Arsenal: Pride of England?
January 12th, 2007 by Alan HylandsCan you cast your mind back to the 19th September 2005? Rupert Murdoch was moaning in the press (which he owns) about China strengthening their resolve to limit foreign media intrusion in their country and the Pussycat Dolls were enjoying a breakout number one single with Don’t Cha (featuring Busta Rhymes). Not the most exciting of times it has to be said looking back but for Arsenal fans it was a milestone that over the next nearly sixteen months became more of a millstone around their necks. Or rather it should have for one simple reason: S*l Campbell scored twice to defeat Everton at Highbury and until the 3rd of January he was the last Englishman to score for the Gunners in Premiership football.
In a simple game of “Spot The Englishman” in Arsenal’s ranks it was obviously youngster Justin Hoyte who finally ended the sequence which managed to stretch over the whole of 2006 and beyond the post-New Year’s Eve hangovers into 2007. Most worryingly of all has been the complete lack of fanfare from within the club about this horrendous statistic and what it’s implications are for the English game and Arsenal’s future post-Wenger.
Wenger has always claimed that the lack of English blood in Arsenal shirts is a double edged sword based on lack of available quality and overpricing on behalf of selling clubs. The first point is a mystery as the rest of English football have been telling us for the past five years that this is the “Golden Generation” of English football and although the international performances have shown this to be more media glammer than hard truth, it’s hard to deny that this generation of English players isn’t a step up from that of the early and mid 1990s overall.
High transfer fees would be a suitable concern if Wenger wasn’t so happy to dip heavily into the Arsenal coffers when the need arises and send English money to foreign clubs. It’s hard to believe that poor little Arsenal can’t compete in the English transfer market when they are splashing £20m+ on Jose Antonio Reyes who was hardly proven international quality at the time of signing (or departure come to that).
The Arsenal youth system which in the past produced players like Tony Adams and Paul Merson (and by that I mean international footballers, not just alcoholics and drug addicts) now focuses on raping and pillaging foreign talent from all around Europe to the detriment of any potential young local talent. They may say that not enough local lads are off a high enough quality to make it into the Arsenal first team but there are wider implications. Many youth team players obviously don’t make the grade at the top clubs and move down the divisions to find their real level. In some cases they build on their early potential down there and return to find their place at the top table again. Peter Crouch is an England international case in point but with the falling number of young English players coming from clubs like Arsenal there is little or no chance of this happening. Arsenal don’t exist in a vacuum, English football at all levels needs them to be bringing on the skills of young English players and their short sighted approach is pure short term selfishness of the highest order.
Look through the list of the next England squad when Steve McLaren announces it and see where the players come from. Manchester United and Chelsea make up a large proportion, as do Tottenham with their well publicised “Buy Young British Players” policy to add to players like Ledley King who have came up through their ranks. How many Arsenal players would you expect to see and, before you answer, remember that it took a teenage reserve team fullback to score the first English goal in the Premiership in 16 months for them against a woeful Charlton side.
Another English goalscorer? See you in 2009.
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January 12th, 2007 at 10:33 am
There was me thinking that we had FIVE English players in our squad just the other day.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:39 am
So because the lack of UK players makes Arsenal a bad team, I could not give two hoots who plays for Arsenal as long as they give their all and make Arsenal a greater side than they are already!
January 12th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Also I take it your a spurs fan ya self?
January 12th, 2007 at 10:40 am
You are so shorted sighted, biased, and ignorant, you make me laugh if you did watch the world cup you will see how useless the English players were and it takes someone who doesn’t even play on the EPL to prove that Owen H the foreigners make the EPL exciting. English player aren’t good enough. This subject and topic is becoming boring and old moan about something else.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:42 am
oh dear,
Another jealous …disillusional anti gooner who cant take the fact that Wenger is class…and we were magnificent at Anfield!
January 12th, 2007 at 10:42 am
thats complete crap. If sol campbell and ashley cole weren’t such twats they’d still be playing for us now wouldn’t they. so its not exactly our own doing. and wheres the mention of £12 million spent on walcott? no?
