This morning I see a host of sites reporting that we beat Chelsea in the race to sign a child (15 year old) Kyle Ebecilio from Feyenoord.
No doubt that most of you are happy about this and think this is a great signing for the future?
But lets just think about that for a sec…
Since wenger arrived at Arsenal he has signed players like this and said that the future would be great, but in the 13 plus years that Wenger has been at the club how many of the so called “Superkids” have gone on and made it at Arsenal?..Cesc, Clichy?
We were all told that Bentley would be the new Bergkamp and how Ryan Smith was going to be our Ryan Giggs etc…
Plus the likes of Quicny, Svard, Volz etc etc… The sad fact is that for ever Cesc Fabregas we sign as a kid there are 10 Vincent van den Berg at Arsenal, so i apologise for getting excited about the news of us signing more kids for the future.
Sometimes i question why do we waste so much time and money of signing kids when 90% of them never make it at Arsenal. No doubt they are some very talented players but its a myth that Wenger gives youth a chance. Look at the likes of Carlos Vela and Armand Traoré at Arsenal. both players have been sent out on loan and returned to the club last season. Both hardly never got a chance and were overlooked despite loads of injuries in there positions last season. Silvestre played ahead of Traore at Left back and Vela didnt even come close to getting a chance up front, even after the likes of RVP,Nic and Eduardo were all missing.
Its seems to me that if a young player comes to Arsenal they are hailed as the next big thing and the new Henry or Bergkamp when in fact they are just talented kids who will more or likely end up like Arturo Lupoli or Bischoff in some lower league team.
Wenger has a massive rep for developing young talent as being his main skill as a coach?
Fran, Upson, Bentley, Sidwell, Quincy, Volz, Senderos, Skulason, Simek, Papadopulos, Justin Hoyte, Muamba, Stokes, Larsson, Connolly, Garry, Pennant, Juan, Jerome Thomas, Rohan Ricketts, Paulinho, Carlin Itonga & Rui Fonte
All hailed by Wenger in the past as being the future of this club and all sold before even getting a sniff, Now we have the likes of Jay Simpson, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Håvard Nordtveit, Nacer Barazite,Francis Coquelin,Henri Lansbury, Pedro Botelho and many more… The sad fact is that most of the players named above will not make it at Arsenal and will end up like Graham Barrett.
My point is, Just because we sign a “SUPER” kid, don’t expect them to go on and make it at Arsenal. I would like Arsenal to take time out of signing players for the future and start thinking about the present
Debate this more on the forum ( HERE )
Arsenal Action Blog 
It’s to make money, look how much we made on Bentley, we educate them them then sell them on to PL or lower division clubs, most have gone to play football at a good level, plus it’s cheaper if they do make it and we have to sell later on, Cesc being a prime example, Arsenal are only holding out for a better offer but he will be sold to Crapalona, that’s the business side of football, youngsters know they will get a great football education at Arsenal, sad but the truth
So Arsenal are nothing more then a farm 😦
nonsense
football is business, as well as bing a sport, and (when we’re playing well) an art form.
If we want our club to succeed without having an oligarch owning us, then we’ve got to be clever, and many of the players you named above cost us little and made us money.
You conveniently omit Anelka (cost £640k + wages, sold for £23m), and we made moderate sums on the likes of Volz and Hoyte.
I agree that we probably get over excited about our youth players making it at Arsenal, but lets not boil the whole thing down to whether these kids make it for us or not; they help us to make money and continue to be the club that we are – i would imagine that you (like me) would want us to get a few experience players into the squad more often too, but lets be honest, we’ve gone through a tough financial period globally at the same time as building a new stadium, and money has been tight, so revenue streams like youth development have been overly important……
In the sense that all the big teams do this, then yes our youth team and academy are a farm.
Now if you were a farmer and some of your harvest of peas were good enough to sell in your hyper expensive organic farm shop that caters to the likes of Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey, would you just use the pick of the crop and throw the rest away or would you sell the “good enough but not for us” crops on to Tescos to make a profit off them too.
I blame sites like youngguns and jeorge bird for all this hype. They both give 2much attention to the youth players and build them up to be superstars. I’m sure arsenal don’t want this.
