Don't want anyone to take this toooooo seriously BUT... There was a time when the Arsenal were London's showcase for the very best Scots and Irish talent, displaying stalwarts like Ure, MacLintock, Wilson, Rice, Graham, O'Leary, Kelly, Brady, Jennings, Stapleton, (Willie) Young and Charlie Nicholas to name but a classical few. Then came the Wenger generations of les foreigneurs: Limpar, Bergkamp, Vieira, Overmars, Petit, Ljungberg, Henry, Pires, Touré, Fà bregas, Nasri and so on. Looking back it seems until Walcott came in, a Brit/Irish passport was a disqualification as far as the Gunners were concerned. (In fact Arsenal squads have been punctuated by the occasional Seaman, Parlour, Platt, Cashley and Campbell along the way - but that's hardly half a team in the best part of two decades!) It's been so long now that you couldn't see all that changing until they nailed the Roi down and sealed the box in lead! So what's all this about the latest round of long term contracts at the Emirates then? Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Carl Jenkinson - with Theo Walcott to come? The words 'sea' and 'change' immediately spring to mind. Wenger says he's a great believer in stability. He's quoted as adding, 'I believe when you have a core of British players, it's always easier to keep them together'. Has the old guy learned his lesson then? Foreign doesn't spell guaranteed success but it does tend to disappear - and just at the wrong kinda time! So what's the Rangers angle in all this? YOUNG and HUNGRY, that's what! The order of the day. Music to the ears of the Rollers and Flyers of this world. Just what WE need innit? Yeah, I know our owners have seen the light and have put a bit of an academy together - but it'll be a while before anything's ready to go. There was a time when the Arsenal were London's showcase for the very best Scots and Irish talent - AND Queens Park Rangers were regularly replenishing their first team needs with home grown talent: Springette(s), Hazel, Hunt, Sibley, Morgan(s), Clement, Gillard, Leach, Wilkes, Francis, Allen(s), Goddard etc.. Great, successful times. And then nothing at all. Zilch. If only we'd never stopped investing in our local youth. Yours Green Eyed Monster!
Whatever happened to Scottish football? ( And the Irish and Welsh for that matter.) During the 70's and 80's you had a wealth of talent playing in the top division. The household names rolled off of the tongue... Jennings, Harvey, Bremner, Souness, Hansen, Gemmil, Armstrong, McAvennie, Nicholas, Staunton, Dalglish, Whelan, Jordan, Masson, Johnson, Buchan, James, McClroy, MacDonald, McCreery, Nelson, O'Leary, Stapleton, Walsh, Nish, McQueen, Burns, Lorimer, Giles, Hennessy, Stewart x2, Yorath etc etc etc. There are probably another twenty - thirty I haven't even mentioned. Along came the 90's and this trend seemed to end. Very strange.
This was a PR exercise to try and get the irate Gooners back onside. Isn't it strange after all these years of indulging young foreign (mainly French) talent, at the expense of British youngsters, that our Arsene has suddenly had his 'Eureka' moment? Wenger is undoubtedly a good coach but an extremely lucky one. Who else could walk in and take over a team which had the best defence of a decade sitting in wait for him? Also the best foreign import to grace the Premier League, Dennis Bergkamp, bought by Rioch and much-derided in his first season. The defence only needed the odd tweak over the first 8 or 9 years, 'if it ain't broke' etc. Once Adams went it never recovered and a series of lesser lights and clowns have defined Arsenal as a team that just can't defend properly. Wenger has brought some wonderful players in over his time, but more than his fair share of 'turkeys', and the fact that the Manchester clubs are now looking at Arsenal as their 'nursery' club speaks volumes about what they are doing wrong. Whether it is Gazides and Kronke putting the £ before the performance is questionable, but they have lost their way big-time and you get the feeling that if any of those five have a really good season or two they too will be on their way elsewhere. As for the demise of the Scottish talent, look no further than Graeme Souness arriving at Rangers with an open chequebook and Celtic eventually having to follow them. many Scottish clubs then brought in cheaper foreign players from Baltic and east European countries all at the expense of youth development and the national team has suffered accordingly. The sad thing is that the 80s were the halcyon days of the Scottish League with Aberdeen and Dundee United winning titles, Hearts losing one on the last day of the season and the 'Old Firm' playing decidedly second-fiddle, it'll never happen again...