January 12th, 2007 at 10:44 am
A handful of no mark reserves who will NEVER make it into the first team on a regular basis. Hardly destroys my point does it?
January 12th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Bitter or what ? A rather pathetic rant , however I dont think £ 20 million was paid for Reyes because he didnt work out more like 6 to start increasing with games that he did not play.Whilst praising Chelsea for their contribution to the English team , perhaps that praise belongs elsewhere ( maybe East London ) where most of their players were developed and again in the North where Carrick has been purchased at a price in excess of that which Arsenal would / could not pay.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:46 am
you biased di@#head, out of coincidence who do you support?
jealousy is not a good look for you, so we only have 5 english players in our 1st team squad. but that has won us titles, without wenger introducing these world class foreigners the premiership would not be as entertaining as it is today. bergkamp,henry, viera, pires, freddie, toure, van persie. now our youth sytem speaks for itself, walcott, hoyte, denilsion, cesc fabergas, fran merdina (star of the future watch this space) matthew connoly, Mark Randall both english, if you look at our youth & reserve team you will see 10 english players. most participating at under 21 under 19 england teams.
pride of england yes in a couple of years and you my friend will eat humble pie.
who do you support…
January 12th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Not this load of old tat again. Can’t you play another record?
Man U have produced no English players in the past 5 years (they have bought 2/3)
Chelsea have produced 1- they have bought many others (including a few at inflated prices just to prevent other clubs getting them- then let rot in the reserves).
Tottenham have produced a couple and bought a couple.
None of the Enlish players that have left Arsenal have gone on to bigger things at other clubs. None have become established internationals.
Frankly, I couldnt give a stuff how many English players we produce- frankly their usually overrated and certainly overpaid. If you want to look at any club that is stunting the development of English players- you have to look at the one that leaves them on the bench.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Please take the blinkers off. Rather than criticising arsenal for their approach why dont you take a look at the next england u’21 squad & then the u19’s etc?? I think you will find several players from arsenal & you will also find ex arsenal players that have been allowed to leave in order to further their careers, ie David Bentley & Steven Sidwell etc.
People like yourself who type out this drivel could at least do us all the courtesy of some research first. For instance where did you get that reyes cost 20 million?? He cost an initial 6 million & a further 3 million at the end of that season. So overall he cost 9 million plus some add ons which amounted to less than 12 million in total. Yet when we signed him he was rated one of the biggest prospects in his homeland & was a pivotal player for his club & had been for a couple of years. Hence why there was almost riots when he was sold. On the other hand didnt that no mark Carrick go for 18.6 million?? or what about Wright Phillips for 21 million?? & wasnt Gerrard going to cost 35-40 million?? Arsenal cannot afford such ridiculous fees. The only reason Walcott was sold to arsenal is because he would only join us & was going to be out of contract so southampton had no choice, yet that didnt stop them whinging for days that they could have made more & had the whole lot upfront by selling to the chavs!!
Arsenal do a hell of a lot for english football, probably more so than any other team. Just go look at our academy sides or go ask Birmingham fans what they think about arsenal & their players. But I suppose the best example you can give is to ask why arsenal’s kids can continue to beat teams full of british players in the carling cup (after all dont British players always give 100% & have the heart of a lion, compared to these fancy dan foreigners??).
Finally please go & look at the academy U18’s Premier League table. I think you might just find a team that plays many english youngsters & has an english coach sitting at the top of the table with 13 wins, 2 draws & 0 defeats!!
January 12th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Who do you support ?
2 already have hoyte & walcott. furthermore arsenal are in a small minority in terms of English ownership, so technically we are the pride of england.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:54 am
And to mjc’s 5 players let’s start adding in those English players that came directly (thus excluding players such as Pennant and Upson) through Arsenal’s youth system and now ply their trade at other Premier League clubs … Bentley; Taylor; Sidwell; Thomas; Cole X 2; Parlour and so on and on. It also ignores some such as Ryan Smith in the Championship. It also ignores those that have retired.
And from Chel$ki’s youth policy???? Terry and um, Terry and er, how about Terry?