Cant say I agree.. Both sites are very good source of info and Youngguns is a good friend of ours
Those sites are great. Its the readers who create the hype not Jeorge and Jay. The only thing they do is to keep us updated with the latest news about the youngsters. Thay cant by no means be to blame for how the readers choose to hype the kids.
Agree with you Simon
I bet you said the same when we signed Fabregas
No answer at this site to comments that make them look stupid. Apart from some vulgar insults now and then.
Well, basicly just to get one Cesc through makes it worth it. Dont forget Song aswell, and Clichy as you mentioned. The three of them can easily be called keyplayers in todays Arsenal. Buying them now would cost us at least 50 000 000 pound. That says it all.
I know most of the youngsters we buy never will make it but they will still generate a fair income when selling them to lesser sides.
Stupid article as always.
Thanks mate
hes right though…
Kids are (relatively) cheap gambles. No reasonable person think every single one of them will become a world beater. But our record in bringing kids through stands against the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Man U. Haven’t been too many coming up through their systems either.
That’s the nature of the business. Very few people become world class at anything, even when they have the potential. But as many have said, when it works for a few, that’s enough. And the rest still provide an income.
Its buy them on the cheap and make money i guess.
Oh when the kids get more experience and time ,they will be world beaters. Haven’t we heard this countless times?For the last five six seasons gunners fans have been treated to the arrival of one kid after another. They are then farmed out to get the experience.
I’m afraidthis experiment has gone on too long . If for some reason or other the players required to strengthen the gunners are not bought due to a variety of reaons,andthe gunners continue to flounder,the finger shd be pointed at the manager.
I can give a long list of kids signed ten years ago and who have drifted away.Well they have made money for the club but at what expense.With MC and Spurs not forgetting Everton and Villa challenging,the gunners will face a severe challenge to their cl berth.
and yet there are always plenty of clubs out there that want to take our young players on loan….Jack Wilshere for example
Jack Wilshere is the new David Bentley mate.. I doubt he will make it at Arsenal but will go on to be a good player
Slow down there mate.
Hi AA, not sure i agree re Jack, I think his is one of few who will be a great player – Lansbury is another I have great hope for, just hope wenger gets him in/around the first team next season..
dont believe those who knock your article, its a good un….
Im hopeful mate. But If Fran Merida cant get past Denilson they I cant see Lansbury or JW
I see where you are coming from AA, wenger was niave in not playing Merida in my opinion, but i guess we can’t compare the two as far as positions go – i am sad Merida has gone, one day we will all see just what wenger has missed – but, i think thats what your post is saying, why do we keep buy kids and then not giving them a chance?? I did an article on similar – rooney and michael owen have proved that if you are good enough you are old enough, if he won’t play them, why buy them…
No, those were not all hailed by Wenger as the ‘next big thing’. Only a few (Cesc, Song etc) were. I dare you to find a quote of Wenger calling Rui Fonte a future superstar. So what, if someone in the academy doesn’t become a superstar it means Wenger is the devil?
More than half of the current first team squad were recruited as kids and progressed through the use of Carling Cup matches and/or being loaned out, so it is definitely a succesful system, especially during a time when we simply couldn’t afford the inflated market prices for established and ready-made players. Wenger is saving this club, making it better and taking it forward and I fear idiots like yourself, the author of the post, simply cannot see it. Luckily there are people out there who appreciate the great man’s work.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-smith-will-be-a-big-success-
what bout nicklas bendter? he was signed as a 15year old
You cant really say that NB has made it at Arsenal? Mostly used as a sub or back up player
Can not believe you used NB as an example.That dude is not developing – he is actually getting worse by every game.Thats the only case I am not sure about – how can Wenger still have so much patience with him ?! I thought he would have been sold by now.Along side Aliadiere,he is the player with smallest amount of talent I have ever seen in Arsenal shirt.
