Posted on Posted in Arsenal, Football, Premier League, Soccer, Transfer Gossip
Speaking before Saturday’s visit to Villa Park, Arsène spoke about the FA initiative to promote English youth. Wenger hit the nail squarely and very hard on the head,
I read what he [Greg Dyke] said and honestly I’m for the competition worldwide but he has a point that it is difficult to get non-EU players in the youth system and then to loan them out. That’s where he has a point…What is for sure is you do not want artificial protection of mediocrity
Before I go any further, as an Englishman I am used to the promotion of mediocrity; the national team has been a haven for the distinctly average for decades. Having a system whereby English youth is pushed to the fore and, as an Arsène called it, “educated” properly in the technical and tactical side of the game is an ideal that each club should strive for. At this point, the conflict rears its ugly head; club versus country. The two are incompatible in the English game, it seems more so than any other country with money dictating actions rather than enabling.
Arsène though captured the problem perfectly,
Where you have to be very careful because this is a job where we’re very well paid, therefore you want top top quality. You want to be the best Premier League in the world so you want to be top, top quality and open to the best players in the world.
But the best way to respond and to fulfil all the expectation of the FA is to produce good top quality young players.
From his opening statement, you would conclude that having a successful club game is incompatible with the same at international level. We know that is not the case with recent World and European champions being the by-product of continental success at club level. Examination of Wenger’s comments doesn’t stand scrutiny either. At any club in the upper echelons of the game, the majority of players have been purchased not developed by the clubs for which they play. Transfers are at the heart of football and whilst the utopian ideal of a team of home-produced talent exists, it is a fantasy and won’t happen. A core of players who have come through from the youth ranks is achievable but in the grand scheme of things, a fleeting success. Too much of the circumstance for that to happen is down to chance; good scouts, gifted players, effective coaches. Clubs have the criteria but as Manchester United proved in the ’90s, it is once in a generation when they all come together.
Around the time of the move to The Emirates, Arsenal had a reputation for giving youth a chance. To a certain extent, that is true now but with the money available to the manager for transfers, I am not convinced it is the case any more. Young professionals from outside the club are more likely to find a place in the first team than one who has come through the ranks. There will always be one or two of them, but recent years have seen a large number of young players shipped out. To an extent that goes to the very heart of what Arsenal’s Academy is about and underlines the extent of the problems which existed, the solution being the appointment of Andries Jonker.
To me, an Academy should not expect to produce a squad for the first team, just a steady flow in small numbers. Developmentally, young players progress at different speeds and plateaus are reached at different times. They should seek to produce footballers who are capable of enjoying a professional career with fees received wherever practical, to help fund the Academies existence.
Jonker summed it up recently in an interview on Arsenal Player,
I give you an example, Liam Brady. [He was] 18 years at Arsenal and he had the patience to stay in the job and Arsenal also had the patience to leave him in his job. For sure there have been years when no players were presented to the first team, and years when it has been successful. That is the thing with youth, you have to be patient.
The manager, the staff and in fact the players have to wait for a chance and you need to have confidence in the choice the manager makes, because the manager of the first team has to make sure the team wins.
If he thinks the chance is bigger without the youth players, he shouldn’t bring them [in] but if he thinks the chance is bigger with the youth team players, then please [take them]. I think having an academy demands patience from everyone involved and conviction about the quality of the work you deliver.
It is that issue where I believe the football authorities have slipped up. Football finances are very much the focus in the modern game. Whether it interests us or not, the riches that the commercial teams bring into the game are staggering. The modern football supporter is expected to grasp these by the nettle and to understand a broad brush picture. Any number of analysts will tell you what they mean but ultimately, the new measure of understanding is going to be national and international Financial Fair Play standing. A clean bill of health and not paying each of your rivals £250k will be the benchmark, even if that doesn’t cover the cost of a star player’s weekly wage. In their creation, these regulations are fine, upstanding and welcome additions. In reality, the punishments are so limp as to be ineffective. That is the UEFA and FIFA way though; they have perfected the art of doing nothing whilst appearing to make the world a fairer place.
Funding of youth academies is excluded from those FFP calculations but is that enough? Have leagues, associations and federations gone far enough? As well as treating the cost of the future as excludable, should there be a minimum level of expenditure that clubs have to invest in what is after all, their future?
Arsène offered a compelling argument for that case,
This is a job where we’re very well paid, therefore you want top top quality. You want to be the best Premier League in the world so you want to be top, top quality and open to the best players in the world.
It’s also an expensive business for clubs. Buying players who have been developed is not getting any cheaper as football proves itself to be impervious to economic downturn. Buying an uncapped English player costs up to £16m; Arsenal found that out the hard way in buying Calum Chambers. The goose laid its golden egg in Southampton’s basket this summer. Other clubs benefit similarly in different years but all of them have the same aim; a productive Academy that pushes young talent into the first team.
Clubs are big businesses now, particularly in the top flight. Owners are looking to take more than KSE’s £3m in return for their investment – and I use that term in its broadest possible sense since Kroenke’s investment went into the pocket of the previous shareholders and not any Arsenal group company – which we are going to have to get used to. The club is the calf being fatted for sale in the long-term; there is no evidence to the contrary that this is a short-term game being played. No net debt – sustainably so – makes Arsenal look very attractive and ‘management fees’ are a way for KSE to see a return without paying dividends to other shareholders.
Taking money out of the club is a sore point when investment is deemed necessary on the pitch. The Academy system can play a role in filling those needs but overall, it is just another cost centre which needs to pay for itself. To gain a return it is no different from any other either; it needs money investing in it. The club are addressing that, not just the personnel but facilities are planned to be updated. Arsenal are setting themselves to be in the elite of youth development with their facilities. Now for the ‘end product’ in players progressing to the first XI.
’til Tomorrow.
0 comments:
Post a Comment