The Hammers and Man U are sides that can honestly say “We’ve produced lots of England internationals via our youth policy”. Even the spuds with their “We’ll buy British” are a bit of a joke. At the last count I think it was: bought in the last 7 months, 6 overseas players, sold 1 English.
Come on, it’s not April 1 yet.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:59 am
another sorry spurs fan, what do we do with these dillusional fans, they have spent more than us in the transfer market over 7 years and one fuck all, not even a worthless cup…
Gooner for 59 years you speak the truth…
January 12th, 2007 at 11:02 am
wen will come of age? are you saying english players are more important that players of other origin? if not wat is all this balderdash about arsenal squad not having plenty english players. whether u like it or not we play the best football in the world and if it takes not having many english players to maintain that status so help us God.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Arsenals youth policy has produced more English talent playing football at high levels,than any other club in recent years,good players,but just not good enough to get in to the Arsenal team.Julian Gray,James Harper,Steve Sidwell,David Bentley,Jermaine Pennant,Jerome Thomes,Jay Bothroyd,Stuart Taylor,Ashley Cole.
But to be fair Utds youth policy in recent years has produced Luke Chadwick,and spurs youth system has produced Dean Marney and Chelseas-well they do that soccer idol thing on sky to find there next Jody Morris.Arsenal do more for the english game than any other club in the country,just look at the whole picture next time.
Arsenal FC TRUE class from day 1.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Haha, no marks??? They destroyed Liverpool.
I read somewhere that Arsenal have won in back to back games at anfield and Sp*rs haven’t won i back to back decades. Haha.
Go back to your shanty little man, if our reserves beat your boys at WHL (your boys who cost considerably more than our Wenger has spent net in 10 years i might add) we’ll see who are the no marks.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Yeah, yeah, keep talking, someday you might say something intelligent … I’d guess your a Man USA t**t ?
You! Off my planet!
January 12th, 2007 at 11:10 am
the next time you try to criticise arsenal maybe should should do some research on things like transfer deals. reyes never cost the £20m plus you’re dreaming of. his transfer was £10m downpayment with an additional £6.5m dependent on his performance. as he didnt reach all his targets whilst at the club the deal didnt even reach the £16.5 it could be and unless he comes back after his loan it wont. and if you also want to have a go at us supposedly spending millions on young foriegners then take a look at whole in the current squad. which player could command the highest transfer fee if he reaches all the targets in his performance related deal. its not henry who cost £10m, its not international midfielder rosicky at £7m. its theo walcott who could cost us £12m, why so much? because hes english. we got other youngsters at the club such as rvp, adeybayor, eboue, denislon and diaby, cesc for less than that in total
also english players are a step up from the early and mids 90’s but so are players from the rest of the world and they were ahead then and most are still ahead now.
you also say look at the next england squad and see its made up of chelsea, man u and spurs. how many young english players are those clubs producing now and for all the english players they have at spurs they’ve sure enjoyed a lack of success
January 12th, 2007 at 11:12 am
when you look at the england squad consider where the players spent their youth and not where they are now. you will see probably 4/5 from west ham, 2 from leeds, 2 from liverpool, 2 from man city, 2from manu and only 1 from chelsea,everton,spurs,boro,saints and arsenal - so are arsenal causing a problem? no - he will not buy english because in general they are over priced, over rated, spoilt and demand excessive salaries. not to mention having his fingers burnt by jeffers,upson and wright being injury prone and pennant being a talent waster. toure or rio anyone? dawson @ 4m or senderos for .5m? cesc or carrick?
i would love to have adams, george and armstrong out there together but times have changed. what i would hate to see is a team of dyer,pennant,bramble,jenas etc and no success.
arsene knows
January 12th, 2007 at 11:31 am
was this pathetic write up against arsenal or against england? actually how did this even get published? i’d be kinda embarassed.
wow arsenal spent 20million pounds 2 seasons ago. yeah, arsenal are definitely splashing in the transfer market. least you forget that that 20 million was mostly funded on the sale of other players, how much as arsenal spent since then?
and how is it that arsenal alone is directly influencing the english game and the lacklustre performance of the england team.
does not compute.
i could go on and on, but its just a waste of time in trying to convince a goat like you to widen its vision and see the bigger picture. arsenal look to recruit the best which in turn is only a good thing, its a ripple effect.
stop moaning and come back with a more sensible argument. the likes of Fabregas, Henry, Rosicky et al. is what makes the team the most exciting club to watch.
this has been a waste of time, i want my 5 minutes back!