If Nik had ‘made it’ at Arsenal, i dont think Wenger would have bought Chamakh, i also think he will get the guy from Wigan. I dont think Nik is as good as Nik thinks he is, now he says he dreams of playing at barca or madrid – i would sell him now and replace him him with an out and out goal scorer…
It’s all a complete waste of time, Arsenal will win nothing for as long as they keep playing these “kids”. It’s all mind games from Wenger, promising a future that never arrives so he can play his silly games – trying to turn Arsenal into Barcelona when he hasn’t a clue what he’s doing. Tactically Wenger’s one of the worst in Europe.
Tactics are not wengers good points thats for sure.. The 4-5-1 is clearly not working
I just love suporters like you.
Wasn’t Henry also a youngster? Anelka?
Your argument is a bit ridiculous. If we had tried to compete with Man U and Chelsea by matching their spending then we would be doing a Liverpool. We’ve competed well and remained within our means. The proof of this is the glut of childish Arsenal fans stamping their feet because we have been sparce on trophies lately. Our expectations have been well beyond our income. We expect to do well each year and compete for all tropheys but have spent less (net) in the last 13 years than Tottenham has in the last 18 months. The reality is that we have actually over-achieved.
Our directors do not take any of the cuts that they are entitled to and have steered us into an enviable position of being the most viable of all premier clubs – which will allow us to spend more an more as our debt dimishes. It’s definately jam tomorrow.
Henry had played at the world cup before we signed him mate. and didnt we spend £10m on him?
Anelka proves what Arsenal are all about, Finding Young talent and then selling them in the future
And yet we compete where higher spending clubs cannot!
I think we wanted to keep Anelka.
I guess your plan is to either;
1) spend, spend, spend regardless of financial oblivion (wasn’t Leeds warning enough?)
2) live within our means but buy older players who are the same value as what we pick up these youngsters for (surely the fastest road to obscurity?)
3) charge even more to watch (sorry I and many others can’t afford this option even if you can)
4) magic some money (my kids also seem to think grown ups have a secret magic supply of cash)
Perhaps you have another solution?
You want to read something ridiculous read your own comment it sounds like it was written at a desk in the Arsenal Press Office .
The idea that the only choice we have is between doing what we’re doing and spoending like ManU and Chelsea is simply ridiculous. Your notion that Henry was the same sort of player as the players we are talking about here when we bought them is ridculous..
And the most ridiculous thing your write is your naive blind-faith trust of our Directors and ex-Directors. How much of that 30 million Mr. Fiszman has receive do so far from Stan Kroenke do you think will go back inot the club? Or how much of the 100-160 million Lady Bracewell-Smith is looking to make will be given back to the club for the manager? How much of the Carr Family’s other shares that have been sold for several million pounds will? Who needs your cuts when you can just sell to the highest bidder and make a real killiing? Even Mr. Hill-Wood pocketed a Cool Million or two recently.
And on top of that remember this – those investors selling out for millions – 80-100% of it all profit – have not put one penny into the club other than for the sahres they bought – even when the club needed it. Mr Hill-Wood even bragged about it recently taking about other clubs clubs whose directors “put their hands in their own pockets” to pay for things like players.
Not the Men of Good Old Arsenal though – on no To pay the cost of re-developing a Highbury an unnecessary project whose loan placed the club 40%. deeper in debt the Directors reached into the football manager’s pockets and when they weren’t doing that they told the manager how much he could take – all so they could pursue a prject that so far has been of sole benefit to them and to Arsenal Holdings PLC and shows little or no sign of being of of any benefit to Arsenal Football Club . You remember them right – the football club and team we support?
Supporters like you are a big part of the problem you tust the Board no matter what they say or do never once questioning them and then you parrot their lies to the supporters who are not as blindly faithful trying to reel them in – more comfortable letting the Board destroy all the good they did from 1998-2005 to make themselves even richer, than questioning their loyalty to the club and more importantly your own life-long faith and trust in them .
We have to bring in foreign players as they are either special talents eg. Cesc, ramsey and more recently wellington da silva or they are better then the options that we already have in the academy. Its mainly to provide us with a better chance of getting a player through at the correct standard for our club! I blame news sites such as sky who make it out as a big signing when in fact its normally for a minimal fee and for the academy! Youngguns and jeorge bird do a great job and there articles only provide us with information on the players and do not really contain there opinion on the players potential!