The game changed and they didn't keep up and maybe ignored the European influence? Today the Welsh have one of the best players in the world in Bale As teams however I agree they are all currently in a low ... I believe it's just the same old answer ... Investment and Money . The Scottish leagues are almost done for as any talent that rises comes to England and the premiership If a lad aged 8 shows the skills he is snapped up early but will have to compete with the foreign influx My mates lad at last in on the fringes of star status but I have watched him snapped up by Palace since 8 have to fight off the big African French boys and there are 15 to each of him and he has been pushed 100% by his family ... Total dedication even this minute I know he will be training the career is tough and he has been going to the US every year in the summer for advanced sports training . He played now for Brighton as did his dad who found it easier back then but didn't make it. It takes everything ... Everything today to make it Solly's hard work still may not pay off he was offered full terms at Newcastle and other clubs all desparate to sign a English player because they can import anyone anytime The European African and South American pools are deeper than anyone can imagine ... The Welsh Irish and the Scottish will never compete again it's sad but true
So the 2003-4 invincibles season, in which Keown played 13 games, Adams was long gone and none of the other 'inherited' defenders were around was 'lucky'? Conceding 26 goals in 38 games a sign that they couldn't defend properly?
From someone on the outside looking in ................... I am of the opinion that great Britain has a wealth of talent which is being passed up with and emphasise on chasing talent from other countries. Don't get me wrong, other talent is a good venture but not at the expense of local talent. The game of football has thrived and succeeded on British talent for how many years? It can continue to do so OR become completely redundant and 'buy in' from overseas.
I don't think the club had any real choice in the matter. Sadly things ain't what they used to be and even the best academies are wide open to raiding by the biggest clubs.
I may get told off for saying this, but I'd be happy to see us spend nothing in January and invest the £20m we would save in youth development. It's our only real hope! I wish we had an academy as good as West Ham or Southampton. Also green eyed.
You simply have no idea who will make it as a club ... like a load of puppies you can only do so much with the toilet training and as I said money talks and we just haven't the set ups yet here in the UK. Another 15 years it may be different
I think it will come but not yet also all the time you have fans on here you rip the **** of our players each week I doubt if they will listen. I agree with your post of course but you have to pay for experience and that's what we need to survive. Try it Saturday if we lose on here I doubt if you will get a response they will be too focussed on venting their anger on whoever doesn't play as well as expected. Villa are currently putting together a team for the future and I think it may become fashionable. Norwich Saints and Swansea have shown the cream rises. I am sure HR has looked at our young players no signs yet
Personally, I think we (most clubs if memory serves) had it right around the times referred to in the OP (sort of 60s / 70s). Not only were youth development schemes in place (apprenticeships they called them then), but also 'unders' (this and that age) and reserve team leagues and cup competitions. All the latest on these were always features in match day programmes - which made for added interest for us fans. (At least when the first team wasn't doing so well, the reserve or youth team progress sometimes offered a little hope for the future!) Don't buy programmes very often these days, just not them same kinda feel to them - and I don't see much of this type of 'background' news on the offish website. Am I missing something?
With the greatest of respect Ninesy but there's one British team you've left out there!! Perhaps you've gotten caught up in the tabloid frenzy that surrounds the England National team too, but England haven't been past the quarter final stage of a tournament in over two decades. I think Liverpool have won the league since then! Every time a tournament comes around, English fans think they've a decent chance of winning the thing despite being shown up to be woefully short time and time again. No disrespect here, I support England whoever they play when its not Ireland. And you are right about Scot, Wal and Irl but what World Class players have England produced in all that time? There's been one or two like Rooney but compared to Countries of similar size like France, Spain, Italy etc, England have been way off the pace. So its a UK-wide problem. Oddball hit the nail on the head above when he said that technically we got left behind by the Continent a long time ago.
They (the Irish kids) all started playing PlayStation in the late 90s and noughties and are not out on the streets kicking ball anymore!