January 12th, 2007 at 11:41 am
actually guys i think this is all a compliment really. i guess what you are actually trying to say is. the current england team is made up of x number of man u players, x number of liverpool players, x number of tottenham players etc. and at the end of the day the england team is shyte.
so what you want is arsenal to produce players for england call up so as to improve that shyte status. cool, thanks for thinking of the club. im sure Arsene Wenger will try his best, but you are putting a lot of preasure on the club thinking it will change England’s fortunes.
gosh i wonder what the rest of the clubs must be thinking? are you suggesting that the current crop of x players from man u, liverpool, tottenham etc is not good enough?
shrug.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:51 am
See you in 2009?
I rather have more trophies than English goalscorers at Arsenal between now and 2009.
I guess you spuds have to settle for the opposite.
Journalism isn’t for you, try another career….
January 12th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
You’re not biased at all, are you? Yeah right…
My advise to you is, don’t become a journalist.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Dear God!! What a load of crap this is.
It is stupid! It is naiive and it is mostly incorrect.
What I cannot understand is why people waste their time putting this kind of drivel up on a website. They must be truly bored out of their minds!
I am not going to waste my time dissecting this garbage. I suppose the author believes that Arsenal should strive to reach the dizzy heights of achievement that Tottenham have reached ! What a joke.
January 12th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Guess what - he is a Spurs supporter - see http://alanhylands.co.uk/about-alan-hylands/
Why is it that Spurs supporters hate Arsenal more than they like Spurs? Could it be inane jealousy?
January 12th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I bet your really good at guitar too!!!!
January 12th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Paid less than £10 million for Jose Reyes which would have been good value if he hadn’t missed his mother’s breast milk so much!
“Arsenal Holdings plc confirms that its subsidiary The Arsenal Football Club plc has signed Spanish international Jose Antonio Reyes from Sevilla Futbol Clube on a four and a half year contract; completion of the contract is subject to the player undergoing a medical and his registration with the FA and the FA Premier League.
The initial consideration is EUR15 million, of which EUR10 million is payable immediately. Additional consideration of up to EUR9.5 million may become payable, subject to various appearance and performance criteria being satisfied. Arsenal does not expect any of the above sums, other than the initial EUR10 million fee, to become payable in its current financial year.
The directors of Arsenal Holdings plc take full responsibility for the contents of this announcement.”
January 12th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
This article is just downright wrong and ill informed on so many counts that it’s just not worth bothering with. Sp*rs fan? I think so. Although I have to say I especially enjoyed the part where you suggested that Chelsea will have a large number of players represented in England’s next international squad. Ha. Ha. Lampard, Terry and Cole? Is that it? Well, fair play, they are all inspirational players who have achieved internationally at the highest level. Hahahaha, sorry, I couldn’t even keep that up on the internet. Cole was okay (and gosh, where did he come from? Chelsea’s excellent youth development system, obviously), but honestly with his godawful shenanigans over the past year I couldn’t give a stuff if he was English (not least of all because I’m Australian) or not, as the not-so-old adage goes, I’d rather have a Willy than a c***. And of course, that brings me full circle to this shite article, the faux-controversial ramblings of a hateful wannabe columnist. Don’t quit your day job, unless it happens to involve research of any kind or, I dunno, common sense.
January 12th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
The fact of the matter is, if you’re good enough to play for the Arsenal, you will, no matter what nationality you are.
Judging by your ‘logic’, and your ‘mastery’ of the English language you are a Spuds fan. Condemnation enough, I think!
January 12th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Which all proves one thing: you Gooner slags pretend you don’t care but you just can’t help yourselves but get wound right up by the real pride of North London.
Pikey gypsies the lot of you.
COYS