Wenger better know the present is more impportant than two years from now.The long list of kids bought shd be food for thought.Yes they will become sensational with the necessary experience.The problem is time of the essence.
As the artilce noted that when some senior players are injured,the kids are overlooked. I feel Arsenal have oversigned kids instead of buying for the present. If the kids can guarantee they will become exceptional talents and win trophies, the fans may support the project.Unfortunately it’s not possible. So it’s better to prepare for the present meaning next season rather than three years time whe n the kids will hopefully bloom. Unfortuanetly it has been a false dawn and will continue to be.
realistic article! well made strong points
My sentiments exactly. It is surprising that only a minority of us has some sense, majority of gooner fans and the board are on the wrong wavelength.
I love this blog.. Well said again
I think the Club is now stuck in this Policy, there is no turning back. I also think that since the Kids are winning things (Academy Cup two years in a row and FA youth cup last year), gives the belief that maybe a golden generation is arising at Arsenal.
For that reason the club will continue buying the kids. By the way, competition for these kids has increased meaning other clubs are also looking at this area. The problem is that you need many kids for you to a few good ones. So Arsenal has a head-start on other clubs that are beginning the same.
The reason many people are saying that this policy has gone wrong is because we have had no trophies for the last 5 years. But this policy has had it’s success as far as producing a few world class players (Fab, Clichy, Cole etc) and making some money in transfers of the many who don’t make the grade at Arsenal.
Trophies will come. It has taken a little longer but this is not the time to abandon the project when it has almost reached tipping point.
it’s not hard…Anelka & Cesc cost approx 1m between them and will net us around 63m when we sell cesc. Plus we make money on the players we let go with sell on clauses etc. I the current crop there are plenty who could make it at Arsenal and if not wil defo make decent money for the Arsenal….Wiltshire, Lansbury, JET, Coquelin, Barazite, Ozyakup, Bartley, Eastmond, Nordtviet, Gibbs, Szczesny… the list is endless and will contribute in some way, hopefully playing for Arseanl, if not making us money.
And in the meantime the club wins nothing?
five years of nothing is long enough, too long, time to spend the money getting experience….
Cant handle the truth i see.
Twat
Dont you have a brain of your own ?!
Arsenal buys these kids,AW makes great players from most of them and then they leave.Every single one of them wants to be remembered in this game,and they know they wont accomplish that by playing very nice one-two schemes at Emirates and finish 3rd or 4th every year.
Wenger lost his way long time ago,and our club is now going down the hill,like Liverpool.
Cesc will leave for sure,and next season – my fellow Gooners – we will have the weakest ever squad under AW.And I am sure we wont finish in the top 4.
Feeder clubs should not be playing CL.Simple as that.
A lot of it is the fault of the system, sure we send players on loan to get useful competitive experience ,this used to be called The Football Combination where reserve team players got experience against other teams reserves in a competitive league. Below that the young ones played in the south east counties. If those competitions were still about players could develop at the club and would not be so hyped by the media.
Messi was signed as a kid by Barca. Most of their team came through the youth system. It’s not about a particular player. And I don’t think we’ll see the real benefits until the local English talent starts coming through. But in the end, it will be a blueprint that the rest of the league will copy. In fact…take a look at how many clubs praise and are already in the process of copying the Arsenal way. The most notable example being Man Utd and Sir Alex now talking about buying young players and developing them.
Why would they do this if it’s such a flawed process?
I really dont get why you say you ‘support’ Arsenal cos to me what I normally read on here is negativity personified. You are a glass half empty on every decision, player and move the Arsenal make.
You appear to be intelligent enough to publish a blog yet seem wanting on the basic parameters of running a business- ie profit and loss. Your frustrations about the Arsenal failing to bring in world class Internationals, are I believe shared across the board, including myself – everybody wants a return to a mixture of class and spirited youth ala 2004 , and a powerful spine with speed of attack as the maxim rather than tappy tappy get nowhere footie. A criticism of a youth policy however that has constantly unearthed gems is ridiculous. Would you like to be without Song, Clichy, Wilshire (more Brady than Bentley so you well off the mark there) or Cesc? Do you think Ramsey was a bad decision? No of course you dont and think that other talents who would have made it apart from attituse issues, Quincy, Pennant,Bentley etc. Your argument is weak at best I am afraid.
