A-Dub and the English Question

By: Trent | October 24th, 2006

Although some have made fun of Arsenal gaffer Arsene Wenger’s odd proclivity to rarely see controversial incidents, few have challenged the notion that he is a magnificent manager who puts an incredibly attractive brand of football on the pitch. But ten years after his Arsenal debut, some are still wondering: What has Arsene done for English football? What people really mean, of course, is Where are the English players that should be getting the chance to learn under the great manager?

Of course, an attendant question must be, What duty does A-Dub owe to English football?

Nevertheless, Wenger himself has acknowleged the situation and has now vowed to help develop more English players. Theo Walcott may be the harbinger of this new approach.

Besides Walcott, only the lightly-used Justin Hoyte and Matthew Connolly are Englishmen currently in the squad. But A-Dub doesn’t pull punches about why this is so:

We have less developed English players than young foreign talent. That is down to one basic reason: [England] has produced less talent because it responded later to the quality of the academy system. In the next three or four years we will have developed the top-level domestic talent we have growing at the club.

I’m not one to think that nationality should have much to do with one’s inclusion in a particular club. And remember, English players generally come with a higher price tag than many foreign players. Either way, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from Arsenal’s (proposed) new domestic development plan.

Of course, maybe they’re just throwing red meat to the audience.

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