DFMs are.