Take a look at the debt of Liverpool, Manure and Chavski. This is ego driven spending and in the only environ in the world where actually putting your company on the edge of bankruptcy is a good idea??
Our youth system is DESIGNED so we can start off with trying to make all of them future stars for Arsenal and then by natural selection, selling off the deadwood to other clubs at a profit to simply finance more purchases. This is good business mate- our only debt is the stadium which is actually a key revenue driver. When the sale of the highbury flats is complete that very well negates a lot of what we owe on the Emirates. Your short tem thinking not allowing you to see that in a few years time Arsenal will be THE superpower in European football- debt free it will be able to produce some 60-100 million a season for transfers, simply funded by itself. If you cannot see the merit in this so just go away and support someone else.
I agree the time is now for Wenger to sign a world class goalie, a couple of top centre backs and a strong centre mid to support song- if he doesnt and he fails again next year then the noise to usurp him will intensify- is it better however to ‘do a Rafa’ and spend spend spend to get fecking nowhere, No it is not so try and keep a balance in your viewpoint. Trust me on this mate- Wenger has forgotten more about running a football team than you will ever know, dont get carried away if you get a good result on Championship Manager.
We the fans, pay the money that drives this club and thus crave success – but at what cost aa? Your short term ideology would be a ruination in reality- call for reinforcements, yes. Criticise when we under achieve, yes, but get an understanding of what the endgame for this business model is BEFORE you jump in with both feet, sounding off, because in all honesty, it just makes you look like an idiot.
iain
i think you are being a tad harsh – its a ‘real’ issue, how much to we pay to get these kids, how much do we pay them in wages?? Then, when a real star comes along we let him go?? Merida I mean…
For a manger who bleats on about youth and how he believes in it, you sure don’t see them get a chance other than in the CC….
a bit of typo there:
apologies => apologise
existed => excited
Dohh….. Cheers man
Good lord you lot are like moles in the garden you knock out one and another pops up.
Lots of teams buy youths for their academies. Its just that Arsene gets highlighted. Remember when the home grown rule kicks in many of our foreign youth signings will be considered home grown, like Cesc is. Buying for the now instead of investing in the future is shortsighted and Leeds like; I guess you’re too young to know about Leeds. Normal Clubs don’t ‘magic’ money they have to make it and sustain the club with it. Ferguson buys kids in case you hadn’t noticed. Weak argument from yet another Championship Manager fan………… I suppose you are qualified financial planners as well as experienced football managers now!
and how many are good enough to play then perry – which ones, if we need them to stay within the rule, would you throw into the starting eleven??
Hi Kids….
This is my first time reading this blog, and I have to say I am a little bit Disappointed…not with the original post as that does raise some interesting points. The reaction however is all a bit negative.
There seems to be a split between arsenal fans….winning football at any cost or the beautiful game on a budget?
personally if you pay your money you take your choice, and i want to be entertained.
I read in earlier post that “time is of the essence!”……begs the question…WHY?
whose set this time frame that you talk about?
or is that a media thing that just happens to suit the purpose of whinging about without a doubt the best manager arsenal have ever had. There is no time limit to when arsenal become successful again as the club has been made financially stable. I would suggest then that it just an impatience on some supporters part because they can’t stand a little bit of barracking from the teams that are buying themselves into debt.
There supporters are too stupid to see it coming, let’s not go down that road.
WE’RE BETTER THAN THAT!
Topboy339
It doesn’t matter how good they are to play now but to continue to meet the home grown rule criteria we have to continue to bring them through! However at the min, we have a good few teenagers, I wouldn’t wince at seeing in starting 11, Ramsay, Wilshere, Gibbs and the polish keeper!
However within the home grown rule we have plenty, djourou, bendtner, who was a 15 goal striker two seasons ago, not bad for a striker who was 3rd choice, fabregas, clichy, song deilson, Walcott, diaby, so the bulk of our team!
As well this article doesn’t make a lot of sense, the budgets are seperate, he is brought in for the youth teams, and it is simply becaus wenger has history at unearthing gems tht these signings generate attention at our club!
Take deeps breaths and relax
“Fran, Upson, Bentley, Sidwell, Quincy, Volz, Senderos, Skulason, Simek, Papadopulos, Justin Hoyte, Muamba, Stokes, Larsson, Connolly, Garry, Pennant, Juan, Jerome Thomas, Rohan Ricketts, Paulinho, Carlin Itonga & Rui Fonte”
If they’re aren’t good enough, we sell them.
Fran – £4m (tribunal)
Upson- £6m (with west ham sell on fee)
Bentley – £13m (with spurs sell on fee)
Sidwell- £2m (no sell on fee due to free transfer to chelsea)
Hoyte – £ 3m
Muamba- £ 6m (with sell on fee to bolton)
Stokes- £2m
Larsson- £1m
Pennant -£6m (with sellon fee to liverpool)
Thats only the players I know we made money from. Thats £43m we made on those young players. THAT PAID FOR Nasri, Arshavin and Vermaelen.
The others that made it like Clichy (starter, International and valued at £15m), Cesc (captain, best player, International and valued at £40-50m), Song (Starter, International and valued at £12-14m), Bendtner (decent sub, International and valued at £!0- 15m), Diaby (starter, International and valued at £15m), Denilson (decent sub,valued at £6m), RVP (starter, Vice captain, International and valued at £30m), Toure (sold for £15m).
For every Cesc, there’s a Merida.
For every Pennant, there’s a Song.
For every Messi, there’s a Dos Santos.
For every Gabri there’s an Iniesta.
For every Beckham, there’s a Richardson.
For every Chadwick, there’s a Scholes.
“My point is, Just because we sign a “SUPER” kid, don’t expect them to go on and make it at Arsenal. I would like Arsenal to take time out of signing players for the future and start thinking about the present”
-Fair point but it works both ways, just because we sign a “SUPER” player for £20m, don’t expect them to go on and make it at Arsenal.
see- Berbatov, Huntelaar, Keane, Aquilani, Ibrahimovic, Babel, Shevchenko, Robinho…..
My point is that you could flip this article and say “what’s the point in Arsenal signing £20-30m players” if you really wanted to and provide very good stats and facts to support the argument (see list of players 3 lines above).
Great football clubs are run with a perfect dichotomy between Youth and ££££££ (see barca right now- youth: Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Puyol- £££ Alves, Abidal, Ibrahimovic, Toure, Henry yet they’re still in 400m debt). Sometimes that dichotomy leans to one side more than the other and sometimes one side or even both don’t work very well (see spurs for 20 years).
But to moan that a system isn’t working because the team finished 3rd in the top league in the world… 3RD—– 3RD… not 15th or bottom, 3RD and has reached quarter, semi and finals in the European Cup in it’s time is kinda spoilt. You ask Leeds if they’d take our system, 3RD place and Champions league last 4s, heck you ask Spurs, Man City, Liverpool, Juventus, Milan et al and I guarantee the answer wouldn’t be the same as this sites: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I’ve questioned for agees the concentration in signing kids that realistically even if they fulfil potential wouldn’t be 1st team regulars for 4 or 5 years & if they do prove to be as good as Cesc they won’t be at Arsenal for their peak years of their career. It is clearly a financial consideration otherwise concentration on young signings would be on players in their early 20s who would mature to play their peak years at Arsenal. eg. Vieira & Henry . It’s baffling that Wenger who has turned 60 still concentrates on youth rather than the here & now flaws in the team. It seems he has lost the ruthless desire for silverware & is more focussed on the legacy he leaves being the Emirates & the training ground paid off in the main due to his brilliant financial management.
[…] Whats the point in Arsenal signing KIDS? This morning I see a host of sites reporting that we beat Chelsea in the race to sign a child (15 year old) Kyle […] […]
This youth project has FAILED BADLY, after all the money and time spent on it over the years, we won nothing really to be proud of. .and worse still even the captain CECS wants to leave.